Kai NRG

But of course! And what a beauty, I know I commented on Flickr but I can't resist commenting again. Great textures, such a cool road/path. I love seeing these closer photos too, get a better look at some of those buildings in the back. You certainly didn't skimp, they look great too. A really pleasant scene, fantastic work.

Great introductory build! I love how you threw us immediately into the middle of the story, I'm super curious to know how your character got here! While minimal, the vignette you've built does a great job introducing the story. Looking forward to seeing what you build next! As Grover mentioned, I used natural light almost exclusively for a long time, and it can certainly be made to work. That said, it's a bit fiddly and inconsistent. You definitely don't want direct sunlight (unless you're going for some specific effect), but the shadow cast by say a house can be too blue. Light cloud cover is best, but cloudy days don't always come by exactly when desired. If you do go for an indoor set up though, a bit of diffusion can work wonders--a thin sheet held between your light source and the MOC, a white backdrop that will reflect light--these simple things can help a lot. White bulbs (as opposed to warm white) also help keep the colors true. And a bit of post process editing with free software like GIMP can also works wonders, there are some good tutorials available online for that sort of thing.

Halfway stage! I struggled a lot with the layout of this castle. It's on a turntable, so it needs to be 360 viewable. The water in particular was complicated, I couldn't figure out where it came from! I should have gotten a shot of the internals of this tree, but basically what I did was open up the ring of 1x2 rounded plates and attached both ends to the square tower, which worked really well. Starting to add some leaves to get a feel for the framing. Speaking of leaves... I always struggle to figure out what combination of plant parts to use. I'm toying with those seaweed parts here, but not too happy with how bare they leave the 5x6 leaves above them. I actually only used one ring of 1x2 rounded plates (toward the middle). Two would for sure have been more stable, but even one worked okay. At this point is when I realized that if I'm going to take this to BrickWorld, I had better make it split apart. So I came up with the idea of making a platform/part of the castle on this part of the tree trunk, and continuing with leaves branching out of the next segment of the castle.

As a guild leader I'm not eligible for prizes for this challenge--which also means I'm not obligated to abide by the rules So while we wait for results, I'll trickle through some WIP photos of the round build I've been working on. This was built as part of a BrickWorld collab which is why I didn't share WIPs publicly while it was still actually in progress. So the build is totally complete already, don't go crazy giving me advice... that said, maybe I could incorporate some advice into the next build, and I do always appreciate constructive criticism!! Anyways, without further ado... That is where the build sat for about four months. Then this challenge came along and I got inspired to keep going... First stab at a tree using this technique. Super impressed by how smoothly it makes a circle and how adaptable it is to different sizes. I wonder where it will go from here (hint: it gets a lot bigger...)

This turned out lovely, the butterflies are a sweet touch to add some life and color. I really like your tower too, as I said before, it's got the right amount of architectural detail to make it interesting but not chaotic. Great take on the category!

This is a pretty cool novel take on the technique, it might be fun in a labyrinth build or something of that sort.

Too bad this is not going to be finished in time but it looks like it'll be a real beauty whenever it's done, both the tower and the tree are looking special!

Welcome to the guilds! As Grover said, take all the time you need to develop your story, GoH moves at a pretty relaxed pace especially when it comes to individual projects like free builds. I recollect the profile pic needing to be unbelievably small, although like Grover, that was many years ago for me.

I'm late but I have to chime in with how much I love those dark red vines. Goes great with the rest of the colors here. Nice textures on the stonework as well.

Looking beautiful so far. I love the details on the arches and right around where the tower changes diameter.

I love how massive this is! White feels like a great choice to pop against the blue water. Looking forward to seeing where you're going with it!

What a massive build, the interior is so impressive (love those colored windows!) and I really like the layout with all those towers of varying heights. I always love flying buttresses too, very cool to see them integrated into a castle like this.

Some really neat multi-level stuff going on here! I love your light blue trees too.

I always enjoy seeing a good construction build, feels very lively as a finished tower sometimes does not. Nice use of this technique!

This is a great use of this technique, I love the curve it gives your wave!