Nocturnus Guild: Homepage, Sign-up and Discussion

[Balthasar]

Awesome challenge! This leaves so much room for creativity and is great for colouring the lands of Nocturnus.

Nice throneroom by the way. Love the pillars, floor and throne.

[Artanis I]

More great stuff guys! :thumbup:

Just to clear up a point regarding Challenge 3:

There are only 4 crystals, one in each land.

There are not lots of false crystals that have been hidden in shrines that have just sprung up all over the place. Obviously we couldn't just have 1 guild member building a moc from each guild for challenge 3. The idea is that everyone builds their own interpretation of their guild discovering the crystal that lies hidden in their land.

But i'm sure you all knew that right

Well, I was kinda hoping that there would be a way for all of our MOCs to "exist" in this Historica community build, but this way we can't put them on the maps or anything because they don't exist in anyone elses mind. My MOC will not be canonnnnn...

[Derfel Cadarn]

More great stuff guys! :thumbup:

Well, I was kinda hoping that there would be a way for all of our MOCs to "exist" in this Historica community build, but this way we can't put them on the maps or anything because they don't exist in anyone elses mind. My MOC will not be canonnnnn...

The mocs will still exist, In everyones mind you will have each found the Crystal. When we continue the story on we will just say that the Crystal has been found in each realm, we won't pick a specific person and say they found it. It will be remembered that all in Historica went looking for the Crystal, but the High King decided to keep it a secret about who really found it, to protect them from a possible evil backlash.

So don't worry, your moc will be the main version of how the Crystal was found, and everyone elses moc will also be as well. If you get what im saying

We have to occasionally change the type of challenges, as otherwise it would get very dull if every challenge was 'build a farm', 'build a castle', 'build a cottage' etc.

[Angeli]

I have a problem with my mocs: when I build high and big, it seams that the one main picture of the moc, the "promo" picture, does not look that appealing, because of the bunch of details and its sheer size...

It does not "strike" at the first look (check out Siercon&Coral's faerie flowers), so I always had a choice - build big, but without so much details where some simple patterns will look great on far-away pictures (Like Bob Carney type of castles), or build small, but detailed (like Luke (Derfel)). (I never used that, I am building big & detailed, but then it lacks that "first impact" where you fall in love with the moc on a first glimpse)

Maybe, for this challenge, I could differ a little - tall buildings, few meters tall, but simple in construction, and in the middle detailed (swamp, for example), where all the action is.

I don't know, but I think that my mocs are different and interesting, yet they do not attract any more attention except in historica subforum, and blogs do not pick it up for display (for example, I was almost 100% sure that Lith My'athar is going to attract attention, but id didn't... I also tried to buy, scare, steal, charm my way in on TBB with this, but they are simply stone-made bunch, those bloggers :) )

...what do you think?

[Derfel Cadarn]

I have a problem with my mocs: when I build high and big, it seams that the one main picture of the moc, the "promo" picture, does not look that appealing, because of the bunch of details and its sheer size...

It does not "strike" at the first look (check out Siercon&Coral's faerie flowers), so I always had a choice - build big, but without so much details where some simple patterns will look great on far-away pictures (Like Bob Carney type of castles), or build small, but detailed (like Luke (Derfel)). (I never used that, I am building big & detailed, but then it lacks that "first impact" where you fall in love with the moc on a first glimpse)

Maybe, for this challenge, I could differ a little - tall buildings, few meters tall, but simple in construction, and in the middle detailed (swamp, for example), where all the action is.

I don't know, but I think that my mocs are different and interesting, yet they do not attract any more attention except in historica subforum, and blogs do not pick it up for display (for example, I was almost 100% sure that Lith My'athar is going to attract attention, but id didn't... I also tried to buy, scare, steal, charm my way in on TBB with this, but they are simply stone-made bunch, those bloggers :) )

...what do you think?

It can be difficult when photographing large mocs, as its often hard to see the details at first glance. Take my recent village for example, the final main pic didnt look as good as the close up shots, you really couldn't appreciate the details untill you looked at the other shots. I used to build large mocs quite a lot when I started out as I thought you needed to build big to make an impact. I think the trick is with large mocs is to create something that really doesn't look like Lego, so that people are naturally drawn to it to see what it really is. I think you have some great creative fantasy mocs, in fact, you have your own niche and style that is instantly recognizable and deffinitly blog worthy. Being blogged is always nice, and naturally people want to get blogged on TBB as its the best and most well known blog that everyone checks. The problem lies in the fact that there are so many great mocs uploaded every day that only a few can be blogged. These are the ones that are unique and really stand out. Weather it be a great new technique or a good use of a rare color, or a moc that is just simply outstanding. Current popular trends are also good points that can get you blogged. For example, when I built my Skyrim moc, it had a new round tower technique and it was based on a very popular game, so it was a good moc for them to blog as it would attract attention, it also was picked up by quite a few Gamer blogs who normally wouldn't blog Lego, but because it was Skyrim it appealed to people. Obviously TBB can't only post castle mocs, they have to blog all themes of Lego, so this means that it can be even harder to get a castle moc featured as there are so many. It does help to be a member of a lot of groups on Flickr, and also have a lot of contacts who are bloggers. That way, your moc will be seen by someone if you add pictures to as many groups as possible. I think you could try doing a smaller build and really go for a detailed scene that really jumps out at people. I have been lucky to be blogged quite a few times by TBB, mainly due to the fact that I put out a lot of mocs and I am quite well known as a castle builder, so naturally If I do something that really stands out, it gets picked up on. I think the only reason that they blogged my Nocturnus moc is simply because it had that turquoise roof which was different and made the moc stand out. If I had just had a normal brown roof it probably wouldn't have been blogged.

So really its a case of constantly building and getting your work out there, you will eventually build a moc that just 'nails' it and you will get blogged. Don't get caught up with deliberatly 'trying' to get blogged, thats not what buildings about, plus bugging them to blog you won't do you any favours. Just keep doing what you are doing and keep putting your mocs out there as much as you can. Make sure you add mocs to as many groups as you can and build up your contacts on flickr too. There are hundreds of builders who have built fantasic mocs on Flickr and mocpages, but just havn't been noticed because they are not really pushing there mocs out to a wider audience.

Don't be detered just because you havn't been blogged, you have some great builds and like I said, keep building and putting your stuff out there and you will be picked up on

[Balthasar]

I'm not at all an authority in the lego-building society and I don't have much exeprience in either building or presenting MOC's, but if you're interest in an 'outside' opinion:

I'm always amazed by your creativity and fantasy. Most builders (me included) seem to need inspiration from existing buildings, games, photo's or other MOC's, but you seems to be build right out of your mind. Also the architecture and size is always intimidating.

The problem is that your creations are not as easy on the eye as for example derfels or SoTs creations. I believe this is because you've 'handicapped' yourself by picking the 2 most difficult colours, red and black.

Black is difficult to build with in lego, because you just can't see structural elements in the photo.

Red is difficult because it draws a lot of attention and it's difficult to combine with other colours. You can see this perfectly in clothing. If someone wears a suit with a red tie, all the attention is drawn to the tie, you hardly notice the suit of the person in it. If you wear a red shirt, you can't find any tie that matches with it. On the other hand, if you wear a white shirt, pretty much every colour in tie matches perfectly, blue, brown, black, red, green, yellow etc.

Still those colours suit your background-story and ambition, so I wouldn't recommend abandoning them. The solution would be to have a way that it's a bit more easy on the eye. Ofcourse it won't be easy to find any. Perhaps a grey rock with a red/black building on top?

Also, a difference between you and other great builders is that most of them only leave studs on place that they intend to have studs. Perhaps this is something you could incorporate in your builds as well.

A third item is that it's definantly worth to photoshop the images. It's not that difficult, but does take some time. The result makes a big difference. Don't use a red background.

Still, this is just what I think you're issue might be. I don't want to pretent to know all about lego castle building or presenting. I love your builds and you're way ahead in building-skills compared to me. I definantly hope you continue to build massive and detailed drow creations and don't switch to the more usual/safe castle building.

[Niku]

You could also try to make some videos of your creations.

[NiceMarmot]

Angeli, you really do have fantastic creations, and an instantly recognizable style. I wouldn't change any of that if I were you. Huge builds like yours are great, especially if you don't neglect the details and also take photos of them. But you could also build smaller if you think that will help people focus on the details.

I think the only suggestion I would give you is to try to improve the photography. That's going to be challenging for two reasons: one you already identified (with huge builds it's hard to see the details), and secondly, your color and lighting schemes make it hard to photograph. The first challenge can be overcome by just making sure you take close-up photos of the details, which I think you are starting to do. I really enjoyed the close-ups of the Mirage Dragon MOC.

The color and lighting issues are probably harder to address. I'm certainly no expert photographer, so I can't give good advice on this. But since this is the Internet, I'll gladly chime in with a few uninformed observations

• The black light is great for bringing out the (neon) colors, but sometimes it over-saturates the colors and it's hard to see the details. This is probably a matter of playing with the exposure until you get it right.
  
• Be careful with your background colors. Red backgrounds are difficult, especially with red bricks in the MOC, like your Tower of Ashaba. Red draws attention to itself, so people's eyes are drawn to the background, not the build. Plus with red on red, the MOC doesn't stand out. I think you want backgrounds that are a complementary or neutral color, and not as bright and saturated as the build itself. By playing around in PhotoShop or GIMP you can easily change the background hue and see what works best.
  
• With red or bright orange bricks, I think you need to be careful on the exposure. It appears to be easy to over-expose photos with these colors, and to over-saturate the color. Then you can't see the detail in the bricks. Maybe this can be rescued in PhotoShop or GIMP after the fact.
  
• Ensure that you get the best focus you can, especially on closeups. This is enormously frustrating unless you have a DSLR (which I don't. yet.). Even with the macro on, I am forever having to go back and take more photos because only when I uploaded photos to the computer did I realize that the closeups weren't completely in focus. This happens to everyone, and I've seen it in some of your closeups too. I suspect that the camera has an even harder time getting a crisp focus with your neon colors and darker lighting, but it's probably not impossible.
  
• Some of your photos are a bit dark. I realize you're trying to set an evil Drow mood, but sometimes it's hard to see the details because of the low lighting.
  
• Huge MOCs need a scale reference, otherwise people can't tell how big they are. That's why the horse or goat in the lower left of Llurth Dreir was important; it let us know how huge that MOC really was.
  

Anyway, maybe someone with more photography experience can chime in with better tips.

Hope this feedback is constructive. But I wouldn't change your style of builds. They're awesome, and they're you!

[Jareth]

My fellow guildsmen,

I've created an interactive map of nocturnus after the example made by bentoft.

The map is visible here: http://www.nocturnus.woelmuis.nl/

If anyone wants to have a MOC added to the map (embassies build by other guilds can be added as well), just let me know what and where you want to have it added.

For the great wealth and power of the Nocturnus guild,

Count Nero

Thank you Count Nero, I would greatly appreciate it if you would place the town of Scarbourough on the northern peninsula. The one located between the words "To Midgard" and "Malarakis Swamps"

[Angeli]

...

Tnx, but I was talking trough a joke, as I was blogged few times by TBB, and I was bit sarcastic with buying, cheating, scaring and charming my way into TBB :) Talking trough fun note.

I love to build big, I really enjoy it ;) as you can see by my mocs ;)

And I have only one condition: the moc (and minifigs) have to be playable.

Other than that, everything goes ;)

I am also very vein, I love everything I make ;)

But the problem that is real is that my big moc pictures can not show all the details, and detailed photos can not show the grandiosity of the whole thing, and it is completely true that the pictures do not always have that "first impact" that I've talked about.

My most popular moc was, without a doubt is Ched Nasad, but I would say that it is not, by far, the most beautiful or most complex or even most detailed castle I've made :) But, the photos were done with better camera :) 3 simultaneous flashes, wide lances, etc...

But thank you for the passionate response, and every single advice is a sound one, that should be used.

I kind of liked others to notice me without me yelling :))))))

And at the end, thank you for the nice words and praise :)

So, if I do not get blogged, I will conquer the world with my Drow, and then we will see who was nice with me and send me bricks from PaB, and who did not blog me :)

...

Firstly, thank you for those kind words :))) It really feels satisfying and wonderful when good things are recognized :)

And second, you are absolutely right - red and black are SO hard to express, especially because I use no postproduction on pictures (never had an opportunity to learn how). But, there was an opportunity to get a bunch of bricks in only two basic colors, and there were a lot of arches, slopes and inv slopes in red and black, being also the cheapest, and I went that way ;)

If my job brings me more money, I will try to buy dark red and white (also, there is a GREAT deal for 10.000 yellow 1x2 that I might take:))

Also, keep on mind that all the bricks that I have are in the mocs :) almost 95% of them ( I never use tires, but I could try making some flowers next time ;)

But I must say, the mocs look so much better in person, and people might like them trough pictures, but they love them on lego exhibitions.

... I also like trans green, and that is another color that is pain in the neck to take picture of :)

Again, tnx for the wonderful words :)

...

A bunch of very useful photography tips! Thank you!

I will think about this things, and try to inform myself more about the gimp (downloading!:) and saturation.

A lot of important and potentially mood changing info in your points, and I will have to study them further, with little help from google ;)

And for scale, I will use a girl ;) I've noticed that you (all of you:) like that the most ;)

Thank you for nice words about building and style ;)

-----

Niku, you are right, and I've started, shy for the first time, taking a short movie of the Mirage Dragon ;)

-----

I will save all three msg, from all three of you, and come back to them later in building. Let's hope that Drow will shine in their true (dark) light! :)

[Skalldyr]

My fellow guildsmen,

I've created an interactive map of nocturnus after the example made by bentoft.

The map is visible here: http://www.nocturnus.woelmuis.nl/

If anyone wants to have a MOC added to the map (embassies build by other guilds can be added as well), just let me know what and where you want to have it added.

For the great wealth and power of the Nocturnus guild,

Count Nero

I love it. It is very impressive. Well done! Now go and make one for all of Historica.

[Balthasar]

Thanks,

I've updated the map at: http://nocturnus.woelmuis.nl/

Added the Wyvern nest and Hells Gate at the small 'x's and Scarborough on the northern peninsula

[Angeli]

Remember that funky-looking curtain from my room, that you could see behind my mocs (the one with roses, the one that you liked so much because it was all that Drow are not:)

Well, I've replaced her with new one:

At a desk you can see remains of the see floor from Mirage dragon moc :) ( so there is some lego in the picture:)))

[Niku]

Well there is an improvement.

Ps. That map is terrific Balthasar. Great Work.

Wonder if someone would make one for Historica, how long it would take?

[Balthasar]

Well there is an improvement.

Ps. That map is terrific Balthasar. Great Work.

Wonder if someone would make one for Historica, how long it would take?

That curtain is indeed a big improvement, haha!

Adding the links and pictures to the map is very easy thanks to Rogueang's index. All you need is some webspace and a finished map. Still, if you want to add all the Avalonia MOC's to a map...

It's probably best to make 4 maps of the different guilds and put them in line of eachother. A map of whole historica would be big and you can't see the pop-up on the right, or you would have to shrink the map and names wouldn't be readable anymore.

If anyone would like to have something added to the Nocturnus map, just let me know! Several MOC's are still missing. Embassies from other guilds are also welcome.

[Maxim I]

Remember that funky-looking curtain from my room, that you could see behind my mocs (the one with roses, the one that you liked so much because it was all that Drow are not:)

Well, I've replaced her with new one:

(picture)

At a desk you can see remains of the see floor from Mirage dragon moc :) ( so there is some lego in the picture:)))

Haha I wonder what the Drow did with the old one

about your MOC's, mayba as they are epic (size and style), you can start like Balthasar with those pictures (great job Balthasar btw!). So when someone is moving the cursor, he see the details in a picture beside the big picture.

But of course it doesn't solve all the problems, it would be just a nice thing I think

[Jareth]

@ Balthasar: Thank yoiu for putting me on the map! I was so excited, I felt like Steve Martin in "The Jerk" When he sees his name in the phone book. Weird but true....

@Angeli: I've allways liked your creations. Especially how you build giant scale structures with just two colors....I can't even build a small one without combining old and new gray. Anyway, I haven't given advice before now, because I felt I wasn't experienced enough to do so, but I just had a couple ideas. I noticed you said that all of your creations had to be playable, and I've also noticed that a lot of the recognition goes to highly detailed interiors. I think your exteriors need no improvement, but you shoudl try to make the introduction photos be a highly detailed interior. I humbly suggest a torture chamber, shrine to Lloth or training arena. Actually I guess the first two are interchangable. In any case keep building, and thanks for telling me how to make that dragon tail!

@everyone: I'm so excited for the third challenge!

[Sirens-of-Titan]

The Vote is now officially open Guildmsmen! Make sure you cast your ballot for the first ever Mitgardian Prime Minister! ---> HERE

Question: Why is voting open to all members?

Answer: We want this to feel more like an election, if only Mitgardians voted there would be a dozen or so votes, and that could be a very underwhelming race. For the purposes of the election, all members can become Mitgardian citizens for a day, just as many of us take on a couple of characters in places like the war-games forum, and our multiple Historica adventures.

[Owenicus]

Quick question. Some of you might be aware of the Lands of Classic Castle project over on CC, so I was wondering if I could use my character from there in here. Is that okay?

[Maxim I]

Quick question. Some of you might be aware of the Lands of Classic Castle project over on CC, so I was wondering if I could use my character from there in here. Is that okay?

Maybe better not as that would mean your character will both be living in Historica and LCC. If it was a trader, no problem, but some here are already thinking about a big community war between GOH and LCC in a few months or so. Then your character would have a problem

[Owenicus]

Maybe better not as that would mean your character will both be living in Historica and LCC. If it was a trader, no problem, but some here are already thinking about a big community war between GOH and LCC in a few months or so. Then your character would have a problem

Oh, I forgot about that. :P Thankfully I have another character made. :)

[Si-MOCs]

My brothers and sisters to the west.

I cordially invite you to sit and listen to tales told by some of our finest story tellers.

Go forth to Story time with Kaliphlin and vote for your favourite story weaver!

[Angeli]

I do not know if you know this legend, but it is said that the fire crystal is pride possession of an unnamed force, who is jealously keeping it from the eyes of the nocturnians.

Simple enough, isn't it? Drow have spies everywhere, and it should have been an easy task finding it.

But all the efforts, all the bribes, and scary threats, promises of riches, slavery and horror or power went without an answer, and Drow were, for the first time, in the dark, but not literary :)

So, they used magic, summoned demon by, demon, but nobody new. At the end, they turned to the side of light, and started asking there. And the answer was more then strange: there was a celestial presence in nocturnus, hidden from the eyes of the wicked, and they used fire crystal as decoration for something (statue perhaps? Or an altar? The source did not know).

We will not say more. It took us months and dozens of captured and interrogated light-lovers, scripting with magic and random poking, but we finally found the celestial city! And Valsharess herself led and army besieging the walls.

...but she was just a decoy. An experienced, small party found its way inside of the castle walls, and while the angels are distracted, fighting, the crystal is unguarded... Or is it?

----

Just a little something about the city I am going to build. I've decided to go in the opposite direction, and try to build something heavenly - but with red and black bricks (hm...:) It should be tall, slim, but not scary... The problem is - I do not have much green, or white or any color except black and red :)

Like my girl said it: "anyone can build angel church with white bricks - only a true artist can do it with red and black" - we shell see :)

Few of my celestials;)

note: there will be others in the city ;)

[Shroffy123]

I regret not joining in the Guild of Historica. Nonetheless, Nocturnus Guild is by far the best. All of you have made amazing MOCs, and created some of the most unique mini-figs. Keep up the good work!

[Balthasar]

...

Just a little something about the city I am going to build. I've decided to go in the opposite direction, and try to build something heavenly - but with red and black bricks (hm...:) It should be tall, slim, but not scary... The problem is - I do not have much green, or white or any color except black and red :)

...

Looking forward to your celestial city! Is the 'celestial' feature of the city going to be that it's tall and slim, or are you going to locate it in the clouds as well?