I’m not sure about that one. Like, the mocs entered are a single artists vision of the character. The more freedom you give to the artists, that’s less of the original moc’s vision coming through. Theres a strong chance both artists will clash, the artistic vision will become muddled, and the end product will suffer.
Like, the biggest example we have is Artakha. The original mocist designed Artakha with KhingK’s MoC in mind; the flow of the mask works well with the flow of the model. The canon MoC from the artwork got some flak for not fitting the design language of the original MoC; the artist had to change the stylization of the MoC in the artwork so get the mask to fit with the design. Both the moc and the mask are outstanding on their own, but they do clash quite a bit. Now, in Artakha’s case, this was almost unavoidable; Artakha needed a 3D printed Kanohi, so the art portion was necessary; allowing artists to decide the shape of all 3D printed parts is a great way imo to give artists freedom while ensuring that we are not canonizing a “third party” 3D printed piece into Lego’s story.
And then again, we’ve had plenty of good things come from the art; the general consensus I’ve seen is that people like the look of Gaaki’s and Helryx’ masks. At the end of the day though, giving the art portion more freedom detracts from the original mocist’s intent.
I feel allowing artists to change stuff outside of 3D printed parts is a good idea if there’s something to be gained from it. Like the Hagah for instance. There was a great desire in the community for the final Hagah to have metallic color parity, no repeat Kanohi, and no repeat speartips. So, the consent system was created for the Hagah, allowing artists to change only the parts of the moc deemed variable by the original creators.
What does giving artists the freedom to change the BB add to Tuyet (if the moc’s sword isn’t 3D printed ofc)?
I think we gotta have a stronger reason to do this other than ‘it’s gonna be tricky for some people to make a BB’. That’s kinda ridiculous imo. Like, yeah, it is gonna be a puzzler. It’s also gonna be tricky to moc a unique torso, or give a consistent texture to the moc, or any other part of the design. Tough luck, you know? That’s a part of the unique design challenge brought to us with Tuyet.
If we allowed all of the difficult parts of the contest to be decided in art, why not just get rid of the moc portion? Imo we shouldn’t be have a situation where a moc wins because “oh, it might possibly be fixed in the future in the art portion.” That adds too much variability, the moc should stand on its own.
If we really need a compromise for this, I’d be fine with using the consent system again, but I really think we should try and limit a situation where a character is designed by two separate artists.