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In lugnet.general, Tim Courtney writes:
> Hi Damien -
>
> In lugnet.general, Damien Guichard writes:
> > Yes, that's sharing building experience and you are lucky.
> > My only sharing experience ended with "i don't need you, i have more lego
> > than you anyway".
>
> I'm sorry to hear that. Most of the people I build with have more LEGO than
> I do. I have quite a bit, perhaps just under 100,000 pieces. But, I still
> don't have the parts to construct what I really want to, which is part of
> the reason I don't built MOCs that often. When I do build, it's usually in
> spurts, where I have several weeks or a couple months of heavy building,
> followed by months and months just refining MOCs, doing small design
> studies, and looking at other peoples' stuff. I usually need a purpose to
> build things -- ie. I'm gradually building models for a short film I want to
> shoot, I'm in a train club, LEGOfests, etc.
>
> > Ok you share building experience.
> > I mean you don't share building skills.
> > You construct your own building skills.
> > But they may be usefull only to you.
> > Because chances are that your building style is unique.
> > And should another be interest by your building skills, you have no tutorial
> > to help. Little or no effort has been made to flatten the learning curve.
>
> When you build with others, you share skills. At least, I do when I build.
> I'm always learning and taking in from other builders, and they learn from
> me too.
>
> I had a unique experience over the last few months. A friend of mine, Bruce
> Lowell, built the same model I did. We shared ideas since my model was
> already built. When I finally met Bruce at BricksWest 2003, we were able to
> compare our models right next to each other.
>
> We took totally different approaches to building the same thing, a UH-1
> Huey. Mine was more minifig scale, in fact I think a hair bigger (8-wide)
> ;-D He went for a smaller scale, where the figs would be slightly smaller
> than minifigs. We learned a lot from each others' building, and I told him I
> was going to steal his rotor design :^D
>
> Here's Bruce and I. I'm on the left, wooshing my helicopter, in the really
> awesome BricksWest bowling shirt, which might not even be "normal" in
> southern California. :-)
> http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=353557
>
> > This is particularly obvious for kids.
> > Lego is very difficult and kids are so impatient.
> > They will not try and fail a thousand times.
> > So they just renunce, then grow and most of them will forget lego forever.
> > And the opportunity of more play value has been lost.
> > Building tutorials (not only building instructions) could help but none is
> > available. Of course there is no right or wrong way to play with lego. That
> > should not be an excuse for no tutorial: each significant building style
> > could have its own tutorial.
>
> This is why it's a good thing to give kids social LEGO experiences - to
> learn from other builders and to inspire them to stick with the hobby. LEGO
> has so many applications, if not as a toy for play, as a tool for school or
> in the professional world. I think it's great to have organizations like
> FIRST LEGO League so kids can build together and solve problems together.
>
> As far as tutorials - there need to be people to write them :-) I've got a
> good outlet for such tutorials, Bricks Magazine. We're a tad behind our
> originally anticipated schedule for a release, but we're no less committed
> to delivering a top-notch publication geared towards entertaining LEGO fans
> and broadening their horizons. If you want to write tutorials for Bricks,
> please email me. If you want to stick them on a website somewhere - that may
> be a better option, so they're more accessible.
>
> Perhaps that's a good community project? Is anyone else keen to create
> building tutorials and place them on a website? I know I just don't have the
> time with everything else I'm doing :-\
>
> > Seems like expert builders are more interested in building innovation than
> > in sharing skills. That is the absence of sharing i speak about.
>
> Sure. Remember though, each person is in the hobby for some personal
> satisfaction. If they gain more satisfaction from building and raising the
> standard for themselves than teaching others - good for them. Not
> necessarily bad for others, since many people post pictures and LDraw files
> of amazing creations and those photos and files reveal wonderful techniques.
> Take James Mathis for example -- WOW! Dissect one of his train LDraw files
> sometime, you'll be amazed.
>
> As for you, Damien, you're in France, right? Are you involved with FreeLUG?
> If not, that would probably be a great place to start getting to know other
> LEGO builders in person and sharing the LEGO experience more. And on a
> larger scale, there's the 1000steine Land coming to Berlin in July, and
> LEGOWORLD coming to Zwolle, NL in October. I should be at the latter :-)
>
> I encourage you to get involved with other LEGO fans and discover that it is
> possible to share building skills, as well as the LEGO experience!
>
> -Tim
Many thanks Tim, your reply is really encouraging.
I currently try to figure out the best way to write a building tutorial.
The three major difficulties are:
1. It is REALLY intimidating to write the first tutorial ever. I don't want
to be suspected to define a building standard. A standard is simply not
desirable. At some points, to make a long story short i have to write things
like "this is good assembly" and "that is bad assembly" instead of "this
assembly is encouraged by this tutorial" and "this assembly is discouraged
by this tutorial". How can i say an assembly is "bad" without hurting anyone?
A tutorial is not a lesson (as many builders here are far more experienced
than me). How to present ad-hoc restrictions in a world of freedom is by far
the most difficult obstacle for me. May be the only solution is i write the
document as if i am the sole reader, then YOU make it more relative.
2. There is several quality criteria. Different tutorial designs maximize
different criteria. I think the best possible document is a complete set of
abstract building patterns. However a set of abstract building patterns
would be really terse for Kids. Nothing is already really decided, but i
tend to favour a "prerequisite" approach, a step by step progression
starting from no building skills.
3. The building style advocated will certainly imply a lego theme preference
and outdated classic building style. The outdated aspect is really annoying
as i think Kids should be the primary audience. Adults are supposed to be
patient enough to acquire their own skills.
Yes, i'm in France but not involved with FreeLUG.
But sure i should and probably i will be.
Damien
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