Schokoladen Lieder LEGO MOC

 

A song of chocolate and love...and bricks. 

Minifigures Plus's third photo contest was announced at the beginning of May. Ever since their first one (which I won with my rendition of Vermeer's "The Geographer") I've been keeping my eyes peeled for the next opportunity to challenge myself (such as their second photo contest, celebrating CMF 28's costumed characters), so when I saw this posting I was eager to get started:

As you can see from the screenshots of the contest page, the goal was to have a little story revolving around the characters of CMF 29. The simplest way to get a story started is to have two characters interacting, and the fact that all of CMF 29's figures are so different from one another definitely adds a lot of variety to those potential stories. Since I had already pre-ordered the full set from Minifigures Plus, and reviewed them, I already had a familiarity with my options.

In reviewing the different combinations and permutations, I noticed that both the chocolatier and tuba player had vaguely European vibes as far as their costumes were concerned. The chocolate dragon was so cute as to be life-like (or at least as much as any LEGO figure can be), and I began to think about the magic of music. While there were other combinations that could have worked as well, but I've found that often the best—or at least most efficient—ideas for builds are the ones that spring forth almost fully realized in my imagination, so that I can focus on the specifics and details of the build itself, rather than trying to do that and come up with the idea as well.

So I sketched it out on an index card, as I usually do (again, working right-to-left because I'm a lefty): the chocolatier is on the inside of a large window and working on the chocolate dragon, when the tuba player leans into view, his music bringing the dragon to life. On the left side you can see the top view—showing the positions of the figures on either side of the wall and counter, and the "baseplate with tile street scene", as well as the way I'd make it look like the dragon was springing to life by using a few transparent bar with angled hollow stud pieces (there's got to be a better name for this useful piece).

A proof of concept showed that I could use ratcheting clips to hold the baseplates together, and then I started gathering the pieces I thought I would need. To keep the focus on the figures (who have a lot of white in both of their costumes), I wanted to restrict my color palette: tan, sand green, and reddish brown. 

As it turned out, I didn't have a rectangular window piece large enough to do the scene justice, as in the sketch, and I found a 12 stud wide arch in the Bricks & Minifigs bulk bin, which made for a much more aesthetically-pleasing frame—both for the angled tuba player and for the leaping-up dragon. 2x2 containers made for a nice paneled counterfront, and I also found a female head with a suitably-surprised expression in my collection (since the face that the chocolatier comes with makes her look almost angry at this angle) to substitute in. I took this opportunity to test a few things as well: whether the countertops looked better in tan or sand green (the latter), and whether the 1x1 pyramid accent looked better higher or lower below the arch (the former); sometimes the best way to see which option works best is to actually put it in place.

The wall came together quickly, with a little reconfiguring as I continued the build to incorporate SNOT bricks for various additional details (specifically Harry Potter portrait tiles and chocolate bars). For my own convenience, I designed the wall to be a separate piece, with L-bricks (at the bottom) "holding hands" with two more L-bricks on the baseplate, and a single stud connection for each. In the top view you can also see the white tiles I included to bounce a little light up onto the tuba player's face, as well as the tree branch I attempted to include. I wanted to have a little natural touch to break up all of the straight lines of the build, but it ended up being too distracting from the little three-person drama of chocolatier, tuba player, and dragon. Adding a line of rail plates to the front of counter also increased its visual weight and made a nice shadow on the cabinetry below it

Now that the foreground was established, I needed to build the backdrop. I dug through my rectangular plates and picked ones that might work well as building colors, then arranged them on the back baseplate, using stacks of 2x2 jumper plates so I could attach and move them easily as needed. It was a nice rough start, but I quickly found an issue...

 ...not nearly as much of the background showed through the window arch as I'd expected. So I placed markers (1x2 printed tiles from the Mini Sleeping Beauty Castle set, which I'd gathered specifically to use in this build) to indicate the high and low points of the window, as well as how wide was visible. I then used 1x4 sand green tiles to indicate these constraints on the backboard. While in a normal build I have to consider how things look from many angles, with this—as with the Urban Jungle build before it—the fact that it's for a photography contest means that only a single viewpoint needs to be considered and designed for. On that note, I also saw that I had arranged the colors of the backdrop buildings in exactly the wrong places: the white building was behind the white-uniformed tuba player, and the reddish-brown building was behind the reddish-brown dragon, with the sand green building being too distracting behind the other musician's bright red shako. The key with color (and even black and white tones) is contrast, since the eye is drawn to the areas of highest contrast. I wanted that focus to be the dragon, not some random bandmember's hat.

In addition to those window tiles, I also wanted to use one of the rose window dishes from the Notre-Dame de Paris set, but I ran up against another difficulty: the light tracery printing just wasn't showing up when I put it on the plates. So I found some 4x4 circle plates and did a little experiment. The solution was simple: put a dark plate behind the dish so that the tracery was highlighted.

I rearranged the buildings and began to build them up over a medium azure plate to represent a crisp bright winter sky, and a dark grey pentagonal tile to suggest the roofline of a distant building. The sand green building became an Art Deco arpartment with grilled balconies and a clock in its pediment. The white building (on the left now to make the other band members less prominent) used bricks and 1x1 tiles with castle windows from the Neuschwanstein Castle set to further add suggestions of detail, and the window tiles and dish combined into an old cathedral-esque structure behind the tuba player.

I took another picture to confirm that my buildings' placement was good, and turned my attention back to the interior: to balance the massy height of the wall, I needed to show the chocolate shop's floor as well. But should I use plain white tiles or something more ornate? Again, the best way to decide was to see it in action, and ultimately I determined that the best approach was to combine them.

The teal of the Minecraft floor tiles served almost as a gradient, softening the harsh whiteness of the floor and connecting to the counter and the green building in the background, while the grey details added shadow and related to the notes of black and grey in the background as well. You can see that I've cake from King Magnifico's Castle set and swapped out the pink plates for purple to match the portrait tiles on the wall, adding a middle tier for extra height and pulling the levels slightly apart so as to add more physical drama; I also used a 2x4 jumper plate as a carrying tray, angling and rotating it so the whole arrangement seems ready to topple with the other baker's surprise at the suddenly-alive dragon. (This second baker may or may not be a bit of a self-portrait)

And speaking of ancillary characters, I decided to grab a few more tuba players from local retailers (Walmart and Target, as well as Bricks & Minifigs, if I remember correctly) to flesh out the band. While I admit that this also makes it easier to lose the tuba player in the crowd, I felt it added to the story of the picture as much as adding a second chocolatier. To differentiate them, I used three tricks:
1. humans respond to faces, and having the tuba player effectively looking at the viewer is the strongest way to draw attention to that face
2. the tuba player is the closest to the camera and the most unobscured (others being partially hidden by the chocolate piping bag, other instruments, the dragon's "flight trail," or the tuba player himself
3. he's also the only one playing the tuba, since I designed other instruments (tablescrap builds inspired by trumpets, trombones, and the Ancient Roman carnyx

I also added an extra musician in the form of an antenna piece to which was clipped a fifth instrument to poke into the window's view without requiring the purchase of yet another tuba player CMF. You can see in the photo above the simple trick I used to make the tuba player look like he's peeking into the window: a hinge brick. Then I did a few more final tweaks to make sure everything lined up well and was angled and spaced properly. This also included little touches like having the clock's hands point at the dragon:

You can see how rough-and-ready the back half is: like a theatre or movie set, nothing matters but what the audience (or camera) sees. I then took a bunch of photos with different angles, focal lengths, and lighting setups, finally settling on a final image that showed just enough of the background buildings and instruments to make it clear what they were without them being the focus, and making sure there weren't any distracting tangents (for example, arranging it so the chocolatier's hat actually overlapped the bowl behind it—with its leaping lump of chocolate frosting—rather than just having their edges seem to touch).

And with the image finalized and post-processed, it was time for what turned out to be the most difficult part.

If you remember, the contest prompt required the inclusion of a story. I'm no stranger to writing stories, but the constraint for this particular story was quite a challenge. I've done many long short stories and a few entering novella/short novel territory, so telling an entire narrative in just 250 characters was difficult. To make it easier, I started by compiling all of my research (such as Fasnacht, Guggenmusik, and Shostakovich [definitely click that last link, it's such a beautiful song!]) and plot notes and trying to write a narrative that was just 250 words long, then further edited that down to 250 characters; like with poetry, the shorter the length the more value each single word has, and the more weight it must carry. Below you'll find both:


250 words:


Brash tones filled the streets of a tiny Alpine village as the townsfolk scared away winter with frightening masks and loud brass music. The Fasnacht carnival celebration was in full swing, and everyone was having fun…almost everyone.



Heidi was busy working in her chocolate shop. She had no time for celebrating as she piped chocolate onto the little dragon’s wings and horns. Maybe a chocolate dragon will be popular, she thought, hoping it would bring in more customers.



Fritz, meanwhile, was marching through town with his band. His tuba had been damaged by a drunken reveler after the new year’s concert, forcing him to play the discordant tunes of traditional Guggenmusik on his grandfather’s beautiful old instrument instead. Then he noticed the bandleader directing them down a familiar street.

Stopping beside the low-arched window, Fritz worked up his courage; peeking through the glass he could see his beloved Heidi hard at work, sculpting something out of chocolate. As the band flowed around him like a noisy river, he took a breath: sweet and low rolled Shostakovich’s “Suite for Jazz Orchestra No. 2”, the waltz rising above the clamor and drawing Heidi’s attention. She smiled at him—until something blocked their view.

Something brown.

Perhaps it was the magic of the season, or the antique tuba, or the love he had poured into his song and the passion that went into her craft; but whatever the reason, it seemed that Fritz’s music had brought the little chocolate dragon to life.

250 characters (including spaces):


Fasnacht is a time of new beginnings in a tiny Alpine village, a time to welcome spring and scare winter with frightening masks and brash brass music. But what happens when a magical tuba—played so sweetly, for love—brings a chocolate dragon to life?

So I submitted my image and story to Minifigures Plus...and won! Surprised and delighted, I rushed to condense my final build into an 8x8 cube to preserve it as a reminder for myself, without needing to keep the full setup intact forever (since display space is currently at a premium). Again I tweaked the design and used jumper plates to finagle a little extra space here and there. I really love how effective the Neuschwanstein bricks are at evoking dimension at such a tiny scale, and while the flying dragon effect isn't quite as effective as in the full-size, it still gets the point across (at some point in the future I might change its anchor point so I can add more of the transparent bar with angled hollow stud pieces for a more natural flying angle).

 And now for some reason I'm craving chocolate. I wonder why that could be...