When he pitched for his first Tongal project from his bedroom in Warsaw, Poland, in 2021, Kamil Janko was a student with a passion for LEGO and a burgeoning talent for computer animation.
Now, just two-and-a-half years later, he's built his own bona fide animation studio, employs dozens of local freelance creatives, and has played a central role in one of the most innovative films in history — the Pharrell Williams movie Piece by Piece.
Kamil, 27, has designed many of the sets which will appear in the groundbreaking motion picture — the life story of creative visionary Pharrell told in LEGO animation — after being connected with the opportunity via the Tongal platform. He is one of dozens of Tongal animators who have recreated Pharrell’s world in LEGO for the film, released in theaters on October 11, made by the LEGO Group in collaboration with Oscar-winning director Morgan Neville and his company Tremolo Productions, Focus Features, Pure Imagination Studios, and Pharrell’s creative collective i am OTHER.
Here, Tongal creator Kamil tells his story:
Kamil's personalized LEGO figure
LEGO was my childhood. In fact, it has been my main hobby and passion my whole life.
I got my first LEGO set when I was three or four years old, and still have it sitting on my desk. It’s a truck from LEGO Town, before LEGO City existed. It’s very precious to me.
I was 12 when I discovered that people were making videos with LEGO on YouTube. So I started to make my first stop-motion videos, and have made them ever since.
The biggest advantage of working with LEGO is that you can build a film set on your desk, your actors are mini-figures, and your lights can be table lamps or Christmas lights. So you can tell stories that mimic high-budget productions for very little cost. I'm also a huge fan of Star Wars, and LEGO was the best solution to tell stories from the Star Wars universe.
Kamil in his studio
I studied computer science, electronics and robotics at university, and that's very useful for the work I am doing now, programming and building electronics that I can incorporate into my films. After that, I went to Warsaw Film School as I became more interested in storytelling and the art of cinema. I was offered the place there after staff from the school saw one of my LEGO films at a Polish film festival.
And then Tongal changed my life. Before I discovered Tongal, I was a student making stop-motion LEGO films for YouTube — but it was just a hobby I did with my friends. Tongal gave me my first paid job and now — just over two years later — I have my own animation business, MegaSpaceFighter Productions. We've already grown out of the small studio I built in my apartment, and have rented a warehouse in Warsaw with a real studio and office space.
The poster for Piece by Piece
Depending on the project, we now have many people working for us — whether that's helping with stop-motion videos or color grading, sound mixing, composing, or other specialist skills. They are mostly local students, and all aged between 20 and 30. We had 20 to 25 people working for us on the Pharrell Williams project, 15 on a daily basis, and then other specialists were brought in when needed.
We were responsible for recreating many iconic locations in Pharrell's life in LEGO using computer software, and subsequently worked on the UV mapping. We also focused on various other technical aspects of the film, and handled the texturing of some of the characters.
Pharrell is very popular in Poland, and I've been a fan of his since junior high, so it’s an amazing project to be a part of. I still don't know much about the plot, it's all very top secret, so I can't wait to see the final movie and see how it all comes together.
These opportunities are all thanks to Tongal. We're currently working on a new LEGO Star Wars project on the platform, which combines my two greatest passions. To be working with these amazing brands that mean so much to me is a dream come true.
One of Kamil's recent stop-motion LEGO videos
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