CroissantBricks

You really did a great job. I also want to integrate some motion in my next MOC, but I have no experience with using mechanisms in my MOCs yet, so it will probably take some time for me to learn. :) Kudos to you for how you integrated your mechanism in the model!

Yes, second time. Indeed, using large pieces whenever possible played a big role in reducing the piece count. We also reduced the height of the building by a few plates and the depth by 5 studs, which also saved a significant amount of pieces. And I also spent a loooooooot of time optimizing every aspect of the build, saving 1 piece here, 2 pieces there... That's a fair critique. :) In series 4, we had designed it as a 48x32 "modular" with sidewalk on the front. For series 5, we wanted more flexibility in displaying the Opera, so one of our goals was for the building to fit on a single baseplate. We considered adding an extra half-baseplate with a sidewalk and fountain, that would have been independent. This half-baseplate would have been able to be placed in the front, in the back, or on the side of the building. We had an early design for it, but it quickly became clear to us that in order to make it look decent the piece count would become too high. So we decided to sacrifice it and we instead built the flower cart to bring some life to the exterior of the building. For the pins, we also considered them but we wanted the Opera House to be able to stand on its own, and we didn't find a way to integrate them without them looking a bit out of place when not connected. In the end, we decided to go for the look of the building we wanted, even if that meant not completely following the modular template. Thank you for the compliments!

I love this. It looks great. Does it have an interior?

That's a vey nice looking set. Good luck!

Very cute design. I particularly like the little scenes you created. The proposal looks great.

It looks great, and the working mechanism makes the whole design that much more interesting!

Thank you! After taking some time off from working on the design, we realized that weren't completely happy with the facade of our initial version, so we decided to update it for series 5. Our second main objective for the new design was to reduce the piece count. Our series 4 submission had over 3900 pieces and that seemed to be a bit too much (which was confirmed in some feedback we received from the BDP team). We identified several details which were using pieces in suboptimal ways and used more pieces than necessary. Reworking some techniques and redistributing the details allowed us to significantly reduce the piece count while making the building a bit more interesting (to us, at least), with more windows and greenery. We reduced slightly the size of the building so it fits on a single baseplate, which makes it easier to display on shelves (like we do, because we unfortunately don't have room for a city layout). It also makes the building look a bit more balanced, in our opinion. Our new design has a much more reasonable 2874 pieces, which is in line with recent modulars (excluding the Natural History Museum which is 1.5 baseplate). We also added 3 minifigures, bringing the total to 9. Thank you for posting the link to vote, I'll also copy it here again: https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/series-5/1746/Opera-House If the design doesn't get selected we will eventually post it for sale on rebrickable after polishing the instructions. We learned Blender to create renders and while we still have a lot to learn, it allows us to have a much better control over the lighting. You can see the resulting images below, including a size comparison with the Boutique Hotel and Parisian Restaurant which we couldn't post on the submission page. And finally, a size comparison with some official sets:

It looks beautiful!

A bit late to the party, but I really like the BTAS diorama. At first I wasn't sure if I wanted to buy it because of the price, and I still kind of wish it had been half the size and half the price, but I am pretty sure I am going to buy it eventually anyway. I'm also looking forward to seeing what the upcoming Batmobile set looks like.

It looks great! I really like the fire pit with the smoke coming out. It's on top of the chimney!

Thank you! Thank you! We wanted to build the model with real bricks to check the stability and structural integrity of the design before submitting it. Having the IRL prototype in parallel to the Stud.io version helped us ensure that the design is rigid enough. We probably could have reduced the piece count if we were willing to sacrifice on the stability of the model, but it's not something we wanted to cheapen out on. As it is, I can even lift each section with a single hand. The balcony seats are easily accessible from the front of the balconies. Here's a quick picture of me placing my sigfig into one of them. It can be done with the balconies section in place or when it's taken out, like in this picture.

Thank you! We went a bit outside of the modular standard: The base is 1.5 baseplate deep which is a bit of a peculiar size for a modular layout, but it was the best way to achieve the overall design we wanted, especially in order to include everything we wanted in the interior. We will add a half baseplate behind the building with either a fountain or statue when we integrate the opera into our city (when we have space for a proper city, lol). This way, both the front and the back of the building will be visible, and we quite like both. Thank you. We had a lot of fun creating the posters and titles for the performances. Thank you!

Thanks! I'm quite proud of finding this title with double meaning. Thank you! Thank you for the support! We spent a lot of time figuring out how to build the curved rear. Achieving that shape while having the floors detachable and also trying to avoid creating gaps in the walls/floor was what took us the longest.

I hope you'll forgive my shameless self-promotion, but here's the Opera House design we submitted to series 4. It was a lot of fun to design. Opera House - BDP Series 4

Update: We updated the design of the Opera House. Here's the page of the new version submitted to BDP series 5: https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/series-5/1746/Opera-House More details about the updated design: Original post: Hi everyone! Here's the Opera House design we submitted to the Bricklink Designer Program Series 4. We hope you like it! Please support us by clicking "Love it" in the link below if you want this design to become a set. Opera House on Bricklink Series 4 Here are some actual pictures of our prototype. We're still missing the minifigures, the interior stickers, and a couple of decorative pieces, but it's 99.5% complete.

As a long time player (although I paused it for the past couple of years), I'm very excited at the prospect of getting D&D sets. I even built an entry for the contest, it's my first time submitting something to Lego Ideas. I'm looking forward to seeing what will come out of the theme.