He has become a viral sensation through Lego videos, putting real life sports imagery in the works with stop motion Lego videos. Jared Jacobs has spent the past thirteen seasons working with the Idaho Steelheads. But it’s his work with his camera and Legos that’s given him far more attention beyond the City of Trees.
What began as a hobby has turned into a chance to be in the national spotlight.
Jacobs is a magician with stop-motion animation videos -- which are frame by frame short films that can take up to fifteen hours of work for just seconds of footage.
"It’s tedious, something you have to be hyper-focused on. The bigger the project gets, the more space I need. My wife’s happy whenever I finish one, because then, she gets the kitchen table back.” said Jared Jacobs, Animation Magician.
What started as projects using a simple smartphone camera, has turned into larger scale work. And with so many lego costume changes at his fingertips, his imagination can go almost anywhere.
"Some college football ones I’ve got in the works right now where I’ve been commissioned by we’ll just say a college football network to do some for them. Having the attention that I have, the sky’s the limit.” Jacobs commented.
Jacobs’ reanimation of Tiger Woods' famous chip-in on the 16th hole at the 2005 Masters went viral around two weeks ago, with major media outlets like ESPN and CBS sports showing the clip. And now people want to see more from Jacobs.
"The first hint I got from SportsCenter is when they reposted it on their Instagram, and every time I would hit refresh on that one, it would get like 2,000 more views within seconds. It kinda just snow balled, like CBS sports picked it up, and then somebody else would pick it up, and then I got people from Australia reaching out to me, wanting to do interviews. And I'm like how is this a global thing?" Jacobs remarks.
When it comes to future projects? The possibilities are endless, as there's no shortage of famous shots, goals, or even putts on the green.
"Who knows? Maybe Donald Trump will pick that up if he doesn't become president, and I'll be working with The Donald. I have no idea.” Jacobs says.
This fall, Jacobs has been approached to make videos for a national college football network. We aren’t able to comment on which one, however. If you would like to see more of Jacobs’ work, you can follow him on Instagram under his user @goldyeller.
