MOCing rituals.

[wolfwing]

Someone mentioned one for building, but that seemed to be more for sets, so what do you guys do for when your MOC'ing, wether you got a plan in advance, or your just saying to yourself, "Lets build a castle." and just let it form as you go. How do you sort what pieces you want, do you only take those you think will be relevant, or take all of the pieces that you think will be useful.

I don't have a big enough collection to sort yet, so just probably like before plunk them all down and find what I need as I need it, and probably technocolour the creations too when run out of the right pieces.

[DLuders]

I think most AFOLs with small parts collections just pick out the parts they need as they go, and just "free build" to try stuff out. Some folks are concerned about the colors right away , while others just want to "build something" to try out their concept, and then refine it later.

[Ralph_S]

I wouldn't call it a ritual, but I have a more-or-less standard way of going about a build. Sitting around more-or-less randomly fitting together parts until I hit a combination that is somehow interesting and deciding based on that where it'll go really doesn't work for me. I normally only build models of existing things (vehicles, mostly), so I always have an idea of what I will be building and have thought about how I'll do the difficult bits, how big it'll be and have a rough idea of what parts I'll need and whether I have them or will need to buy them first. I've got many of my parts sorted by colour, so I normally take out the drawers with the parts for the major colours of the model at the start of the build and keep them close by. I grab the other parts when I need them.

I build things without many revisions. Once a part is done, I rarely go back and change it.

Cheers,

Ralph

[snaillad]

I usually build modular buildings, so I will use most of the more interesting colours/pieces on the front and then cobble something together for the rear and roof if I am running short of bricks. I like to tinker alot and see what looks best, sometimes that involves taking of of what i've made apart. Depending on what pieces I have left over ill change what I can to improve aesthetic appeal :) However I usually change the purpose of the building completely as I am going along if it seems more 'suited'

[Brickdoctor]

I have a larger collection approaching 15,000 pieces, so I have it all sorted out into 70 small hardware drawers and 13 larger Sterilite drawers. Usually, I print out source materiel off the 'net (usually Star Wars, so Wookieepedia is my best friend), pull out my favorite parts bins, and then I have one drawer that's nothing but printed bricks and greebling that's always out.

[Aanchir]

These days since I'm at college, my MOCing rituals tend to involve working with a particular collection of sets. It's a fun challenge-- for instance, I might stick to just Space Police sets to make a Space Police MOC, or I might use Atlantis parts to make an Atlantis MOC. If I want a real challenge, I'll limit myself to the parts from one or two sets.

I don't always (or even often) come up with something memorable from the parts I limit myself to. But it's a fun exercise and gives me ideas I can look back on the next time I find myself using those parts.