When our Kevoh posted his first mocs in months the other day, what a feeling of surprize we felt! He produced a spaceship, and a modernist one to boot! Now don't take this the wrong way, dear readers: we here at Twee Affect don't blog each other's mocs as a matter of course, only a comment on his photos happened to spark a substantive design conversation between two of us blaggers, and we thought we would share a rare glimpse into this, our secret freemasonry of blaggitude!
The comment on the above photo was as follows:
HppyWeasel: Nice subtle texturing on the black surfaces, dude. I'm a big fan of paneling.
kevoh: ok what is this, 2 people have commented complimenting on the "texture" of the black parts of the spaceship
jonesy: haha
kevoh: what do they mean??
jonesy: i think they mean the seams between individual parts?
kevoh: but that's not a thing!
jonesy: it is to SEBarile, the trainguy
kevoh: but there isn't texture... I mean ideally it's a uniform surface?
kevoh: or I suppose in some orderly panel system
jonesy: but your lighting basically showed off the seams
jonesy: where's miss mattie, he needs to do a poast on this
kevoh: so my lighting is too good
jonesy: lul yes
jonesy: and lego people are coming up with increasingly irrational things to appreciate in mocs
jonesy: "npu" when it isn't
kevoh: I mean this is something I paid zero attention to, the texture/pattern created by the parts?
jonesy: yes haha
jonesy: it just happened to be pleasing to his eye?
kevoh: I like looking at it and appreciating all the zany snot that I know is going on, but other people can't see that
jonesy: like mattie and his plate fraction offsets
kevoh: it can actually be super hard to make uniform surfaces like that
jonesy: yes, but the mocs that result are super boring
kevoh: when you have yellow stripes places and it can't go into the 2-wide core
jonesy: it is like working with rare colors with very small parts palettes
kevoh: no one appreciates it unless they realize that those are the only parts in that color
jonesy: except you are just beating yourself up for no reason
jonesy: you are just making it too difficult and expensive!
kevoh: heh
jonesy: because every project will require multiples of rare parts that need to be cracklinked!
kevoh: yeah I've used every yellow 1x1 technic brick I have
kevoh: granted I only have like 4
kevoh: but it has to be rationed 2 per moc!
jonesy: heh
kevoh: and it's very tempting to use them, because it's a great way to connect a stripe to the rest
jonesy: oh yes that was the first idea i had on that problem
jonesy: still trying to figure out which places are ok to pick your spaceship up from
jonesy: it has to be like two places on the whole ship
kevoh: hah no it's sturdy I mean it rests by itself, the front doesn't droop
jonesy: but don't pick it up on the missile launchers or the cockpit or the drone niche
jonesy: or any of the edges
kevoh: you do have to hold the drone in place it'll slide out
jonesy: did you consider a magnet
jonesy: because that sounds like a satisfying way to connect it
kevoh: that would be nice
jonesy: don't tell me you don't have any lego magnets
kevoh: I was hoping that there would just be enough friction, minor inconsistencies in part size would make it a tiny bit snug
kevoh: but it slides in and out
jonesy: don't tell me you didnt get any m-tron or ice planet sets!!!
kevoh: I have magnets!
jonesy: yes yeah friction connections are hard to predict
kevoh: ok so I've just picked it up from corners, like just holding one corner
kevoh: the 2 front corners are not advisable
jonesy: oh look at you
kevoh: others seem ok
kevoh: I should have made the connection between the 2 halves better
kevoh: it's 4 technic tubes, 2x2 plates stuck in each end
jonesy: scotty was saying why didn't you make the two squares overlap eachother
jonesy: like two chain links kind of
kevoh: I didn't want to?
jonesy: k
kevoh: just, not the design I was going for I guess
jonesy: otherwise they should both rotate in opposite directions
jonesy: and look real wizzardly and bizarre
kevoh: constantly spinning hah
jonesy: just, an unthinkably bizarre design that reflects the impossible system of faster-than-light propulsion required
jonesy: according to mystic principles of physics as yet undiscovered, by science
kevoh: but ah hah look at this! real design decision discussion! recognizing that the 2 halves could interlink, and wondering how that would be better or worse or different...
jonesy: yes! we should just post this up on twee!
kevoh: well that's rather circle jerk-y isn't it?
jonesy: so is the rest of our blog?
kevoh: "in conclusion, our mocs are amazing in ways that only we know, and if anyone else tried they would fail"
jonesy: "our opinions are constantly correct and amazing and we shall never compromise to please other people"
kevoh: high fives all around!
jonesy: heroes
I am involved in this conversation! I was right about your moc!!
ReplyDeletetl;dr
ReplyDeleteheroes
ReplyDeleteFWIW I don't think the texture looks good by accident. I think it looks good because they're real working panels and thus look orderly because they are. The missile bays in particular look excellent in this flat shot because they provide a regular break from the flat surface.
ReplyDeleteOn second thought that would make for some interesting new space mocs, if people tried to do this paneling thing on purpose? But this would be a strictly internet kind of moc: if you show it at a con you will end up grousing that the public only seems to be interested in the big things and nobody noticed your immaculately ordered part seams because the lighting wasn't right. Tradeoffs!
ReplyDeleteThanks Tim, that helps clarify what people were seeing: the panels/texture that are there because of the drone,cockpit,missiles... So now we have a whole new dimension to plan for when building spaceships! Hooray!
ReplyDelete^^ People do "do this paneling thing on purpose". They're called trainheads :)
ReplyDeleteIt's rare to have this much flat surface on a small spaceship, particularly not in such a geometric manner. It probably stands out more as our eyes settle on the visual interest in the otherwise homogeneous surface.
Incidentally I think I remember Mark Stafford doing it purposefully on one of his Commonwealth ships.
^ Yes I mentioned the trainguy poster child for paneling near the start of the convo, and I even got Matt a bunch of 1x4 green tiles from my PAB once so he could do this exact thing! And anyway trains have an advantage over space mocs in terms of public events: they move! And sometimes even have lights! But with trains you are usually working from an existing design, and spaceships are often a chance to experiment with composition. That is what i was talking about, cross pollinating a technique to take it further than trains can take it.
ReplyDeleteWas it this one btw? http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=189941
^ That's the one although I see my memory was wrong.
ReplyDeleteWhile spaceships offer an opportunity to experiment in that sort of thing it seems rare that people really do. Form, colour and 'greebles' seem to be the main focus while texture is usually ignored. Which sometimes frustrates me as exposed greebles in atmospheric craft are ridiculous. Panels are not.
Apparently, I don't check in here often enough. In the photo, it appeared that there were a bunch of fractional plate offsets on the surface in the right half of the photo. It's interesting to learn that they're unintentional artifacts of the construction method.
ReplyDeleteIn the past, I've tried to experiment with the sort of detailing I thought I saw in this MOC. I guess that made me over-sensitive.