Tyler and I are proud to present our second collaborative display called Oasis, built for Brickworld 2011. This 5′ X 7′ project was completed from April to June and contains approximately 25,000 pieces. It was inspired by the idea of a spinning wheel towering above a pool of moving water. The story goes that long after the humans have abandoned their planet and consumed its resources, the robots left behind have created a new paradise from the desert. You can learn more about the backstory by following our teasers.
Like our previous collaboration, Containment, Oasis also features lights, motion, and music. Enjoy the video.
The waving water is pure genius!
Wow, this is amazing! How did you do the movement of the water, thats incredible epic! Can I also ask you which type of camera you are using for your movies. The quality is really fabulous! Thank’s MB
This raises an interesting philosophical question. Would a machine’s vision of paradise be the same as ours? Would the restore the Earth to some prior state, or build it into something we can’t fathom?
And the teasers come together…A beautiful diorama for sure; the animated parts are my favorite.
Nannan, are you guys using TLGs rechargeable battery boxes? If so, how much control over the motors’ RPM does it give you? I have a diorama with the regular battery box and I can’t seem to gear down enough to get the slow speed I want.
I love the combination of high and low tech it really fills the piece with a kind of wonderment.
Wow. The water!
Holy cow. I especially love the Stargate in the middle. :)
Looked at it again. Watched the movie again. Still amazing. I am wondering how the mechanism is made that makes the wheel turn and the water move. Oh and btw: the music of the video is nice too ;-)
Amazing how the water moves. I’m guessing there’s 4×4 blocks, moving up and down on cams. The wheel is madness. I’d have to guess there’s a big cog driving it from under the platform, or maybe two stacks of rotating rubber tires either side, or perhaps a load of them underneath, which would perhaps explain the pause on the missing section of wheel around the 45 second mark… ooh.
Thanks for the comments, a video of the water mechanism will be posted on Tyler’s photostream in two weeks. The motors used were connected to speed regulators so they can be constantly powered. The camera I used is a Canon PowerShot S95.
I am interested in how the water was done also. When I originally watched the video, I was convinced that you’d actually poured real water on top of the trans-blue pieces and that’s why it looked like it was moving (I’ve always wanted to use real water in a Lego construction, but that’s a different conversation). But when I looked at the still photos, it was clear that this was not the case. And I had a friend of mine watch the videos, and she thought it didn’t even remotely look like there was literally real water on it and that I was nuts. So, admittedly, part of my curiosity is based on going back and telling her ‘Ha, I told you there was something going on there.’ But I also just wanna know cause it does look awesome, and unless you guys bring it to BrickFair, I won’t get to see it in person.