New to Bionicle, looking for MOC tips

[Henchmen4Hire]

I cracked open the Bionicle section in LDD recently and my eyes glazed over at all those wacky looking parts! I see lots of potential for connections, but have zero clue where to even start. It's so hard to tell what kind of stuff fits where, especially with the tiny thumbnails in LDD. And then I hear about this CBSS thing that's shaking things up...

Are there any resources out there that show basic frames we can build on? For example, a bare bones human figure with functional joints, so all we have to worry about is how to attach stuff to it.

Edited January 13, 2015 by Henchmen4Hire

[The Kumquat Alchemist]

Here's an image showing a very basic overview of the Character Creation Building System (CCBS). It has some clear images of basic CCBS bones, so it's a good starting point.

http://s3images.coro...y2dzkgrm96i.jpg

As for the older BIONICLE components (Pre-2011), many are quite specialized, and the most widely used body build was the "Inika build" named for the Toa Inika, who introduced said body design. If looking to make a build with a clear distinction between skeleton/frame and armor/paneling, go with CCBS.

Edited January 13, 2015 by The Kumquat Alchemist

[Logan McOwen]

Definitely practice fiddling with the CCBS, as that is the new standard for Bionicle stuff. My advice? Crack open Brickset or Peeron, get some manuals for some of the Hero Factory sets from 2011-2013, and have a crack at building a few of them. That should help you get a gist of how the system operates, and what can be done with it. The CCBS is a lot of fun to play with, so I think you're gonna have a lot of fun!

[TheOneVeyronian]

The advice already given here is sound information for someone starting out with CCBS (it is a lot easier to learn than "Bionicle System"), but I should say this: building with CCBS in LDD is much harder than building with it in real life (it involves a lot of fiddling with the hinge tool to get a piece in exactly the right position, and prepare to have to rotate pieces off of the main model for complex builds). I recommend you start out with the 2011 basic Hero models to get started (this Brickset page shows them and it's easy to pull the instructions from there) as they're relatively simple builds, then as you start to get familiar, try building one of these. and then, if you want to look at complex techniques, I've got some complex CCBS LDD builds to download on my Brickshelf that you could study and incorporate some of the techniques into your own builds. Hope this helps!