So I Need Some MOC *Gasp!* Opinions! and Tips too. Please.

[EvanArtist]

Hi, kind of new here, name’s Evan, and I am new to both these boards and Bionicle as a whole. Kinda. But I won’t delve into personal history.
What I need, is some OPINIONS. Constructive ones please.
After getting into Bionicle over the course of about a year, learning and loving the lore and characters, I wanted to try taking a crack at making some MOC’s since I’m already an artist and had also recently began trying to do 3D modeling.
Here’s the thing though, I have not touched anything Lego related in about 8+ years, and the only Bionicle sets I ever owned were some of the sets at the tail end of the series from like 2009. So in that sense, I’m a bit out of the loop.

My first ideas for MOC’s were the remaining members of the Toa Cordak team outside of Lesovikk and Nikila, because I’m also one of those people who get a tad…bugged, when teams are not completed.

So first, I would like constructive opinions about what I already have, that of the chosen Mask’s for the remaining members as shown in the picture, plus Lesovikk and Nikila for a nice group shot. All the Mask’s shown are customs in some way, all provided/made by the well known 3D modeler KhingK, except for the Mask of Healing and Rau which were made by another well known modeler, Galva. And Yes, I am using Stud. io, I don’t have a lot of money and I just prefer this option. Since some of the Toa that are apart of the team don’t have defined personality types like others, I picked some of these masks based on how they may fight and possible character traits I got running through my head.

Second, any MOC builders out there willing to provide some tips to a beginner? I’m not even 100% sure where I want to start, I just want them to some what fit together with Lesovikk and Nikila as a team. Maybe share some beginner’s traps to avoid? Some cool techniques that makes something look better or look a certain way? Stuff like that would be greatly appreciated.
If you suggest a part or something that is not natively in Stud. io or the packs I am leaving Links to, please leave me a way to download them for myself.

NOTE: I’m not completely blind to every aspect here. I’m a bit of an action figure collector and I like to learn how they work, so I know what a ball joint is, I know what can and cannot affect articulation, among other things. I’ve also been practicing/learning a bit about Stud.io, so hopefully if you try to explain something complicated to me, it’ll make sense.

Just incase some can’t tell what each Mask is and are for, there’s the Non-Aquatic Version of the Faxon for Lesovikk, made by KhingK.
The Mask of Possibilities for Nikila which, I do not know if KhingK is the one who actually made the model or design for the model, someone please correct me if you know.
We have the Mask of Healing for the Toa of Iron made by Galva in a Pearl Dark Gray as according to Stud. io, though I wanted gunmetal gray but that was not on there.
There’s an Inorganic Version of the Iden, the Mask of Spirits for the Toa of Water made by KhingK.
An Inorganic Version of the Sanok, Mask of Accuracy for the Toa of Fire, made by KhingK.
A Non-Aquatic Version of the Volitak, Mask of Stealth for the Toa of Sonics, made by KhingK, in a Dark Bluish Gray.
A Non-Aquatic Version of the Zatth, Mask of Summoning for the Toa of Stone in a reddish brown, made by KhingK.
And finally a Rau, Mask of Translation, in purple. This being a slightly modified version, also made by KhingK. If you couldn’t tell, I really love his designs.

To credit the modelers of some of these Masks and incase you want to use them yourself if you don’t have them already, I found them at Bionicle Rebuilt/Falling Stars, a fan made Bionicle Sequel which I enjoy so far. https://bioniclerebuilt.wixsite.com/fallingstars/stud-io-guide
They can probably be found in other places as well, this is just where I found them.

Thank you in advance to all who choose to help me get creative with Bionicle!

[Kamoranova5]

I first go over what I’d like for it. How tall, how many limbs, what weapon what mask and then get a picture in my head for it. Then use the parts I have on hand to make it. Then once it’s done try and get a hold on the colors I want him or her to be then once all done figure out what mask to use(least that’s what I usually do)

[Alucia]

First off, welcome to the boards

The choice of masks is really good. You have a selection that matches pretty well in terms of shape and design, so for me you have ticked the first box.
In terms of the rest I guess the question is what sort of build do you want? The issue with Lessovikk and Nikila is that they both have very different designs so it’s a bit tough to say “oww i’ll go for an Inika build” cus you would need to redesign one of them into a different style.

If you are as new to this as you say though, simple builds are a good start.
Start by recreating the Lessovikk set design and work from there. Add and change parts to the build, change colours and proportions to more suit your vision. You are in a fortunate possition using Studio, so for the most part the sky is the limit.
Once you have him in a design that you are happy with then replicate it for the others, changing parts and colours as you move down the line.
This in my opinion is a good starting point for a new builder, to get your feel for the building system, how it works and what you like and don’t like.

Just a few tips for Studio.

1. Don’t try and build them all in one canvas. The more parts you have on the screen, the worse Studio will perform and the more likely it is that you will encounter bugs.
2. Create a backup of every build and save regulaly. Studio has a nast habbit of corrupting save files and builds so keep at least one back up and save to both often.
3. create sub models and hide sections as you are working on others. This is mainly to make life and posing easier.
4. When posing, turn off collision. Studio’s collisions arn’t always perfect, sometimes you just can’t get the pose you want with it turned on, even if it’s possible in reality.
5. Create a new step per section. Again just makes managing the build easier and is pretty much essential when you start making more complex builds.

Okay well that’s all I can think of for now lol hope that helps, let me know if you wan’t any other tips or advise

[Enbeanie]

Welcome to the boards, my good man. here are my tips for mocs.

go for a metru build if you want to avoid negative criticism. people like metru builds.

always go with articulated hands or Hf/glatorian hands.

if you want to take a risk, go for a custom torso.

but something simple is probably the best place to start.

well, have a good time on the boards, and may your mocs be many!

[Alucia]

@Enbeanie

people like metru builds.

I can think of a certain top hat wearing individual that might argue that point

[Enbeanie]

well i don’t like metru builds but saying that gets your post flagged

[Winger]

As a practically inexperienced BIONICLE MOCist myself, for getting started in building a MOC, I kinda just … start putting piece together and see what happens. It might not be useful, but it helps you learn little techniques that you might use later.

Although I get this is a little bit more difficult to do in stud.io. The other thing I do is pick out some armor pieces for the different major body sections that go well together (you can base the aesthetic off your chosen mask), and then just start building a skeleton that puts them together. You can then work on refining and simplifying that frame, adding more armor and connections and pieces.

Prefab pieces can be a really great place to start at first. Metru torsos are highly versatile, but limited in capability enough to not get in the way of your own building style. Inika torsos are a little more difficult to use on Toa-sized MOCs and make look proportional, but they have a lot of connections for armor and stuff.

But uh, don’t use any one build just to make people like it. Don’t do anything in a creative endeavor just to please others. That’s really bad and destructive advice. Like, its really hard to avoid that kind of mentality, as a human, but at the very least don’t actively choose to do that, y’know?

Knowing a bit about character design also really helps. Maybe even to the point of doing a little bit of research yourself. Also, source images. Find some art online that fits the vibe you’re going for and go off of that.

Your mask choices look as good as any others, although one thing to note: a lot of 3d-modeled masks can be a little bit over-designed, a little bit too good looking for the medium. Keep in mind that you might have to make your MOCs a little more complex to match the masks to maintain cohesion within any single MOC.

Feel free to PM me (once you get that ability) for criticism on a MOC anytime.

Oh and um, welcome to the boards! It can get pretty toxic around here sometimes, but most everyday users are pretty fun people to chat with.

Except Winger.

He’s a jerk.

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edit: oh, one more super practical thing. Don’t be afraid to use system. Knowing how system and technic pieces cohere is a super helpful piece of advice given to me by someone else in the community, and it adds a whole new level of capability in a MOC.

[Avaru]

Firstly, welcome to the boards!

My main piece of advice is to try and establish your style. Look around at some other mocs around here and see what you like, maybe try to experiment a bit yourself. Also don’t be afraid to make changes after it’s posted, Some of my mocs have been through many iterations and I still haven’t posted my final design. Take people’s feedback on board but use it as a guideline rather than the be-all-end-all.

Also, are you going for quality or quantity? If you want to make a load of mocs in one go, I’d suggest using standard Mata/Metru/Inika builds as a base and adding some slight variation. If you want to make your own unique character but don’t mind taking longer to make it, then a custom build is your best bet. I’ve got plenty of custom torsos to look at, and plenty of other users do to. As I said earlier, have a good look on the forums for some inspiration and I’m sure you’ll come up with some ideas.

Some advice specifically for Studio, get all the part packs. The site you linked has some good ones, though the biopack is outdated, the new version can be found here, and also has links to some some colour packs to make your renders look nicer. On the subject of renders, here’s a link to some backgrounds to go with them.

On another note, I like the use of purple for lightning, I have to say I’m not much of a fan of some of the canon colour schemes for some elements so it’s nice to see some variation there.

[vootcaboot]

thanks for reminding me i need to update the post with my linktree, which has all the studio resources worth a ■■■■ that i currently know of

[EvanArtist]

Hi!
For starters, thank you for the advice and the additional links, I will download those when I next get the chance.
To answer your questions on quantity or quality, while I eventually want the full team of Toa to have designs, I wanna tackle each one one at the time in an attempt to have them all have the same level of complexity and design, while still having unique bits about them. Even thought about slightly modifying the Lesovikk build we got to try and create a version of him in his prime. Making him slightly more complicated to better fit with Nikila’s design, and then have the remaining Toa follow suit with similar ideas so they all fit together, at least somewhat well. I’ll probably change each design as I keep going and keep asking for opinions and tips from the board as I go.

Once again! Thank you for the advice! I’ll probably ask more in the future…

Also I just realized I still have to name these Toa at some point. Whelp. Better find a Matoran Dictionary. Lol

@Alucia Hiya Spoopy!

To start, thank you for the advice! I greatly appreciate it and I already feel welcomed.
I already had the idea of slightly redesigning Lesovikk due to the complexity difference in designs between him and Nikila. I was basically just going to take the already existing set for him and add more to it and change things in an attempt to make him at least slightly more complicated and look less jarring next to Nikila(favorite Toa design btw), to represent Lesovikk in his prime with the Toa Cordak. Then as you said, I’ll take some techniques from that build and probably some from the complicated Nikila MOC I love so much, in an attempt to make medium complicated designs for all these new Toa,(though I’ll probably start simple) and I’ll probably modify, change, and ask for opinions on those builds as I go along. So I would appreciate later feedback on those!

Also, thank you for the Studio advice! Though I’ve been using it for awhile now to recreate some IRL MOCs and official sets for fun, I did notice it had a tendency to…freak out when I did certain things. Mainly if I ever left the page to do something else on my computer, Studio would have to reload completely. Or as you said, having a lot of pieces on screen(which I just find funny because it’s a freaking digital Lego builder and most modern sets go over 100 pieces.)

Thank you again! I hope you can help me out in the future! I’m always open to making some friends!

Edited for Double Post - BioKnight

[Alucia]

Sure No problem.
Sounds like a good plan can’t wait to see what you come up with.

The whole freezing thing as far as I know is Studio reloading all of the custom packs every time you come back into the program it really can get a bit annoying lol but yeah if you want any advice just drop me a message. I work some pretty funky shifts but I tend to check the boards a few times a day so I’ll normally get back to you within a few hours on weekdays.
Looking foreward to seeing what you can build