[COR - Ch1 Cat B] There's a Kind of Lush

[CelesAurivern]

This landscape was the setting for Scene 4 of Lenny's story.

Instead of a flat and shiny beach, for variation, we have an island surrounded by cliffs with heavy vegetation. Nice and lush :)

The raised baseplate came from an old (and dusty) Enchanted Island set.

Front and back views. (sea section attached for anchoring of ship)

[Tomsche]

Nice use of the prefab plate!

[Garmadon]

As Tomsche mentioned, very nice incorporation of that baseplate, it looks very good in the first pic particularly! Great job with the lush vegetation and trees, though I would suggest trying to introduce a bit of texture/variety into the water (the blue baseplate itself is just a little boring ). Trans-blue studs or maybe some white or trans-clear for foam and waves would be a big improvement here!

[Tezclatipoca]

Good use of that baseplate !

It's a hard thing to deal with such raised baseplate. Good idea to cover it entirely by vegetation!

As Garmadon said, I agree that the water part would have been better with some white and blue transparent studs in front of the boat.

[CelesAurivern]

Well, technically, the blue baseplate is not meant to be part of the submission (due to the 32 x 32 limit for the challenge), but I needed some extra background colour for the ship, so I hope for a bit of leeway on that ^^;

Also, a shipment of trans studs are on the way from das Vaterland, so you'll all be seeing your favourite water technique in future builds :)

[Bregir]

Nice to see some overall shots of the build! Same comments as elsewhere - good incorporation of that raised baseplate - it works well with all the vegetation. I think it might be improved even more, if some blue or grey bricks were built onto it, to give more texture and variation in the build.

For some reason, it looks really strange with the minifigure standing on the yellow "printed ground", and I would suggest adding some plates for ground. I think that might be looking better.

Lastly, I am sure Gideon will give some useful photography advice. I will just say, that it seems strange that there is only light on the build, and not the surrounding area. Are you using the blitz?

I think maybe a more evenly, indirect lightning would be better. Personally, I use natural light, a tripod and long exposure times to get a more natural looking picture and fewer shadows.

Edited January 15, 2016 by Bregir

[CelesAurivern]

Yeah, I would've loved to build in some rocky terrain and jagged outcrops, but alas, no bluish grey slopes on hand :(

Using a cheap phone camera here. Tried taking without flash, but the room lighting just isn't enough to produce a clear picture.

I guess this is part where people tell me to 'learn to shop' :p

[Bregir]

Hey man, I took horrible photos with an expensive camera for a long while, so it is not as much about the hardware as about the skills - and as I said, others (Gideon ) will probably give more in depth advice later.

[TitusV]

Very Nice build! Your vegetation is great, and good integration of the baseplate! I really like the first pic

[blackdeathgr]

The vegetation covers the prefab so well, you cant tell if you weren't seeing the yellow beach and "river". That alone is a nice start! Lush indeed!

[Captain Dee]

I really like the basic design approach - of all the raised baseplates this one is perhaps best for creating a realistic setting. Lush is definitely the word to use with so many plants and trees. I feel like I could just step right in. But the photos let it down; if you could improve the lighting it would make a huge difference. Keep it up.

[Mike S]

First pic looks nice! I also like the raised baseplate usage!

[Gideon]

Good use of the prefab plate, I like how you've covered all the exposed studs with vegetation

Seems like everyone is expecting me to write a lot of advice in each thread nowadays but since I'm back with my bricks now (less time to waste on reading and writing) I'm struggling to keep up even reading or commenting at all on all threads here so I'd prefer that you read the advice I've already written in other threads

I can however say as much as that I recommend you to turn off the flash and get some other source of light

Given good lighting even a phone can take quite decent pictures.

Edited January 23, 2016 by Gideon