Monday, May 25, 2009

Robotics Monday: NXT-based Pirates Film

Name of Model: The Pirates and the NXTfied Theater
Created by: Vassilis Chryssanthakopoulos (NeXTSTORM)
Found at: http://web.me.com/NeXTSTORM/NeXTSTORM/Theater.html
Details:

Generally, when you see minifigs in an animated context, stop motion animation is used. This time, an NXT was used instead, controlling both NXT motors and Power Functions motors. There are more details (along with the actual video) on the website listed above - don't miss the photos, they're the only hints as to how this was done.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

A Tribute to Piet Mondrian

Name of Model: Mondrian Tribute
Created by: Moose Greebles
Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/moose_greebles/sets/72157618325959859/
Details:
Although it may seem obvious to some to combine LEGO bricks with boxy geometric art, I've never seen such a clever tribute to Piet Mondrian as this one. Extra points are won for the cubic shape of the sculpture, the spectacular use of plates (parts 1/3 the height of standard LEGO bricks) to make thin black lines, and the demonstration of some exact square shapes in brick form (sure, it's not hard to do the math, but it's surprising how rarely we see a perfect 6x5 square in a LEGO model). Some studs-not-on-top detailing helps to make the 5 shown sides (the bottom is solid black) of this cube look even better - note the inlay on the top, complete with a handle to open up the box. I also love that the LEGO parts actually end up looking less like a grid than the original paintings do - a testament to both artists' skills.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

What's Going on with LMOTD

If you've visited this blog in the past month or so, you've probably noticed that we haven't been posting much lately. There are actually some good reasons for this. There are some behind-the-scenes changes going on - long story short, I'm slowly making this more of a community site, with the ad revenue here supporting contests which will be announced in the months to come (we've already begun planning the first - I'm hoping to have an announcement to make about that sometime this summer).

While we do want to keep this blog going while we're bringing in more people and planning contests, we all have other things going on that are pulling us away from posting here. Matthew (Brickapolis) is in a bit of a "real life" crunch time, and recently became a man of mystery. Chris (Duckingham) recently started a phenomenal LEGO-based webcomic called "The Brick Side". I (Dan) recently got through some large school projects, graduated college, and started working at a promising start-up. A new LEGO store in our area is further distracting Matthew and me from blogging (what sort of coverage/appearances/volunteering we do for the grand opening festivities remains to be planned).

So here's what's going on right now: We'll try to post models when we can, but no promises that we'll actually be daily for the next few weeks. I'm currently looking for more LEGO fans to help write the site - we're looking for people knowledgeable enough about LEGO to write long-winded blurbs discussing techniques and history alongside daily models (we want to make sure we keep the same level of quality in future posts, even as we keep trying to increase the variety and frequency of posts). I'm going to continue editing and scheduling the blog - we're looking for contributors to write about models and LEGO news and then save the posts as drafts in Blogger. If you are interested in writing here at the LMOTD blog, send me an e-mail at legomodeloftheday@gmail.com - I'll try to be in touch with you ASAP.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Francis Drake

Name of Model: Francis Drake
Created by: Michael Jasper
Found at: MOCPages
Details: Michael Jasper has done a series of vignettes of historical figures, making use of very low piece counts, but incorporating pieces that most of us tend to overlook in very imaginative ways. His version of Francis Drake, pictured here, is a perfect example. In the stand for the globe I'm counting three pieces: an Islander minifig hair, a faucet tap, and a life preserver. And those legs/shoes are pretty obvious how to build when you look at them, but the average Zack doesn't come up with that. Very well done Michael! I also encourage you to take a look at some of the other historical figures he's done, like Alfred Nobel, Marilyn Monroe, and Vincent Van Gogh.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Circle Triangle Square

Name of Model: Circle Triangle Square
Created by: Nathan Sawaya
Found at: www.brickartist.com
Details: Nathan Sawaya, a LEGO Certified Professional, is well known for his life-size sculptures. In this, his latest sculpture, he reminds us once again why he can offer to build you a life-size sculpture of yourself for a mere $60K. Nathan does a superb job depicting the shape of a human body in a single color and with square bricks. I'm not sure if there's a message that Nathan is trying to represent with these heads replaced with the three basic shapes, but it has been thought-provoking for me. I tend to think the guy on the right is a "block-head." :) And while doing a giant square out of LEGO is easy, and a circle is getting to be fairly common, I can't say as I've seen anyone do a 3-d triangle before. Makes me want to break out a bulk bucket of bricks and give it a try...:)