Let's meet BrentWaller, the creator of both the Seasons in Time Calendar and Zen Bonsai 10K projects that are in review this time around.
Please do help us congratulate Brent in the comments down below!
About Yourself
- What is your name?
Brent Waller
- Where are you from?
Brisbane, Australia.
. - How old are you?
41.
- What do you do for a living?
I'm a 3D Environment Artist and Co-Founder at 5 Lives Studios, A Video Game company here is Brisbane, Australia. Our last game was crowd-funded via Kickstarter, a cyberpunk strategy game called “Satellite Reign”. As I write this we're a week away from launching our next game “Windbound”.
- What hobbies do you have?
LEGO when I have the time and occasionally video games, I don't have as much time to play games these days.
- Do you have a personal LEGO portfolio website that you can share with us?
I post most of my work on Flickr, I've been trying to use Instagram more lately too.
- Have you created any LEGO MOCs (my own creations) that you’re particularly proud of? What is it, why are you proud it and do you have a photo of it?
The most challenging, largest and probably my most well known MOC I've made is the one I'm the most proud of. A year or so back I made what I think is still the largest LEGO Batcave ever, measuring around 6 foot 6 inches it stands taller than me. It has a giant vertical Batcave, with a garage full of Bat-vehicles at the bottom, lots of little scenes featuring Batman, his allies and his enemies hidden throughout and all capped off with Wayne Manor on top!
- How and when did your interest for LEGO come about?
I loved LEGO as a kid, it was my favourite toy and I'd ask for it every birthday and Christmas. As an adult I was reintroduced to it via the original LEGO Star Wars Video Games in the mid-2000s, they brought back a wave of nostalgia for LEGO. I did some searching about LEGO online and somehow discovered the LEGO Digital Designer program. As a 3D artist it was very easy for me to pick up and use and I soon started building, one of the very first things I made was a Batmobile Tumbler from Batman Begins (This was before The Dark Knight was released) and I ended up figuring out how to use Bricklink and then ordering the parts to make it.
That same design later became my very first submission to LEGO Ideas (back then it was called LEGO CUUSOO) and was my first Ideas project to ever reach 10,000 votes.
- What is LEGO for you? What does it mean for you? How does it fit in your life? E.g. build, display, meetups, play the games.. or 'just' watch the cartoons.
For me, it's a creative outlet, I've always liked creating and making things. After working on a 3D Environment at work, something that began as a hobby for me, I found it difficult to go back to that as a hobby at home. LEGO allowed me to make something tactile and to be creative while also being able to get away from a computer and actually pick up, feel and see the result of my creativity and show it to others.
- What is your favourite LEGO theme (current or past)? Why? And has any theme inspired your building style or preference in any particular way?
The Modular theme has always been my favourite series, The Green Grocer was my first big LEGO set and one of the first sets I bought after coming out of my “Dark Ages”, I always have to get each new addition to the line and have occasionally made my own versions for displays at LEGO Shows.
- What is your favourite official LEGO set? Why?
If I'm being honest, it's my LEGO Ghostbusters Ideas project set from a few years back. It was a huge honour to be able to say I helped get that project made into a real set so it will always have a special place for me. Outside of that though it probably is another Ideas set. Voltron and Wall-E were both great, I don't tend to keep sets intact for long though as they often get pulled apart to make into something else!
- What is your favourite LEGO element? Why?
My favourite piece is that fortuitous piece I only have one left of, but it's all I needed and it fits perfectly where I need it to go. I always seem to have this happen when I'm building and it gives me such a weird warm feeling that I'm on the right path with whatever I'm making when it happens.
- Is there a LEGO designer (official LEGO designer or fan designer) who you are inspired by and look up to? Who and why?
Probably Marcos Bessa because he did the official design of my Ghostbusters Ecto-1 and then did the amazing Ghostbusters firehouse follow-up.
- Is there one or more particular LEGO related websites (not official LEGO websites) that you visit often and/or are inspired by?
Brothers Brick has always been my mainstay, from when I came out of my “Dark Ages” to now. I follow a bunch of local and worldwide Facebook LEGO fan groups and subscribe to the LEGO subreddit on Reddit.
About Your Project
- Where did your interest in this particular model come from?
Seasons In Time Calendar
For the longest time in the back of my head, I thought the perfect LEGO Ideas project was something that could look beautiful but also be something useful, that had a function beyond aesthetics. I had no idea what that was, but I keep racking my brain for things that could potentially fit those criteria.
I was looking at wooden brainteaser puzzles and similar things online when I came across a DIY video on how to make a wooden calendar. It was a very different style of Calendar than what I ended up making in the end, but that's where the spark for the project came from.
Even with that different style of Calendar, the idea was to have seasonal and holiday-specific vignettes or scenes to build throughout the year to put on or around the Calendar.
I decided to go with Holidays that are more or less worldwide and universal, not specific to any one country or region. Mainly to have broad appeal but also so there's room for people to create their own scenes throughout the year for holidays specific to their part of the world.
If the Calendar was lucky enough to be approved I'd love to see people build their own vignettes to celebrate loved ones special days and their country's holidays.
Zen Bonsai
I was stuck in a bit of a creative rut (I was only creating things from TV shows or movies) and I really wanted to break out of that and make something original. I was travelling through Vietnam in 2019 and saw all sorts of cool real Bonsai.
But it wasn't until we had a short stopover in Singapore on the way home to Australia, it just happened to be the same weekend the very first Singapore LEGO expo was on. I had to stop by while I was there, and while it wasn't huge compared to ones here in Australia, the quality of the builds was amazing.
I was especially impressed by a collection of brick-built replicas of kitchen objects, teacups, bowls, boxes of food and local Singaporean traditional objects. The wasn't any LEGO Bonsai there but I took both ideas of the bonsai and recreating physical objects at the correct scale and put them together.
- How long was the process of making the project did, and what did you have to research as well. What kind of prep, research and design phases did you go through to produce your creation?
Seasons In Time Calendar
From initial conception to submission on LEGO Ideas it was probably about 3 months. A month of that was just research and experimenting on and off with how it would get made. Looking at different types of Calendars, collecting reference images and figuring out which Seasonal vignettes I should include.
Zen Bonsai
In mid-2019 I had a rapidly approaching expo for my local LUG BrisBricks, and nothing to display. I thought it would be a quick build so about a month before the expo I started work, collected some images of Bonsai and decided on the style I wanted to aim for.
I did a fair amount of research, it turns out there's a lot of rules when it comes to Bonsai, how high up the 1st trunk is, the ratio of foliage to trunk and rules about which way branches should be growing. I photo-shopped together a rough “sketch” of what I wanted it to look like and got started. I ended up using all of that month and only finishing with a day or 2 to spare.
- What special challenges did you face creating the model? What was the most difficult part to recreate?
Seasons In Time Calendar
As I mentioned earlier, the initial style of Calendar was completely different than what I ended up making in the end. The first attempt was based on a wooden one which had wooden slates or “cards” with dates and days written on them, they were on a spinning axle and as you flipped it around each day the slate or card would flip over and slide down to reveal the new date and day.
I attempted to do this physically with LEGO bricks but found that there was too much friction between the LEGO made slates and they wouldn't slide down when you flipped it over. I tried several different ways of building the slates, from simple stacked bricks, tiles facing outwards and all sorts of other SNOT techniques. Nothing would work though, which is not surprising as the video I originally found on how to make these wooden calendars involved a lot of sanding of the wooden slates to make sure they would slide against each other seamlessly.
In the end, I used the fall back of using a simple tumbler mechanism to change the dates, the rotation is very basic though with just knobs for each dial to turn as each day passes by. Someone more experienced in Technic and Mindstorms could probably figure out how to automate the whole Calendar so it changes by itself.
Zen Bonsai
I overestimated the complexity of the build, the main challenge was building such a gnarly, lopsided trunk but still have it be strong enough to support the weight of all of the foliage on it.
I must have rebuilt the trunk at least 4-5 times before I found something that was both strong enough and achieved the shapes I wanted.
I ended up using a core of Technic beams to support the tree from the inside and added slopes and curves to that to achieve the shapes I wanted.
- If you could talk to yourself before you started on this project, what would you tell him/her? What do you know now that you wish you knew then?
Seasons In Time Calendar
Apart from wasting time chasing a different style of Calendar, I wouldn't change too much.
I often feel like the failures are what gets you towards a successful end result. Many people just see the end result of creations (be them LEGO or otherwise) and assume it took one attempt to get to that point. They don't see the numerous failed attempts, frustrations, redesigns and refinements that happen during any project to get it to the final result.
Zen Bonsai
I told myself for this project that I would only use parts I had available in my collection and not order specific parts to finish it. While that worked out in the end I think it ended up being a higher piece count than it should have been and the sculpting for the trunk isn't as nice as I think it could be.
I would probably also make sure I didn't attempt to use ball joints for the tree shape from the very beginning, they're just not strong enough to hold that much weight.
- How long did it take to complete the model? Did you finish it fairly quickly, or did it take a long time? And how did the build time compare to the time you spent promoting your Product Idea to reach 10,000 supporters?
Seasons In Time Calendar
The Calendar was built completely digitally in the end and the design of that would have taken about 2-3 weeks for a few hours each evening.
What took the longest was rendering and putting together the video for the project, Since this was all during COVID lockdown I had my work PC at home as well as my own PC, so every night when I went to bed I had both computers rendering out footage. It would take 8 hours or more just to render around 5 seconds of footage.
Apart from the promotional material I put together for submission, I didn't create too much more through the course of gaining support. I did a few little images for May the 4th, International Nurses Day and Cinco De Mayo early on but realised the project was doing well enough without those.
Zen Bonsai
It took a month in total, an hour or two most evenings. Being a physical build, most of that time was spent trying to figure out how exactly to achieve the shapes and strength I wanted. Once I figured that out, the rest came together fairly quickly.
- How did it feel when you reached the magic 10,000 votes and how long did it take?
Seasons In Time Calendar
The Calendar took 3 Months and 3 Days, which was way faster than I ever expected being an original creation. It was exciting to finally have an original creation get to 10,000, it's so much harder than a project with a licensed attached to it.
Zen Bonsai
The Bonsai took a little under 1 year and 3 months. Like with the Calendar, it's great to get an original project to 10,000. Especially something I feel was fairly unique.
- Approximately how many LEGO bricks did you use to create your model?
Seasons In Time Calendar
Roughly about 2000 parts. The Calendar itself has around 1100 itself and there's probably about 1000ish shared between the vignettes. A fair few of those parts in those shared and reused for each scene.
Zen Bonsai
I can only guesstimate, as I didn't really count as I was building and I'm too afraid to pull it apart. I'd say it's probably around 2000-2500. I think it could be redesigned into a lot less though with access to more part types.
- What is your favourite building technique or part/section that you’ve incorporated into your Product Idea?
Seasons In Time Calendar
I'm quite happy with how the pine tree turned out, I wanted something brick-built but distinctly different in technique than any of the ways LEGO have done for Holiday sets themselves. I like some of the parts usages in the Chinese New Years vignette too. Although the box of the Calendar itself is quite well...boxy, I spent a lot of time making sure it aesthetically was interesting and made to look like an Art Deco style early 1900s wooden piece. I used LEGO Boxes\crates to achieve some of those details as well as using the brick pattern bricks vertically along the sides. Mainly because LEGO currently doesn't make those parts in Dark Brown and I'd love to see them do so.
Zen Bonsai
I quite like how the “pads” as they're called for the foliage of the tree turned out, with lots of grass stalks attached to traditional leaf pieces. It really helps fill out the shapes to make them look denser. It's also far more sturdy than it looks, it's survived several car trips to display with the only real breakage being some of the pointy rocks underneath.
I don't know if it's apparent in the pictures but the pot the bonsai sits in, most of it is built upside down, mainly because I didn't have any inverted dark blue slopes, only normal slopes.
- If you built your model digitally, what software did you use to build and render your model?
Seasons In Time Calendar
The design itself was all made in LEGO Digital Designer with a little bit done in Mecabricks where it was then exported to Blender to animate and render. I then used Da Vinci Resolve to edit together and export the promotional video. All of those a free software you can get online with lots of tutorials and learning resources on YouTube etc.
Zen Bonsai
Apart from using Photoshop to mock up how I wanted the final design to look, everything was physical this time.
- If you used custom stickers or prints for your design, how did you create them or where did you get them?
Seasons In Time Calendar
There are some custom print designs for characters in the vignettes and the printed parts for the “barrels” that have the dates, days and months on them. They were all done in Photoshop and applied in Blender.
Zen Bonsai
There's no custom prints or stickers for the Bonsai.
About LEGO Ideas
- Do you have any useful advice about creating a successful LEGO Ideas project?
For me, there are 4 elements to creating a successful Ideas project. The first is obviously the Idea itself, it needs to be something that you feel pretty strongly that more people than just yourself will like, what is it? What does it do? Can you picture it in a box on a shelf? What would someone who bought it do with it? Would they play with it? Display it on a desk? What is its purpose? In general, I refer to this as “The Hook” it can be the subject matter itself (Friends Coffee Perk, Flintstones, Wall-E, etc.), it can be a cool unique feature (Maze, Pop-Up Book) or interesting build with display potential, something someone might have on their desk that could promote discussion with anyone who saw it (Fish in a Bottle, Tree House).
The second factor is the build itself, are you confident you have a great idea with a “Hook”? You have to make sure your build is as good as it can be before submitting. While you can now thankfully edit Ideas projects, first impressions still count and it's best to come out on a good footing then trying to scramble and improve iteratively later.
The third is presentation, a great idea and a fantastic build can be let down with poor presentation, if you're images and photos aren't clear and showing the build in its best light, you're doing a detriment to the hard work you've done on your build and potentially losing votes of support as people overlook your project.
Lastly is promotion, you can easily spend 10x as much time if not more promoting your project than you did creating it. You can promote every day in every place online you can think of, however, but if your Ideas doesn't have a great hook, a good build and solid presentation, your promotion will only go so far.
I have seen projects succeed with poor presentation and a so-so build, but they made up for it with a great hook and good promotion, but if you can do all of them to the best of your abilities, you increase your chances greatly and hopefully, if you have done it really well, people will promote your project for you without you having to do anything.
- What (if any) methods did you use to advertise and attract support to your Product Idea?
I always create a video, I find it's a good succinct way of showing off your project and everything it's about in a short amount of time. Along with images, I share them everywhere I can think of, Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, Instagram, you name it. Most of my projects have been based on licenses, so I find online fan communities for them and share the videos and links there.
- What is your favourite LEGO Ideas Product Idea (besides your own of course)? Are there any Product Ideas you think have been overlooked?
I really like the Earth Globe that is under review from Disneybrick55. I attempted my own version of a globe over the last year or so but was struggling with it and never completed it. When I saw theirs I immediately voted for it and I think it's got a good chance of being approved, it's a great idea and design. I could really picture it on a shelf in a LEGO store and being taken home and put on display on a desk or mantlepiece.
I also like Seb_E's Baby Dragon project.
- What is it about the platform that attracts you? What tips would you give to anyone who is thinking about uploading an idea?
For me, I love the excitement of potential projects, even projects that aren't my own, when someone presents a new project that sells itself and you just think “I want that” and have to click support, no questions asked. It's hard to compel someone to sign up and vote based off something you've made and presented to the world, so it's all the more special when you see someone do that for you project because you know the feeling when you see something you like and vote.
My advice for someone who is thinking about submitted a project. Just make sure it's something you're passionate about, I feel like that comes through in the project, if you're passionate about it, you'll put in that extra effort to make the build just right and get just the right photo to use for the main project image. If you're not sure about it any step of the way ask a friend or someone online for some honest opinions, criticism is the best tool for improvement and it will only help your project's chances.
- Do you have plans to submit any other Product Ideas in the future? If yes, can you give us a hint what that might be?
I have more ideas but I think I'll take a break for a while.
By
hasanjensen