Ccccoooooffffeeeee!!

You should probably already know by now that I love every single thing that Alex Eylar (Profound Whatever) builds. Thus, when he turned one of my favourite paintings, Nighthawks, into Lego, I thought Christmas had come early. When I saw he'd distorted Nighthawks into a zombie post-apoc scene, I thought I'd had two Christmases, both early.

Alex Eylar, you da man.

~John

Going Country

Country Kitchen, originally uploaded by Heather LEGOgirl.

Heather "Heather LEGOgirl" built a Country Style kitchen. Best of all the fridge, freezer, dishwasher, and microwave all have opening doors. On top of that the microwave lights up. I can dig all that in addition to the great style this has. Nice work Heather!

You've had some cowboys in here...

...not actual cowboys.  Though that can happen...

Sorry, went into quote territory there.  Anyway, I'm blogging this for two reasons.  Firstly, I like it, because it's an excellent rendition of the Eleventh Doctor from Doctor Who by Legoagogo (great user name!) investigating the running theme through this year's series (the 31st no less!) - cracks in time.  Secondly, I'd like to remind viewers in the UK that this Saturday is the final episode for this season - and we'll hopefully find out what's been going on for the last 13 weeks.  So watch it, please, or I shall get Very Upset Indeed.



Oh, and this post is also something of an experiment for me as it looks like Flickr are messing with a new layout and settings for  images, I've jus tried what seems to be a new option for embedding images into blogs like this...

Dr. S.

How we built: Containment

Welcome to a new series of interviews, called howibuilt (in this case, how we built)! The idea with these interviews is to get inside the minds of your favourite builders and get an insight into their building processes. We've already had one howibuilt post, about the Mistral II, but now I'm officially starting the series.

'Containment'

The recent collaboration between famous builders Nannan Zhang (NannanZ) and Tyler Clites (Legohaulic) created what I think I can safely say is one of the best MOCs of the year: Containment, a massive diorama of an alien world, a cross between a utilitarian space station (built by Nannan)and a post-apocalyptic wasteland (built by Tyler) complete with market sellers.

So let's get started with the interview between myself and Nannan and Tyler!

John: Where did the inspiration for Containment come from?

Nannan: We drew inspiration from the general concept of contrasting an orderly cityscape with a chaotic wasteland. Eventually the city that I was planning to build turned into a factory that took on the theme of isolation from the movie Moon.

Tyler: A lot of the inspiration comes from films and video games. Some of the themes present in the display are inspired by Moon, District 9 and Enemy Mind. Some of the aesthetic inspiration for things like the crashed ship come from films like Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes.

John: How long did Containment take to make, and how many bricks did you have to buy especially for it?

Nannan: We started planning at the beginning of April. Tyler built consistently, but I built my portion in the last three week before the convention due to graduation. I don’t have an estimate for the brick count, and I bought most of what I needed from Bricklink. Tyler was more resourceful and used more pieces from his collection.

Tyler: We finished it several days before Brickworld. The only bricks that I bought specially for the display were roughly 400 dk tan parts.

John: How was the diorama planned? Presumably you met to build it together in the end, but did you build individual sections on your own beforehand?


Tyler: The dio[rama] was planned via Skype. We would occasionally get online and brainstorm different ideas. Nannan came to my house the week before Brickworld. About 95% of our respective parts were complete prior to our meeting.

Nannan: I traveled to Tyler’s house five days before the convention to put everything together and photograph the diorama. This process was the most rewarding experience of the collaboration. Building with someone else is not only fun, but it’s also a great way to become really good friends with another builder.

John: Before announcing the project, you released a dozen of smaller teaser vignettes. Were these originally part of the plan, or did you have that idea later on?

Tyler: The teasers were not originally part of the plan. Nannan approached me with the idea about a week before we began uploading them. 

Nannan: As our dio was nearing completion, I wanted to draw some hype for it through a series of vignettes that reveals the backstory to the creation. I believe that a creation of this caliber requires an introduction. Just dropping it from the blue might give someone a heart attack.

John: Do you think you'll have more collaborations in the future? With each other or with more builders?

Nannan: Yes! We plan on more collaborations, at least for Brickworld 2011 if not earlier. I don’t know how we’re going to top what we just did, but we’re up for a good challenge. 

Tyler: We will definitely be doing more collaborations in the future. Not only did we manage to create something that we are both immensely proud of, we also got to know each other better as friends and not just as fellow builders.




So there you have it - the complete story of Containment. Thank you very much to Tyler and Nannan for agreeing to answer my questions so soon after BrickWorld.


Hopefully I'll be back later for more howibuilt!


~John

LEGO Printer

I know I haven't posted for aaaagggggeeeeessss, but oh well. Check out this amazing LEGO printer built over three weeks by 'horseattack' and it genuinely does work!



-Luke

Farewell, Pete.

Today I bring sad news: The Life Aquatic with Clumsy Pete reached its finalé today. It's been running for five months now, and I don't think there's one Lego fan on Flickr who hasn't seen and admired Bart De Dobbelaer's fantastic series.

So long, Pete! It's been a lot of fun, but I guess it's time for Bart to move on. I guess all good things come to an end and all that.

Hideout by Bart de Dobbelaer

See all Pete vignettes here!

~John

Woof!

I realise that this is partly based on an idea by Flickr user Teik Joon, but these little dogs by Nolnet have such character, and the all-round parts use is sheer genius.

Dr. S.

Interview with Pierre E. Fieschi - Space Sensation

I got an interview with popular space builder Pierre E. Fieschi. I asked questions and he responded. Here's the interview...

To start off describe yourself to the readers...
I’m a 22 year-old French student in architecture, doing a master’s degree in Project Theory in Paris France, where I live. Lego’s have been a passion since I was 4 and I didn’t really bother with other toys at all (except Micro Machine which were really quality toys at some point).
I did have a rather long dark age mostly when Lego started making all these super easy 4-piece sets at the end of the 90s. My dark age ended with the Titan XP set and the discovery of Soren Robert’s work and the MOCpages community. I then started building again, discovering techniques (snot, friction…) that were new to me at the time. MOCpages had great builders back then, they’re probably still there but the average quality of builds has deteriorated (along with the picture quality and server speed) beyond repair. I recently stopped using MOCpages even if my page is still up. I can also be found on brickshelf (Kero40) but that page has also been inactive for a while. So I now use Flickr which has some great features and amazing builders.

Also as a follow-up to the first question, what communities or sites can you be found on? Where are you LEGO hangouts? Are you inspired by any other builders in the community? Maybe works of other that aren't LEGO even?
Switching to Flickr early this year really re-boosted my Lego enthusiasm; I discovered many great builders ( Shannon Ocean, Dasnewten, Karf Oolhu… just to name a few) that build so many inspiring things, so much NPU and sharing of ideas. The fact that Flickr isn’t only about Lego also helps a lot to get inspiration from other universes, concept artists, photographers etc…

Your mostly known for you works in the Sci-fi genre, but have you ever veered off and tried other themes?
Very early as a kid I was attracted by both the Space and City themes and microscale… it’s pretty much unchanged today although I have recently been tempted by sky-fi and super-bikes, many things remain to explore: post-apoc, steampunk, atlantis-ish stuff… The only line I dislike building in is Castle… perhaps that will change?

You build creations at an astounding speed, how do you manage to build so quickly? Also where does your inspiration for these creations come from?
I build at extremely varying speeds. But I usually have a precise idea of what I want including most of the assembly details. If I am bored in class I sometimes draw some of the details or perhaps the entire mechanism like I did for The Panzerspinne (you can see the draings in the back of the video) . Building it only took a few hours. I also have a sorting system that suits me well – perhaps that helps? Inspiration comes from wherever really, other builders are of course very inspiring, but video games, movies, things from everyday life can trigger an idea for a build. Homeworld games have particularly inspired me both for Lego and Drawing with their original sci-fi aesthetics.

In addition to having fantastic creations you all have excellent presentation. How do you manage to come up with some of the video presentation ideas that you use?
Until very recently my pictures were taken with a phone. As I came on Flickr I invested in a cheap, but efficient camera and a small tripod. Presentation is very important and it took me a while to realise that.
To be honest I’m still not 100% satisfied with my pictures but as I look at what I’ve photographed since February, they seem to be improving. I take my pictures in day light, on a white Plexiglas sheet to have a reflexion on the floor. I then tweak the contrast and lighting under photoshop which luckily is an every day tool for my studies too.
As for the videos I use a very cheap editing program trial (Muvee). I use a preset meant for sport videos that works well for giant cranes and mechanical spiders. I’m in the process of learning to use Adobe After-Effect to get a bit more out of moving Lego models! But the way I do them now, I have no particular idea of what the video will look like, I just load everything into the program and try my best to make it fit to the music.

If you had to pick a favorite creation of your which do you think it would have to be?
Tough question! There are so many amazing ones. One that recently blew my mind in particular is Dasnewten’s Naganata (the blue one ;) ) It shows off a whole new level of starfighter-building (which I usually find repetitive) and very clean photography.

Do you have any plans for your LEGO building future? Can we also expect any new projects from you in the coming days, weeks, months, etc.?
Oh yes I have more plans than time to build them, because of exams coming *sigh*. Many sketches have been drawn yet and I don’t know what I’ll start with but here is some of the stuff I should get into in 3 weeks:
-A giant shipyard that will hold the Sobani Command Ship under construction and feature pneumatics…
-A Blacktron II tank with a functioning automatic secret weapon
-A (another) microscale Mobile ground docking platform
-A diorama for the Stealth Strategic Bomber with a working elevator…
-Some kind of sky-fi radar dome plane?

That’s all I know so far… The order in which I will give a try at these is still unsure; I’m tempted to start with the shipyard ;)

And on a final note is there any building advice you can give to the readers along with any other tips you have?
Hmmm tips... tips… the only thing I can think about is advising not to sort by colour but rather by type or even groups of types. It encourages funky ;)

Starcraft Terran Battlecruiser

Starcraft Terran Battlecruiser - updated, originally uploaded by Jerac.

Jarek "Jarac" decided to update his Starcraft Terran Battlecruiser. It was cool during the WIP stages, along with the final stage, I think I love it even more now if that is even possible.

Never tell me the odds...

Wow!  This fantastic scene by marshal banana depicts the Millennium Falcon evading Imperial TIE Fighters through an asteroid field as seen in The Empire Strikes Back.  

The presentation here is fantastic, and faultless.  Witness the apparent "depth" of the asteroid expanse, the black base, the laser blasts, and the little motion blur on the larger asteroids and on the central TIE fighter's engine - it all combines to give a blistering sense of speed, motion and urgency and I absolutely love it.

Dr. S.

AT-ATs, on the go!

I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like the subject matter of RogueBantha's latest MOC. From the Star Wars Extended Universe (EU) comes the AT-AT Barge, a huge dark grey container which can pick up and drop off AT-ATs onto tactical positions on Hoth.

I love how RogueBantha always builds on his library of Star Wars mini models, so it's great to see such a functional concept, in a great vignette, and with his classic mini AT-AT model.

'AT-AT Barge' by RogueBantha

~John

Anglo-Saxon housing was the pits

...and yet my fellow TFOL Karrde makes it look quaint, clean and cute. His latest MOC is of an Anglo-Saxon pit house, half-submerged in the middle of a circle of green grass, with Anglo-Saxon people coming and going, to-ing and fro-ing, and generally doing Anglo-Saxon stuff all around it. A great 'bignette'!

Let's not forget the dark tan path, the SlyOwl-esque fences and the hair from the nurse in Collectible Minifigures Series 1.

"Anglo-Saxon Pit-House" by Karrde

~John

I love playability.

Anyone who knows me will know that I love playable features in a creation, which is why I was pleased to see this new mech from Legohaulic - he's included a nifty spring-loaded ejection seat for the pilot/driver!

Dr. S.