Anyone else just have a accumulating pile of bricks?

[ziljin]

I continue to make lego purchases despite the fact that I am having trouble with creating stuff. So far everything comes out generic and bland looking. I can make interesting small stuff, but whenever I try to make something larger than like a building (or even a room) it gets real ugly looking.

Like I can build a chimney and fireplace I will be satisfied with it. But if I try to build the rest of the building, I can't think of any good details. Although it probably hurts me that I don't have much pieces in terms of windows and doors. I have mostly regular bricks.

[Luke McAwesome]

I continue to make lego purchases despite the fact that I am having trouble with creating stuff. So far everything comes out generic and bland looking. I can make interesting small stuff, but whenever I try to make something larger than like a building (or even a room) it gets real ugly looking.

Like I can build a chimney and fireplace I will be satisfied with it. But if I try to build the rest of the building, I can't think of any good details. Although it probably hurts me that I don't have much pieces in terms of windows and doors. I have mostly regular bricks.

Believe me, I notice that myself. I'm never really good with the really really big stuff, but if you want some good details for a room or a house, try making a couch, a nightstand, a bed, a table with chairs, desks and computers; it really doesn't matter. Take a look around your own house. What do you see that in most houses? A computer, which you are obviously using. You more than likely have a bed. And a sofa/couch. And a dining table.

So, just think what's in your own house, and LEGO-ize it! It's easier than most people think.

But I understand your troubles. There's some things that no one can get right in LEGO. At least, they THINK they can't get it right. You just have to keep trying. Eventually, you'll have to get it. See, I can't build trains for the life of me. I can build the Emerald Night, but taht's because it came with instructions. I can't grasp the concept of building trains if they're MOCs, which is why I'm so amazed with people's trains over in the Train Tech forum.

I myself have big boxes full of random parts, and I can't think of anything to build! Sure, once I come up with something, I'll go digging around and eventually, it all turns into something, but on a random day, all I see are just bricks.

But when they all come together they aren't "just bricks" anymore. They're a creation that you built with your own two hands! And that's what makes me happy, knowing that I came up with it myself.

So good luck with all your building, and good luck on developing your house-building skills.

[sok117]

I too am baffled by how the creators on this site have so much detail and for lack of a better word "awesomness" on their creations. I have tryed countless times to make ships as good as the ones on this site, I always get a good idea going then half way through It falls apart and just looks . The odd time I will create a half decent model, but for the most of it my work is really shabby, Try going onto brickshelf and look for ideas for inspiration, that's what I do, when I'm surrounded by different building techniques I try to incorporate the best ones and make something that in my eyes is pretty cool.

Don't worry, your not alone in your quest for creativity.

[Ricecracker]

Take your time. Try something, and if you get stuck, put it aside. Sooner or later, you'll come up with an amazing idea for what you're doing, and it'll just fall into place. Also, if you're having trouble coming up with detail, look at MOCs from your favourite builders, and see how they manage to incorporate detail.

[Ronan Dragonov]

Take your time. Try something, and if you get stuck, put it aside. Sooner or later, you'll come up with an amazing idea for what you're doing, and it'll just fall into place. Also, if you're having trouble coming up with detail, look at MOCs from your favourite builders, and see how they manage to incorporate detail.

Amen, brother.

I've also found time to be the critical issue. As much as I want to turn out MOCs as seemingly fast as some do the building process is slow and at times even agonizing. I'll hit a dead end and the MOC will sit idle, maybe for weeks. I'll contemplate scrapping it when the bricks come together in my head and I can proceed.

Keep expanding your collection. A wider "palette" never hurt a builder.

[Peppermint_M]

Keep an ideas book. If a detail pops into your head sketch it out and have a go at building it, if it doesn't work maybe you'll hit on a new idea as you work.

I also second the "leave it alone" advice, if you get too stuck, walk away and get on with something else. It worked for my last ship. I had the best top half I had ever created but had hit a dead end on the underside. I left it for a day or two and when I went back to build I came up with something great.

Sorting parts also helps me when I am stuck. Organises the mind and might turn up a solution to your problem.

[brickzone]

I recommend trying to build "approximations" of official sets you like the design of, but don't own (i.e substitute similar bricks or different colours, and this gives an idea of how some design choices are good/bad). Then also if you have sets, and perhaps are unsatisfied with them in some way, expand them but don't worry about recreating some of the styles/details etc. used in the official sets - plagiarise like crazy just to learn how they create the "look" that they do.

Unfortunately I would also suggest that to improve an MOC, sometimes it is necessary to start over - you can usually get a far better model on a second attempt because from your first attempt, you now have a firmer idea in your head of what you want to create.

I also recommend LDD for deliberate "first attempts" - i.e. kind of sketch things out roughly on LDD before you go at your bricks. It is quicker to throw something together in LDD IMO if you aren't trying to build a polished model, whereas actual brick prototyping can be as slow as normal building.

Finally, just keep at it, build something different, switch between themes, and if you are good at smaller scale models but would like to build big - don't just keep having disappointment by not achieving what you want in your large scale attempts - instead intersperse these attempts with building the small models you're happy with. Even break off a large project in the middle if you are flagging and need some encouragement - even getting something small like a small car or piece of furniture just as you want it can be enough encouragement to turn back to a large project you are having problems with.

Just my own thoughts on the subject.

[CP5670]

I've also found time to be the critical issue. As much as I want to turn out MOCs as seemingly fast as some do the building process is slow and at times even agonizing. I'll hit a dead end and the MOC will sit idle, maybe for weeks. I'll contemplate scrapping it when the bricks come together in my head and I can proceed.

I often get into this situation too, and it's probably why I don't have many "major" MOCs even though I've been building for several years. This especially tends to happen with Technic MOCs, where you might learn halfway through the build that some key mechanism is not working as well as it needs to, and you need to start over from scratch.

I also recommend LDD for deliberate "first attempts" - i.e. kind of sketch things out roughly on LDD before you go at your bricks. It is quicker to throw something together in LDD IMO if you aren't trying to build a polished model, whereas actual brick prototyping can be as slow as normal building.

I frequently do this for larger models, just create a very rough outline of the entire thing so I can visualize the overall shape I'm going for.

Edited December 22, 2009 by CP5670

[Rick]

Unfortunately I would also suggest that to improve an MOC, sometimes it is necessary to start over - you can usually get a far better model on a second attempt because from your first attempt, you now have a firmer idea in your head of what you want to create.

Indeed: never be afraid to start from scratch again. I guess one of the most common errors in all kinds of areas is to stick with something you've started, because of the costs or time that went into it. In many cases those costs are sunk and it's better to start over from scratch. The beauty of it is that in many cases the time you've spent isn't entirely wasted: you've learned important lessons and - next to hopefully having a firmer idea of what you want to create - you have also made errors you do not have to make again.

Peppermint M's idea book is a good idea too. Write down ideas with some concrete ideas for techniques, special parts, etc. that you'd like to incorporate. And keep revising the idea book.

[Athos]

I'm going to direct you to my response in another thread. It was written as kind of a response to both of the posts.

Steve

[user]

Well A little tip I have is keep some enthusiasm! If you feel like you have to build something or you punch yourself in the face for not coming up with more ideas than don't build anything at all or wait for ideas to come to you later. For example My first actual "Base" looked something like this.

In my opinion this was'nt a very good base because I didn't really put much into it and I was straining my self for ideas and trying to rush it too. But May latest base looks like this.

See the improvement? This one I wasn't trying to rush it or speed up the creative process. When an idea came to me I just added it. Just be creative and possibly try to find some techniques that would help for building whatever it is your trying to build!

[Tereglith]

You could just try sticking with small stuff, if it's what you're good at. Someone who paints portraits shouldn't necesarily try for a mural. With my 21,000 some-odd bricks, I hardly ever make something more than three or four hundred pieces, because it's what I'm good at. I can't do a huge project that needs to sit on a table, because I don't have a table to sit it on, nor the talent to make it good all over, so I stick with things that I can hold in one hand and take maybe four hours. As long as the thing that I make in the end is good, I'm just as satisfied with it as I would be with a huge diorama. So if you can make good fireplaces and good chimneys, or a good sofa and a good chair, and a few figures and make it a vignette. Don't strive to incorporate it into a huge house that you aren't going to complete, because in the end, you'll have achieved some good furniture and a good chimney as finished creations, instead of a half-finished pile of bricks that you can never post.

[David Thomsen]

I think this thread needs another name... there's a lot of good ideas in it, but you wouldn't necessarily know that from the title.

I don't really bother with anything big. I know that I'll never have anywhere near all the pieces I need, and everything will turn into some kind of towering junkheap in the end.

What I like to do is take a set with a broad range of bricks from a particular theme, for example the Pirates Brickmaster book, and make something small but functional that fits in with the rest of the sets from that range. So I'll have Brickbeards Bounty here and the Soldiers Fort over there, and in between will be a kind of haunted old tower made up of Brickmaster pieces.

Sometimes, fewer bricks are better, because you're looking at your limited bricks and trying to imagine what they could be turned into, rather than imagining something first and then discovering you just don't have the bricks.

That's one reason I prefer the pirate range... you can take any selection of random pieces from a Pirate set and turn them into some kind of makeshift Pirate hideout. With things like City... it's not so easy to construct something appropriate for a modern environment.

[gotoAndLego]

Find a model on Brickshelf you like and try to copy it. More specifically, if its a house try mimicking some of the details and techniques from the Modular buildings. Then apply them to your MOC.

[RileyC]

Yeah I do. It is mostly pieces from old sets that I had a few years back and cant be bothered remaking them because I am missing some pieces. But I cant do anything with them like moc because they are very specialized pieces and aren't generic. I need to brick link a whole lot of bricks.