redryder Posted August 23, 2011 Posted August 23, 2011 Hi guys, I’m new to the forum and the hobby, so please forgive me the question. Are there books or webpages written that teach MOC fundamentals? Kind of like Master Builder Academy, but for AFOLs. MBA is also not available in my country, otherwise I'd buy it in a flash. From looking at instruction booklets, I can kind of figure out a “standard” way of building small cars (4 or 5 stud wide), but anything larger and I’m completely at a loss of how to start. How do people get better at MOC? Does it take a certain type of person or can anyone learn it? Do you learn from friends, or just by looking at other people’s models online? For someone like me, just building models from instruction books doesn’t really help. I’ve built around 20-30 models over the past 3 years and I haven’t learnt much from instruction books. The only skill I developed is building models faster. What would really help a newbie like me would be if someone could explain the creation process and thought process behind their MOC. E.g. why was a particular brick used here, did they build from a photo or use an existing template? Quote
de Gothia Posted August 23, 2011 Posted August 23, 2011 Well practise is the best way in my opinion. Bild and build again! Then of course you can borrow ideas from the internet and other places and perhaps modify them for your own! Quote
Fallenangel Posted August 23, 2011 Posted August 23, 2011 (edited) Well, we have this... Personally I think an MOC would have to start with an idea. Say, if you were to come across this piece and think, "This might make a pretty good B-wing cockpit piece" or whatever, pretty soon you'd be thinking up ways to achieve the rounded bottom, to have the cockpit pivot, etc, and before long you'd have a MOC in the making. Creativity is key to an innovative MOC. Edited August 23, 2011 by fallenangel309 Quote
Ralph_S Posted August 23, 2011 Posted August 23, 2011 I get asked similar questions in comments on flickr on a regular basis. A couple of things: -You should be patient. I've seen people go from being collectors to proficient and prolific builders in a few years time, but they did it by trying, trying and keeping trying. The internet, other people's MOCs and builder's guides/instructions may serve as examples, but ultimately it's up to you to make it all come together and no matter how many books you read or pictures you view, practice makes perfect. I've been building as long as I remember and was coming up with all kinds of things and techniques that I still use long before there was an on-line LEGO building community. I didn't learn how to build by copying others, but by doing it myself and doing lots of it. -One other thing that I think is important is that you shouldn't get too hung up on techniques. Builder's guides and advanced techniques can be helpful to get some ideas for building a particular feature of whatever it is that you're building, but ultimately I think that the overall look of the end result is far more important for the impact that a model has than the techniques used to get it. There are awesome models built the 'old-fashioned' studs up way and crap models built using some of the fanciest techniques in the book. -There is also not a single best way of doing things. We're all different people and a strategy that works for me may not work for you. Furthermore, I think that how you go about building a model very much depends on what sort of thing you're trying to build. The approach of fiddling with some parts until you end up with something that looks interesting and then deciding where it goes may work well for fictional models of, say, some space fighter, but if you want to build a model of an existing jet fighter, for instance, some planning in advance might be useful. I suppose that looking at a particular part and coming to the realisation that it might be perfect for a particular use and starting from that may be a good idea in some cases, but it's not how I do things. I almost always have something in particular in mind and work out what parts to use from there. Rather than writing everything from scratch, I'll refer you to a blog post on building aircraft I wrote more than a year ago. They're some of the most complicated things I do and I personally find that what works for them works for pretty much anything else I build too. Cheers, Ralph Quote
Brickdoctor Posted August 23, 2011 Posted August 23, 2011 If you want to ease into MOCing, it's probably a good idea to start with modding. Buy a set, then figure out what you want to add to it to improve it. Pretty soon you'll probably find yourself completely redoing large portions of it, and then it becomes a lot easier to MOC. Also, start by MOCing subjects with lots of reference material. Quote
Peppermint_M Posted August 23, 2011 Posted August 23, 2011 The best way to get better at building and MOCing is to test the limits of every Lego part. Find unusual ways to combine parts, don't be afraid of the MOC exploding just learn the lesson when it does! Whatever parts you own, there is quite likely more ways to build with them than you think. Experiment with techniques and see what happens. If it doesn't go as planned, take it apart and try again. The more ways you know how to build, the more likely you can create the ideas in your head. Quote
redryder Posted August 24, 2011 Author Posted August 24, 2011 Thanks everyone for your kind suggestions. As a beginner I don't have many parts or colours for MOC, so I was wondering if I should bother with the Lego software designer. On the one hand, there are no restrictions in terms of parts, but on the other I suspect it would be easier to learn via physical building rather than on the computer. What do you think? Quote
Zeya Posted August 24, 2011 Posted August 24, 2011 Lego Digital Designer (LDD) is a good way to start. It has a bit of a learning curve as far as controls and at first it can be frustrating to find the piece you want. But I used it a lot at first because it's great when you have a very small collection of bricks. Once you get used to it, you can actually build faster than with physical bricks, just because you dont have the overhead of locating and pulling apart real world bricks etc. I also had fun on these forums recreating old sets from my youth in LDD. You can find old instructions online. Another thing we've done on these forums are relay builds where we pass the file from person to person and you build up the model on your turn. I'll give some links tomorrow. I'm typing this up on my iPhone and I don't want to go copy/paste right now. Quote
redryder Posted August 24, 2011 Author Posted August 24, 2011 Lego Digital Designer (LDD) is a good way to start. It has a bit of a learning curve as far as controls and at first it can be frustrating to find the piece you want. But I used it a lot at first because it's great when you have a very small collection of bricks. Once you get used to it, you can actually build faster than with physical bricks, just because you dont have the overhead of locating and pulling apart real world bricks etc. I also had fun on these forums recreating old sets from my youth in LDD. You can find old instructions online. Another thing we've done on these forums are relay builds where we pass the file from person to person and you build up the model on your turn. I'll give some links tomorrow. I'm typing this up on my iPhone and I don't want to go copy/paste right now. That sounds like a cool idea! thanks! Quote
Yatkuu Posted August 24, 2011 Posted August 24, 2011 Hi, I don't consider myself a MOC expert but here are my own 2 cents. The obvious: I agree with the others, just keep trying you'll get better eventually. When I look at what I built a year ago and compare it to my present MOCs there is a huge difference! I'm not a LDD user but there is one thing that bothers me with the idea of being able to use as many bricks as you want in any colors you want - I see it as an obstacle to creativity. Let's say for example you want to build a wall - I think the first reaction of someone who is not very experienced in MOCing will probably be to build it plain in 1 single color (ok I might be exagerating a little but you get the idea). On the other hand if you try to build it with what you have (half grey, black + modified bricks...) you will be forced to give your wall a different look because of these constraints and realize that placing a window, recess a part, alternate colors will give a much more interesting result. My method when I start a MOC is the following: Get a good idea (I'm kinda obsessed myself with the idea of building things that have either never been done before or for which I know I can bring something new to the community) Find reference material, pictures, articles anything about your target. Identify the details of your subject that are making it recognizable. Even the best MOCers have to compromise and you will never be able to reproduce exactly your subject. The important thing is to be able to capture "the essence" of it. These details and the way you will be able to reproduce them will likely define the scale of your model so start with them and... connect the pieces. The next step will be to work on the presentation of your builds... but that's for another topic because these is a lot to learn there as well! Good luck and have fun, I'm looking forward to see your MOCs! Quote
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