[MOC] Science Museum

[DigitalDreams]

Full Flickr Album contains many more images, all with descriptions.
 

Edited May 2, 2018 by DigitalDreams
Added extra images.

[Wesley D]

Fantastic! There are no words to say how impressive this is!

Such a huge, unique and apealing structure. It would make a wonderful landmark!

The interior is amazing as well, perfectly scaled, very nicely colored and filled nice mini builds.

I really like the elevator and how the central column is build around the rocket!

 

[DigitalDreams]

Just now, Wesley D said:

Fantastic! There are no words to say how impressive this is!

Such a huge, unique and apealing structure. It would make a wonderful landmark!

The interior is amazing as well, perfectly scaled, very nicely colored and filled nice mini builds.

I really like the elevator and how the central column is build around the rocket!

 

Thanks Wesley for your kind comments.

There's a lot I like about this architecture too, but I have to confess to not being entirely happy. The strange shape made it a pain to light in the renders due to a great number of shadows. Not sure about how legitimate the proposed fire escapes from the wings would be in real life. I also ran out of room and didn't manage to include a service elevator. As for the rocket, I suppose the museum owners craned that one in from above before adding the dome :) The rocket was originally supposed to be dead center with a circular viewing barrier but then I had the idea of merging it with the glass-fronted elevator car so you can ride up the side of the rocket!

[Eggyslav]

Wow, just wow, this is breath taking, such an amazing building, with so many awesome details, just brilliant! Yet another proof that digital MOCs can be as awesome and legit as IRL ones.

[Wesley D]

I need to say the colors of the letter signs contrast nice to the building. They add a charming touch!

7 hours ago, DigitalDreams said:

Not sure about how legitimate the proposed fire escapes from the wings would be in real life.

So that is the function of the covers / lids on the floor of the wings? I guess they would suffice as fast exits

No need for doubts. There are already an elevator and stairs. You've thought about every detail. I think the complex is just perfect as it is!

The rendering problem won't be a problem when it's getting build in real bricks

[LM71Blackbird]

This is so amazing! So many cool little details and features tucked away in every corner! Fantastic work! How many pieces is it?

[LegoModularFan]

Man, that thing is epic! 60894 parts?! 

Great MOC, fantastic architecture, and pretty nice interior! The shaping is simply incredible and is definitely my favorite part! The shaping of the central part reminds me of a bit the Nuclear Building by @sheo. I really love the brick-built lettering too.  

The color scheme of the central part doesn't work for me. Maybe it's because of the renders (which I'm not a big fan of but I understand you didn't have a lot of choices with a model that huge). It looks better in the image with the photoshopped sky but I'm still not totally convinced. The foliage needs some work on it as well, IMO.

All said, I still really love your MOC and appreciate how much effort you put on it! Keep your amazing work up!   

 

Edited April 28, 2018 by LegoModularFan

[koalayummies]

Another fantastic and massive scale MOC. Your builds are all very impressive. Its unfortunate that digital builds don't get as much attention because in many ways they pose a lot of unique and hidden challenges. Like for example this would probably crash on my computer.

Truly amazing work!

[Digger of Bricks]

Fantastically Retro! Has a very heavy Atompunk/Astropunk architectural style that harkens back to the Raygun Gothic science fiction of the 1950's!  

[DigitalDreams]

11 hours ago, Eggyslav said:

Wow, just wow, this is breath taking, such an amazing building, with so many awesome details, just brilliant! Yet another proof that digital MOCs can be as awesome and legit as IRL ones.

Thanks Eggyslav. I think providing the builder puts in the effort to ensure the model is valid (parts, colours, structure, and where possible, dynamics) and is properly rendered then digital models can be excellent. Part of the problem was always the screenshot quality of LDD which didn't even show the separation between bricks, combined with the lack of technical skills many (understandably) have (fortunately not a problem for a software engineer like me), but things are certainly improving these days compared to 10 or 15 years ago, in part probably due to the LDDtoPOV converter. In any case, going digital was the only way I'd ever be able to afford to build my models (most of which are huge by LEGO set standards). Still waiting on that lottery win...

 

10 hours ago, Wesley D said:

I need to say the colors of the letter signs contrast nice to the building. They add a charming touch!

So that is the function of the covers / lids on the floor of the wings? I guess they would suffice as fast exits

No need for doubts. There are already an elevator and stairs. You've thought about every detail. I think the complex is just perfect as it is!

The rendering problem won't be a problem when it's getting build in real bricks

Funny point about the signs - two of the colours pass through the sign to the other side where they also form part of a letter on the rear, the other colours are single sided. I used separate colours to keep track of it all whilst building but decided in the end to leave it that way because it looked good. I guess I was somewhat lucky with the length of the two words and the alignment on the rear.

It's explained on one of the images, but the point of the hatch was to allow escape from a wing if the core was ablaze. The original concept was to put staircases at the front of the wings, but I didn't like it and ended up with the hatches where the concept is that you throw down a chain ladder to the ground. My concern was simply that this probably wouldn't pass fire regulations, but then if you're about to get burned alive that chain ladder will be a huge relief 

 

10 hours ago, LM71Blackbird said:

This is so amazing! So many cool little details and features tucked away in every corner! Fantastic work! How many pieces is it?

Thanks Blackbird. Total 60894 parts, including approx. 10k bricks, 4k slopes, 10k plates, 26k tiles, and for all those round structures over 3k hinge-halves.

 

8 hours ago, LegoModularFan said:

Man, that thing is epic! 60894 parts?! 

Great MOC, fantastic architecture, and pretty nice interior! The shaping is simply incredible and is definitely my favorite part! The shaping of the central part reminds me of a bit the Nuclear Building by @sheo. I really love the brick-built lettering too.  

The color scheme of the central part doesn't work for me. Maybe it's because of the renders (which I'm not a big fan of but I understand you didn't have a lot of choices with a model that huge). It looks better in the image with the photoshopped sky but I'm still not totally convinced. The foliage needs some work on it as well, IMO.

All said, I still really love your MOC and appreciate how much effort you put on it! Keep your amazing work up!   

 

Thanks LegoModularFan. Unique shaping was certainly high on the list of design criteria. As for the colours that you don't like  the original concept was to have the wings and support stanchions in a mix of red and orange with the central core a mix of yellow and black, with the multi-coloured approach intended to make the museum more kid-friendly. Although the stanchions looked good in red and orange I struggled to get the overall mix of colours to work well together, and limited part/colour availability (especially on the slopes and curved parts) left me wrestling with constant colour tweaks until in the end I decided to go with the more reliable mix of blue/grey/white/black. I agree about the foliage. I originally intended the grassy base to be about 8 bricks high with lots more plant and water features (and maybe even a hedge maze), but the brick count was getting too high for me to render on my ageing PC and I've run into some serious personal problems and wanted to get this finished and posted while I still could.

 

8 hours ago, koalayummies said:

Another fantastic and massive scale MOC. Your builds are all very impressive. Its unfortunate that digital builds don't get as much attention because in many ways they pose a lot of unique and hidden challenges. Like for example this would probably crash on my computer.

Truly amazing work!

Thanks koalayummies. Most of my MOCs are massive, which was really the whole point of getting into digital builds (built lots of real brick small stuff as a kid). There certainly are some challenges which put what I do beyond certainly the more typical digital builder, usually in relation to trigonometry calculations (fortunately I still remember my soh-cah-toa stuff from high school trigonometry ), and also complexity with trying to deal with such a large model in software.

There's a lot of critical dimensions here, especially in relation to the offsets/angles for the circular sections, and for the overlaps to deal with the awkward 60 degree placement of the wings. On this model the stupidest little thing that would have taken next to no time in real bricks ended up taking an entire day. Around the rocket exhibit there is a semi-circular glass barrier connected to two straight glass barriers. The straight ones are stud-aligned and connected to the floor. The curved section (which could be built and then bent into shape in 10 seconds in real bricks) couldn't be achieved with the same angle between all hinged sections and given the way the software works I absolutely have to calculate all angles if I want the end of the hinged sequence to land properly on a stud. It was even worse on my Spaceship model where even more angles were needed at the front of the wings. Often with too many simultaneous equations to solve involving sin/cos/tan I've taken to just using a spreadsheet with macros to iteratively nudge multiple angles until the calculated offset error reads zero (or as close as it doesn't matter) implying stud alignment. I've even been known to lay out lots of post-it notes on the floor and shuffle them into position to get an understanding of how many hinged sectioned are needed and the approx. starting angle.

As for the PC, you might be surprised. I'm building these on a 15 year old PC running XP with 1.5GHz single core and 1GB ram. Of course, it takes a bit of skill to get them to render on that

 

8 hours ago, Digger of Bricks said:

Fantastically Retro! Has a very heavy Atompunk/Astropunk architectural style that harkens back to the Raygun Gothic science fiction of the 1950's!  

Thanks Digger of Bricks! On the original paper sketches and mockup I was going for a blend of futurist and brutalist, although I arguably softened the brutalism with the rounded windows on the wings after I concluded that long repetitive rows of small square windows on the wings was going to look a bit unfriendly and not let in enough light, so I kind of see it as a blend of two styles now. I'm always interested to see what phrases people come up with to describe architecture styles

 

[Bricked1980]

This is very impressive. You must have a beast of a computer to put something together this size. If I attempted to build model as big as this my computer would be fried. 

[Jakembhd]

Hi there! First off amazing build, that’s   really the only way I can describe this! And second is there any available way I can get instructions for this masterpiece because I would love to build this MOC and add it to my collection?

Thank you and great job,

Jacob Barry 

[AFOLguy1970]

Stunning, just absolutely stunning!  I normally go for the older architecture when it comes to buildings, but I have a soft spot for planetariums and ultra-modern designs if done really well---which you have accomplished.  The raised structures are done very well.  In a way, it reminds me of the way the Atomium is done in Brussels, Belgium.  Yet, it is unique.  Wish I could see your MOC in person.  

[Man with a hat]

Oh. That's not what I expected. A brilliant Science Museum you made. All the aspects you see in real life ones, The big dome is impressive. Just to name one thing. There are so many excellent parts!

[DigitalDreams]

Thanks for all the kind comments. I added a few more images to the album, including some cross-sections.

I'll add this MOC to my list of things to build when I win the lottery 

[Nightfall]

Amazing design! So many details at this size. How long did you work on this project?

[Doge]

I honestly thought at first sight it was a 3D building from some game. It's great to see such a detailed build, with all those exciting shapes and unconventional looks!

This museum is really well done, keep up the good work!

 

[DigitalDreams]

21 hours ago, Nightfall said:

Amazing design! So many details at this size. How long did you work on this project?

Thanks! Project took around 6 months, although at least half of that is optimization (for rendering on less than ideal PC), render preparation, trial renders, and then the final renders which weighed in at around 200 hours.

 

20 hours ago, Doge said:

I honestly thought at first sight it was a 3D building from some game. It's great to see such a detailed build, with all those exciting shapes and unconventional looks!

This museum is really well done, keep up the good work!

Thanks!

[MOMAtteo79]

amazing concept and design

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Wow what a gorgeous huge building!

Everything looks beautiful in this huge museum, starting from the architectural solution in round shape, to the futuristic corridors with those aquarium style windows!

[Withacee]

Ooh, shiny!
Brilliantly designed structure and perfectly thought-out details on the inside, too.
No idea if this is buildable in real bricks, but I'd love to see it.

Keep clicking those bricks together!

[jakbar]

Fantastic! The interior looks absolutely amazing with all theese details. Even though it's a bit unreal I'd love to see someone build it...

[Xon67]

What a great design!  And the fact that it has a full interior takes it to another level entirely.  Really cool.  The rocket going up the center is a nice touch.  You included a lot of details that are fun to explore.