The Fantastic Adventures of Fred the Frog
/A couple of weeks ago I saw a build highlighting a frog and was immediately charmed by the small build but high level of detail. At the same time, I saw another one with the same frog, and lo and behold, two more showed up in my Flickr feed! Something froggy was afoot…
I love the amount of detail and overall atmosphere every build showed, along with very cool parts usage—aircraft landing gear used to create the arch in the Portal, Ninjago weapons used as literal blades of grass, parrots used in a fantastic way to make the torii or Japanese styled arch. I love the use of colour to give a more cartoony look to the builds, especially evident in the water and lava.
The Adventures of Fred the Frog
Taking a close look at all people involved, none of the builders are strangers to BrickNerd as Eli, Hadden aka Roanoke, Grant and Jake have all had articles written about them (some of them more than others, which makes me question why we don’t have a Hall of Fame yet…).
But why I liked the Adventures of Fred is because it is a collab between builders who all have a unique style of building, yet they all fit perfectly together and certainly do tell a story. As someone who’s built collabs before it can sometimes certainly be difficult and challenging to get a certain view across, especially if everybody has their own way of building or even starting a build. Some people just start stacking bricks and poof, there it is, while others sketch, gather pictures on Pinterest and make a mood board, use Stud.io to design it and see which bricks fit and which bricks you use… and I think I made my point. But I was wondering how these builders made such a wonderful collab and reached out to them to learn more.
The Portal by Eli
Bram: Why a frog collab? (I can already hear Simon Liu roar in outrage as to such a pointless question, but I have to know)
Eli: Back in February Simon posted a great BrickNerd article all about LEGO frogs. I was inspired by that article and suggested to this group that we should do a quick small frog collab in honor of Simon’s frog article. (As well as the fact that I have always liked the LEGO frog and just wanted an excuse to make more frog-related builds.)
Grant: You should see how many frogs all of us have used in our builds throughout the years! Although this was our first “Official Frog Build” Fred has been going on adventures in our photostreams for a long time.
Jake: Because frogs are fun! They also make for great figures in microscale settings.
Bram: That is a lovely tribute! Who came up with the original idea? Or was it more of a collaborative effort?
Eli: This was my original idea that I proposed to the group. After the initial idea, I also made four sketches of several potential frog locations/habitats.
Grant: It should also be noted that each of us did take control as the major creative decision-maker behind each of our builds. Once we knew the general direction of where to go based on Eli’s sketch, we deviated towards what we thought would make the coolest MOC.
The Oasis by Jake
Bram: It seems like quite the endeavor! How did you coordinate everything?
Jake: Thank you, Discord!
Eli: All the coordination was done in a chat channel over the course of eight or so months. Really all the planning was done in less than an hour, but due to delays in other members’ build schedules, the collab wasn’t finished until muuuuch later than planned. (In my mind this was a two-day minimum collab—haha how wrong I was!)
Grant: I can take the blame for holding up the collab for so long. When I did start building, the majority of my creation was finished in two days as Eli said.
Bram: Considering this was meant to be a two-day build, was it quick to decide on the overall size and cartoony look? Or was this mostly because Eli was the first to finish his build?
Hadden: Overall size was part of that initial hour or so that we planned out the collab. Eli built his in the first two days, then Grant suggested adding a border for a more professional outline for his build. So in the end we all used the same border and size based on Eli’s build and Grant’s input. The cartoony style was fairly natural, using a couple of similar pieces in the trees across all the builds always helps tie things together too. Even if you don’t notice when you first look at the collab, a unique piece used in the same build can really create a subtle cohesion.
The Swamp by Hadden
Bram: You said that the ideas came quickly to you. I’m curious, does building a collab like this help or stifle your creativity?
Hadden: It definitely helps! Feedback is key to any creation for me and when collaborating with other builders (especially when you aren’t leading the collab). It’s interesting to see how the other collaborators envisioned your part of the collab to help you shape your model.
Eli: I agree. I love seeing how others approach a subject in their own styles. Seeing them take a spin on an idea I had a vision for and making it their own is very rewarding. After the other guys had made their portions I was like, “Hey you weren’t supposed to build yours better than mine!” I was just joking around, but also I think it points towards how we all inspire and respect each other and our build styles.
Jake: I think building in a collab definitely helps with the creative process. It’s just better to have multiple creative minds working on something rather than just one. We can take little bits from all of our own ideas and make it the best that we possibly can. It’s always fun to see how different we can all envision the exact same concept. Also, just seeing other people building cool stuff gets my inspiration going and makes me want to build better!
Grant: I am definitely going to choose to take a break from collabs or contests for a while now personally, though that may just be because I have gone a couple of years without posting a build just for fun. In general, having other people to collaborate with increases my motivation to get something done! Some of my best work has happened while I have been collaborating with other builders. Eli and I have been blessed to be located really close to each other and have collaborated on many projects over the years. It doesn’t always work though, sometimes as a deadline approaches a partner of the collab struggles to push their creative process to meet that deadline.
Bram: Grant’s video shows how much prep he puts into building his creations. Is this similar for the rest of you? Do you sketch everything up front or do you prefer to just start building?
Hadden: It was very similar for me, I went through five or six rounds of photography before eventually getting to a point I was happy with. As far as conceptualizing goes, I had a basic idea of a swamp and a small sketch Eli drew that kicked off inspiration for what I ended up with. The build process went fairly smoothly—I went through a couple of gate designs as well as redoing the tree a couple of times. Sending WIPs to the group helped exponentially to refine the details.
Eli: Honestly my prep was not as refined or as deep as Grant’s. I tend to have an idea and want to get it into bricks right away. Laboring over every detail of a build obviously has its benefits, but my original take on this collab was more of a run and gun. I do tend to start with a sketch as it helps focus on what the main elements will look like for framing and layout. Then I jump into the build.
I started by doing several iterations of the portal frame until it felt right in “frog scale”, and then I built the landscape and trees around it. After I had a semi-final build I sent it to the chat and got some feedback which helped me fix a few obvious issues and try out potential better modifications suggested by the boys. This part is usually where I struggle the most as I think my vision is usually the best vision (it is not always), but thankfully I’ve been learning to heed feedback—and at least give it a try before I outright dismiss it. On my build, I ended up changing the center of the portal subject from a sword to a cool gem staff because the sword just didn’t feel right according to the group. Low and behold they were right! :)
Jake: I usually don’t do much planning or sketches for my builds. I just have a general idea of what I want to build and then I get to work. If I feel like I’m lacking inspiration, sometimes I'll look at some concept art to see if anything sparks an idea. Once I’m building I like to start by playing around with different color schemes. For the oasis, I knew I wanted to use nougat as a base color for this build as I think it’s a nice vibrant substitute for tans or browns. After I made the base, I started working on the parts that would take up most of the build, like the trees and pillars, and then I filled in the rest from there.
For the trees, I wanted to go for a bubbly cartoony look, so I tried to find some round non-plant pieces to use. While I’m building I try to send as many WIPs as I can to get feedback from other people. That’s probably the most important part of the build process in my opinion. Sometimes when you stare at something for hours while building it, you start to overlook some of the small details that just seem a bit off. Having another opinion always helps me fix things that I would have otherwise missed.
The Lava Lake by Grant
Bram: I agree sometimes it takes someone else to see some of the details after you’ve looked at it for a long while. Speaking of detail, what is your favourite detail in one of your co-builders creations?
Hadden: Tough question, but I think I’ll go with Eli’s relic at the center of his portal—really inspiring parts combo!
Eli: Oh man, I’m tempted to pick one from each. But if I had to choose I would say Hadden’s little dock. It’s just so cute and fits frog-scale perfectly.
Jake: This is really tough to answer. I think we all had some really neat details throughout our builds, but if I had to pick one I would probably say the lava in Grant’s build. It just looks so smooth and cartoony, and I love the way he was able to integrate all the colors and subtle angles.
Grant: My favorite part of the collab is Jake’s trees. The green palette pieces make it really nice and fluffy looking! Love it!
Bram: We’ve sadly come to the end of our journey in this interview, but I have the last and most important question: Will we be seeing more of Fred?
Eli: Maybe! ;)
Jake: Only time will tell…
Grant: Many things in life are meant to remain a mystery...
Bram: I would like to thank all four of you very much for participating in this interview, and I look forward to your future builds! (I will be taking extra care to spot Fred in them, don't worry!)
Where should Fred the Frog travel to next? Leave your ideas in the comments below.
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