Dragon_Master_48

Now, I don't think it's the feet, necessarily... I think it's mostly the torso size. Perhaps the upper torso could be widened just a little bit so things like the feet don't look so big in comparison? Also, yes, I really love the face; that's a clever use of System pieces in the model.

Similarly to what Square said, I specifically asked the Rebrick admin that question, and unless they misunderstood me, they answered in the positive; nonetheless, it's not much of a concern to me since I don't have any other chance of entering, so this is more of a fun venture regardless. I tried a few other color schemes as I was building, but they all looked quite garish and unappealing, which is especially compounded both because of the size of the model, and the lack of access to piece 19087 (which is quite a staple of G2, and for some reason not a piece that was added to LDD as far as I can tell). I could possibly fix the leg movement issue by having the grey beam/ball connectors attach at different points, since the other connectors allow for more flexibility due to their attachment method, and likely aren't part of the problem. As for the gaps, those can't really be fixed due to the nature of CCBS armor and their connections (since the armor shells are rarely if ever flush, something which is even more apparent on a white background- you can only do such much when working in a digital medium to squeeze the pieces together, so to say, and without using illegal connections), and a lack of physical space in which to fill in said gaps, along with having to take into account the optimal front/back/side armor coverage to minimize excessive exposure of the "bones." And as for the arms, they're pretty much the same width/thickness as the legs, and fairly proportional (and perhaps even a little short, anatomically, though I think they would definitely look worse if they were any longer), so I'm not sure what you're talking about there.

My first entry for the ongoing Bionicle contest, also known under the WIP name, "Destroyer God Makuta." Never before have I built a MOC this huge (totaling 618 pieces and approximately twice the height of either of the other models I made), especially not in LDD, so building this was an interesting experience for me- in particular, having to work with LDD's often-uncooperative hinge tools. Entry page here. "This form of Makuta is not the form he takes to fight the Toa heroes. No, this form is the one Makuta takes when he has won. The last remaining members of the tribes of Okoto have expended all of their resources to stop this shadowy overlord and failed, and it has come at a great cost: the world is now barren and lifeless. Alone to rule over an empty, desolate world, Makuta wanders the planet in despair, having discarded the Mask of Ultimate Power, which is now useless to him." Fitting for such a grim alternate-universe scenario, Makuta uses primarily dark colors with the notable exception of his chest piece, which is meant to bring to mind some sort of area of high elemental energy concentration (imagine Makuta firing a laser out of there or something, hence the rather open chest that somewhat resembles a futuristic weapon system). Although the articulation of the legs at the hips would likely be somewhat stiff and quite limited, there is some degree of side-to-side motion of the upper body (to an extent which I can't really guess) thanks to a simple gear/turntable system; of note, the way the extenders are integrated into the body was inspired by the torso of ddeklerk's recent WIP, "Lockdown," and in fact part of the reason why I decided this MOC had to be so huge in the first place, and because of this, there should be at least some leniency for waist articulation, unless I'm greatly underestimating the friction of the ball joints on the ends of those pieces. This model can indeed hold the included staff, albeit not in a position like this, which involves some careful angle manipulation and the removal and addition of one or two pieces. Due to the aforementioned clumsiness of LDD's hinge tools and their interactions with Technic and CCBS pieces, this is the most visually appealing pose I could take of this feature. I hope you enjoyed this MOC.

Do they accept LDD extended submissions for this contest? I have neither the pieces nor the time to work on an actual physical MOC that stands a chance in the contest, but I made two LDD models for fun, and I'm rather pleased with how they turned out, especially the larger of the two. If they don't allow LDD builds, I'll probably just share them on the forum.

Ouch. >_< Just like before, I wish it had just one more good wave to wrap things up, but once again, things kinda go out on a whimper. It's rather unfortunate, because things seemed like they were going so well in terms of set design; at the very least, I hope they'll use parts like the gearbox, armor pieces, and Uniter torso again in future themes.

When building Bionicle MOCs, I'm the kind of person who often starts by seeing a particular piece or two and then decides to build the whole thing around that piece; this build is no different. I started by trying to make a generic Toa frame, but stumbled across the Av-Matoran leg in the parts section- you know, that piece so hated by so many G1 Bionicle fans? I decided that I should try to put it to good use! Gallery when public: http://www.brickshel...ry.cgi?f=565293 Despite the generic name- sorry, I'm not too good at coming up with names on the fly- Claw Beast has a pretty interesting, albeit somewhat simple, build. In order to accommodate both the dual Av-Matoran legs and the gearbox, I had to make some extra space toward the back. Normally, a Technic beam would accomplish what I wanted, but I'm not that kind of person; I wanted something more unique than what I usually do! So I just stuck a Protector torso to the back and called it a day. The addition of this piece, along with the Av-Matoran legs, afforded some interesting possibilities: though I had intended the leg pieces to hold some sort of armor, with the leg joints of the larger torso being the actual legs of the creature, eventually, I reversed this decision as I was putting the torso armor on, realizing how impractical that would be, along with the fact that the weird shape of the Av-Matoran legs make such a connection possible simplistically. With both the frontal armor and the Av-Matoran legs in the way, the available joints of the Protector torso became the perfect spot to put another set of arms with wide enough spacing from the upper arms as to not impede motion significantly. However, due to all the added bulk, the sides of the gearbox had to be widened as to allow the arms some distance (they should be able to move as long as they're not completely vertical). I finished off the build with the feet and head, both which were intended to be somewhat avian in design to suggest that this creature might just be a mutated bird. More pictures below.

Although the Mask of Ultimate Power could probably do with a slightly smaller circle on the forehead (or maybe it's just a really massive zit or something? Are masks even affected by skin diseases?), it's kind of relaxing to know that the physical version of the mask that we've seen so far actually looks at least somewhat decent. I think the two spikes on the upper part of the mask really go a long way in making the front spire seem less out of place (though, not to complain any further, I'd probably tilt them outward just a tiny bit).

Downforce looks really great! The car form slightly reminds me of Override from Transformers, except it has a much better looking robot form than Override's!

I have a few questions: 1: How do I create/delete pages in the Page Layout section? It doesn't seem like there's a way to do that simply by clicking around, unless I'm missing a keyboard shortcut or something. 2: How do I prevent the parts list on the last page from smushing together, so to say? This is part of the reason why I want to add another page, so I can redistribute the listings without extending the width. Aside from still having to deal with the oftentimes baffling default instruction order that LDD creates, I think this is a really great, helpful software, as it really allows you a lot of customization. Perhaps I should have started with a smaller model first, but it's a program that I'll continue to use; great work!

Maybe I'm picky, maybe I'm still bitter about the change to the Mask of Control, maybe the purple smoke effects don't work too well, or maybe I just need to see the physical mask, but I'm not really a fan of the Mask of Ultimate Power's design. It kind of looks generic and even somewhat derpy/cheesy, and not just because of the eyes (on the poster, they appear to be pretty widely spaced as well, so I assume it's not just a product of the angle used in the trailer)- the thing sticking out of the top looks very out of place and quite strange overall.

I've been using Bluerender for a little while now, and I haven't encountered any problems with it whatsoever until yesterday. While the Wireframe/Preview option works fine, and renders really quickly (as it should), it appears as if the program is, for some reason, incapable of completing an actual render, as the image displayed in the "Rendering Progress" window consistently stops at about 20% through the render- today's attempt is my third- and the rendering process itself has been going on for a few hours now (on this computer, which tends to be a little slow, renders usually take about 20-60 minutes depending on the size of the model; the one I'm currently trying to do is a little over 500 pieces). I'm wondering if this is a glitch, or if I'm possibly doing something wrong, even though I haven't really messed around with any of the settings.