Clearly I am Lazy

It has now been about 6 months since I posted last - and mostly this is due to the fact that I was just finishing off my final semester of uni (and I'm done!!!!) So now I have a qualification in Design, not that it has got me anywhere. Basically I have had a bit more time on my hands, but I haven't really put it to great use.

I decided that as a graduation present to myself, I would again take advantage of the pick a brick service, and by another set that I designed myself.

Front

Side/Front

Ground Floor

First Floor

Second Floor

It is a modular terrace designed to fit with Cafe' Corner. Although I own Cafe' Corner, I just sort of guestimated how tall each level was, and the result is that it doesn't actually fit precisely with the Cafe' Corner, but it doesn't look too shabby either.

Proof that I own Cafe' Corner

The actual thing

In situ

In my infinite wisdom, I made some mistakes in the ordering, so the actual thing uses some clever fudging to make it actually stand and work.

I decided that for future terrace designs both virtually and to perhaps purchase, I would make Cafe' Corner in LDD.

While I was building it, I noticed this little sneaky move from the designer....

The tiling underneath the seating area says 'CAFE'. I'd never noticed that before because I hadn't really been viewing the real thing in the same sort of light. I wondered why the design of the tiling was so overly complicated. Well played designer, well played. I like it. 

I then decided to add some of my old models to this new template to see how they worked. 

DAMN I messed up some calculations in this one.

This is a pretty old one, back from the days when LEGO Factory was still running and there was nowhere near the range of pieces to choose from.

Seen this somewhere before

So this is just like the above, but a digital version of it.

It's like steps!

Added to another terrace.

Another old design

This is one of the terraces from my streetscape. This one probably works the best in terms of scale.

The next modular building I am tackling is a library. So far, LEGO have not released a modular library (to my knowledge). So far I have only completed the ground floor, but it is certainly benefiting from having a template to work to for scale. 

You may see a book floating in the abyss. This is because I can't actually place it in the LDD model, as the program will not place objects where they cannot be secured. The book would slot in above the door. I am happy with it so far, and will hopefully complete it in the coming days.

The other thing I worked on in my absence was a birthday present design for my best friend for her 21st birthday. Her nickname is 'Princess' so I decided to design her a 'Princess Palace'. Given budget and time constraints (completing this right at the end of semester 8 of university! HAHA), it is not a particularly detailed model, but I also put time and effort into making it a professional looking set. 

I actually put together a box and instructions that made sense (LDD's are notoriously difficult to follow). I also personalised the box: the set number is her birthdate, the age range is 21+ in honour of her birthday. You can just see the instructions below. I used Adobe Indesign to put together the instructions, and Illustrator to design the box pieces. 

I think that's all for now :)