If you are using a webcam to film your brickfilms one of the most important things to learn is how to get the correct settings. When you first install the software that comes with your webcam it is set up to work by throwing the webcam on top of your computer and begin using it to chat with people online. Those settings work great for most people but they are a disaster to a brickfilmer. So here is how to change the settings so that it is perfect for brickfilming.

For this tutorial I will be using a Logitech Quickcam Pro 9000. The steps should be about the same for all Logitech webcams. If you have a camera from another company most of the steps will be the same. The only difference will be the interface and how you change these settings. The first step is to open the webcam’s control menu. On my camera it looks like the picture on the right. This menu is very useful for making small changes to the webcam’s settings like changing the focus. We however need to make big changes to the settings. So click on the “Advanced Settings” button on the bottom of the window. This should open up a new window with a lot more options of things to adjust.

The default settings will have anything that has an auto option set to true. The default will look something like the second image to the right. The settings needs to be changed because anything with the word auto has a mind of its own. Auto will change the settings of the camera for each frame of animation that you take.

Causing your film to have a lot of flicker and out of focus shots. So the first thingto turn off is the “RightLight” feature. Next turn off auto for exposure, gain, and white balance. Uncheck all those boxes. Next you want to get the white balance as low as possible while making sure the color in your shot still look right. I normally turn auto back on for white balance and adjust my lighting until it looks good and the white balance is nice and low. The last thing tochange on this page is anti-

flicker. You want to set it to off. Once done the window should look like the third picture to the right. Where the dots are does not matter because they will change depending on camera placement and lighting but make sure that all the boxes are unchecked and anti-flicker is off.

The last thing to do is go to the “Webcam Control” tab and turn off auto focus. Now you can adjust the focus to whatever you need for your shot. Some webcams you do not adjust the focus in the software that comes with the webcam. Instead you twist a ring at the front of the camera to adjust the focus. In this case you do not have to turn auto focus off because there is no auto focus feature. Finally click save and your webcam is already to go.