Best of BrickNerd - Article originally published February 11, 2022.

When you think of inspiration for LEGO creations, a frequent subject matter comes from the movies. Someone who makes this inspiration come to life in brick form is Thomas Carlier who I have the pleasure of introducing to our BrickNerd community!

There are three things in Thomas' creations that stand out to me: inspiration, his choice of iconic scenes, and his wonderful building composition.

Let’s get to know him and his wonderful creations a bit more.

Ann: Hi, Thomas! We're excited to discuss these great LEGO creations with you! Please, tell us a bit about yourself. What did your passion for LEGO start with?

Thomas: Hi BrickNerd readers! I’m Thomas Carlier, a 23-year-old AFOL. I currently live in Switzerland, but I grew up in France near Paris. I’m a 5th-year medical student and enjoy a lot of things: drawing, digital design, cycling, but above all building MOCs with LEGO bricks. I've been playing with LEGO since I was little, but I seriously started building MOCs around the age of 16. Unlike many other AFOLs, I did not have a Dark Age. I hope it won't happen to me!

I started building my MOCs thanks to the LEGO Ideas platform. I must say, it's a wonderful website that allows you to enhance your construction and presentation skills because you can easily take inspiration from popular creators and analyze their ways of doing things.

Ann: Your Casa Madrigal from the 'Encanto' movie, created with almost 4,000 LEGO bricks, is so beautiful and joyful! Please, tell us about your inspiration from the movie and the story of your brilliant MOC.

Thomas: As you can see on my Instagram page, I love everything about animated films, especially those from Disney-Pixar. Encanto is the perfect movie to be turned into a LEGO creation. The Casa Madrigal is one of the most beautiful pieces created by Disney Animations Studio, and it is also a character on its own (according to the wishes of the directors, Byron Howard and Jared Bush). It's colorful, gigantic, with multiple doors and windows, all decorated with luscious vegetation.

I decided to build the version of Casita from the poster. This one is slightly higher and narrower than the one from the movie. I think this version of Casita looks more impressive and less repetitive. There is no interior at the moment. I do plan to build the rooms of the characters in the future, but I’m currently on other projects that are very time-consuming.

This is a digital model, built out of 4,292 bricks. For sure, I would love to build it in real life, but I feel much freer with digital bricks because there are no restrictions on the piece count. But more so because a lot of the pieces I use are not available in the right color in real life (so it would be very difficult to produce any building instructions for this model as people ask for all the time).

Ann: Your movie vignettes look like complete sets full of interesting details. How long does it take to design and construct one of these buildings?

Thomas: It may vary a lot. Sometimes I feel very inspired and can finish a vignette in an afternoon, sometimes it can take longer. For example, “The Hobbit” vignette was done in an afternoon, just like the one from the movie “Soul”. The creation based on the movie "Luca" took me 4-5 afternoons.

“Encanto” was a bit special. I started it long before the release of the movie, but I stopped working on it because of a lack of free time. I took advantage of my mid-semester break to finish the construction. In the meantime, I had been able to see the film, and I must say it was much more pleasant to build having the songs in mind!

I have a lot of unfinished models—more than twenty. I love starting models, but often I don’t find the time or determination to finish them. So I generally put them aside and sometimes when inspiration strikes again, I open the file again.

Ann: Your 'Back to the Future II' scene deserves individual attention! And what is your favorite vignette?

Thomas: Haha yes. I’m a huge fan of the “Back to the Future” saga and I wanted to give it full credit. The Hill Valley Town square scene is the most iconic moment for me from the second movie. I took several screenshots of the scene to get a 360° view of the square. I had to change a bit of the composition to get the clock tower and the Café 80 on opposing sides. A few days of building and 3,382 bricks later, the vignette was done and I enjoyed the result!

Ann: Would you like to share your process of creating a scene with us? How do you choose a scene from a movie/book, and how many phases do your projects have?

Thomas: The first phase of the process is to list my personal favorite movies/books/themes. I have plenty of things written on that list! But unfortunately, I have to eliminate a lot of them because I can't always find an iconic element of the film/book/theme that could be turned into a LEGO vignette. The creation must be immediately recognizable, and able to fit into a square format.

Once I am done with the first step, I start my photographic research from every angle of the scene to obtain a 3D visualization of the desired room or building. Sometimes one side of the scene is missing so I have to invent it while being faithful to the style of the original work.

Then comes the best part: the building process. I always start by using LEGO Digital Designer: LEGO’s formerly official software which unfortunately is no longer supported by the brand. (I don't think I'm going to switch to Bricklink Stud.io, because I'm much faster in building with LDD and I like the interface.) Then, once the hard part of the work is done, I export it to Mecabricks (an online LEGO construction platform that has the advantage of allowing some illegal constructions techniques not supported by LDD. I then add some accessories to the model and various objects on the ground to make the model more alive and less repetitive.

The most important part after the render remains undoubtedly the post-processing step on Photoshop during which I make colorimetric corrections and add light effects to make everything come alive. I chose the background color that fits with the model, and add some dust and a bit of smoke. This is not the part that I prefer and the reason why I sometimes ask my brother to help photoshop the render! You can check out his Instagram here: @nicolas_builds.

Ann: You seem to really love building things based off animated movies. Do you have any favorite themes or LEGO sets?

Thomas: Definitely Harry Potter. I do not consider myself as a true PotterHead, but I enjoy the saga a lot and the sets produced around this theme are very good. (I really enjoyed the construction of the huge Hogwarts Castle 71043).

I do also like the Indiana Jones sets. Unfortunately, I was very young when the sets came out so I couldn't get every one of them. But I really hope the LEGO Group will release some new sets for the upcoming movie. Fingers crossed!

Finally, the LEGO Ideas theme is definitely in my top three too. The variety of sets and IPs is really enjoyable and there are a lot of new sets coming this year! I'm looking forward to them.

Ann: You’ve submitted quite a few projects. Could you share with us a bit about your LEGO Ideas journey?

Thomas: I have published a lot of LEGO Ideas projects—this was part of my evolution process to enhance my building and presentation skills. My first popular project was based on the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory which collected nearly 4,000 votes. It really boosted me to produce better sets and upgrade my editing techniques. Presentation matters, especially on LEGO Ideas.

But the project that will remain forever etched in my heart is the one based on the animated film “Ratatouille” made up of 3,000 bricks. This was my first project to reach 10,000 votes, and I must say that hitting the 10K milestone after several years on the platform is something very enjoyable! Unfortunately, the project wasn’t selected by the LEGO Ideas team: it was predictable in particular because of the size of the project.

I wanted to try the adventure again with a second version based on the same film, this time using around 1,500 pieces. The project reached 10,000 votes in record time in less than a month! It was really incredible to see the enthusiasm of the community around this creation and it's always a pleasure to read the positive feedback around the project again and again! Unfortunately, the project was also refused. I completely understand this decision, but as a huge fan of this animated movie (my French origins probably play a role), it was a very painful moment.

After creating a multitude of projects based on various intellectual properties, I decided to create an original project for the first time, completely imagined by myself. Taking as a reference popular escape room-type games, I had the idea of creating my own version with LEGO bricks. I therefore started designing an old mystery mansion by including several rooms in which I hid parts and other mechanical elements that allow you to unlock doors.

I have to say, it was one of the most challenging brick experiences of my life. Combining both design and functionality is something very difficult, but today I'm really proud of the result. The project has gathered more than 7,800 votes so far and is still on its way to 10K. Feel free to support it if you like the idea!

Ann: Huge thanks for this interesting conversation, Thomas! I really enjoyed chatting with such a passionate LEGO builder, and we wish you continued inspiration and time to build. I can't wait to see your new masterpiece!

You can see more of Thomas' LEGO art on Instagram and on Flickr.

Would you want to live in LEGO Casa Madragal? Did the MOC of Ratatouille make you hungry? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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