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I'm kinda sad to see S&T die down, and all those grand theory topics about the nature of the MU and such now vanished only into the memories of older members. So I figured I'd pick one of the great unanswered mysteries, see what evidence I could find concerning it, and see where that led me. (Kapura's as much of a mystery as ever, but I don't mind).What exactly protodermis is has been something no one is exactly sure of, because it's so irregular. Most people chalk it up to magic but I, being a science fiction fan, have decided to collate everything we know about protodermis, put into the context of normal science, and then see if anyone here who has a better knowledge of the interaction between real elements can help me figure out exactly what might match those known properties.To clarify, I'm referring to the GB-created stuff, not natural EP.Let's start with the basics. [*]Protodermis is a molecule, not an elemental atom. Evidence to this effect is the fact that the GBs invented protodermis instead of discovering it. (I vaguley remember something about a Greg quote, but until I see the exact wording of it I'm not going to bring that into this.)[*]Protodermis either bonds easily with other molecules or it can assimilate atoms into its molecular structure (as evidenced by its incredibly variant forms that it can take, along with references to "purifying" protodermis in Ga-Metru). I lean toward the first, as assimilation would make the molecule really no longer protodermis, and the process of breaking the molecule to reassemble pure protodermis would be incredibly difficult, even at the level of tech we saw in Metru Nui.[*]There is, in fact, one "true" (or "pure," so to speak) form of proto, because it's processed into pure proto in Ga-Metru.[*]It is very hard to oxidize. Mata Nui's Great Spirit body was seen to have made it through a thousand-year sleep without rusting, instead being covered in mud.Now, I think that we can extrapolate a few things about the pure and impure states of proto. [*]At least one form of impure protodermis has a very low melting point, as we have seen liquid protodermis in Ga-Metru, where (not coincidentally, I think) impure proto is gathered to be purified. It acts exactly like water, and Water Toa can influence it. I suspect that this means that the impure proto found in Ga-Metru is bonded with H2O molecules. I think this means that the frozen proto seen in Ko-Metru is impure as well.[*]Pure protodermis has a very high melting temperature, as evidenced by the lava-like protodermis that we can see in Ta-Metru. It has been stated that pure proto is what Ta-Metru processes to make disks and masks, and therefore it is likely that the stuff that is seen there is pure proto. BS01 suggests that this might actually be the plasma state of protodermis, but I have seen no evidence for that and it doesn't (to my knowledge) really act like plasma, so I disagree with that theory.[*]"Raw" protodermis, I suspect, is also impure protodermis, but bonded with something that has a melting point higher than that of liquid proto, such as dirt. This is because BS01 delineates between raw proto and pure proto, which implies that raw proto is impure. However, it doesn't imitate water like liquid proto does, and therefore is likely bonded to another molecule. Bonesiii said that he recalls something about raw being more impure than liquid proto. If this is, in fact, true, it seems likely that pure protodermis can bond together with solid materials more easily than with liquids, but not to the point of making it unlikely to see liquid proto.So, what's in a protodermis molecule? [*]Iron. We can say this for fairly certain because an Iron Toa can create and use solid protodermis, as well as natural wrought iron.[*]An unknown element with a high melting point. See my reasoning about molten protodermis for this.[*]An unknown factor which causes natural crystal lattices in protodermis. This is what results in lightstones and their close cousin, heatstones. This form of proto also seems to be very conducive to storing energy.It is possible that Iron is merely another element which is bonded to proto, but BS01 says that Iron Toa can maniulate pure proto. That being said, I'm willing to cede the point if I'm disproved.There are two other forms of protodermis that need to be addressed. One is protosteel, and the other is organic protodermis.Protosteel is likely a form of impure protodermis with a higher-than-normal amount of carbon and iron (and possibly other things like titanium), causing a much more resilient form of proto.Organic protodermis is fairly simple to explain: it's just organic cells built of of protodermis molecules instead of their real-world counterparts.Energized protodermis, being entirely divorced from normal protodermis, I have little idea about. Bonesiii suggests that the Great Beings failed to mimick an "energized" form of protodermis which gave them artificial proto instead of EP, and the modification of proto beings that EP seems capable of doing is simple the energy in EP being converted into extra mass to modify the subject.
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There are a couple of important guidelines to building and showing off a good MOC here on BZP (or anywhere online; MOCs in person are harder). Bolded sentences are the main points. Read the paragraphs for more detail. It all boils down to what looks good and what does not. MOCing is a subjective art, just like any other art, but there are a few things that I think can be agreed are widely agreed upon as important. Know your Parts. Take a look at this MOC (ToM Dracone's "Chloros"). Notice how there's a recurring motif of ridges on the parts? Take a look at the Metru leg used on the feet, and compare those notches to the ones found on the Metru armor on the leg, to the piece used on the thighs, to the bits used as barrels for the gun, to the Metru armor on the shoulder, even to the base of the antennae. A similar pattern makes the pieces used look like they belong together, even if they were designed years apart. Using a technique like this means that you have to KNOW your parts well, and that comes from practice. Lots of practice. "Custom" matter less than aesthetics. MOCing is about looking good, and it matter less how do it than if you actually do it. Take a look at this MOC. That's built on an Inika body, and features little custom. It still looks supremely awesome. It still looks MUCH better than either of these two MOCs, both with custom bodies (both mine lol). With that said, custom builds do tend to come about as a result of knowing your pieces well, and knowing how parts fit together. Choose your Colors Wisely. I would say that in terms of BIONICLE, there are 2 "base" or "primary" colors: Black and White. Grey is sort of the in-between that can be used even under those. What do I mean? You can layer pretty much any other color on top of those and it will look half-decent, regardless of build quality. Think about it. I'm not going to point at any MOC in particular; pick pretty much anything from the galleries I link below and you'll see what I mean. Standard combinations include Gold/Black, Gold/White, Blue/Black, Blue/White, Green/Black, Red/White, etc. Note that Black and White can be used as "main" colors, but when those two are combined in one creation, you will run into other problems on the photography side of things. Also note that your base does not have to be black OR white; as long as you stay consistent and it looks good, your base can be, for example, red, accented with black. Choose colors that look well together. The problems is, "look well" is a subjective term. It's all on you to make a color combination work. Usually shades of colors go well with each other, such as Red/Orange, Mata Blue/Sand Blue, Mata Green/Lime Green, Brown/Tan. Limit the amount of colors you use. I mentioned above that grey is almost more fundamental than Black or White, and that's because, if used well, you can layer a MOC so the "skeleton" is grey, above that is black/white, and above that is your chosen color. At the same time, if you are planning on accenting your chosen color with something else, count 'em, there are then 4 colors on the MOC. That leads to a lot of competition and your MOC will look way too busy. When accenting, there is too much of a good thing. Let's say you've got your base color and a couple of secondary colors. In this example, our base is grey and our secondary colors would be black and white. The accents (i.e. the eyes) are the only bits of red on the MOC. If there were bits of red sprinkled throughout -- a habit I used to fall into when I was younger -- then the MOC becomes too busy, too messy, for it to look coherent. In this example, the base is black, the secondaries are keetorange and grey. The accents are green, but the green only shows up in places where it makes sense. Long story short, keep your MOC to 4 colors or less, and when you have 4 colors, use the fourth sparingly. Now, you can put together a great MOC, but if I can't see it properly, well, then it's not that great after all. Your photography is extremely important. It's the only way people are going to see the creation you want to show off. Pick almost any MOC from the galleries below, or from the gallery of any really strong MOCist, and you'll see that the pictures are quite minimalist. There aren't any household stuffs in the background; usually the background is one solid color. And that color tends to be the color NOT used as the base color (i.e. if the base is white, then the background is black, like this, and if the base is black, then the background is white, like this.). Hiding flaws is good. Go back and look at that second poorly done custom body MOC (the white one way up near the top, in the section about custom builds). I hid that horrible body with a cloak. Better, but now there's no detail. Take a look at this gallery. Notice how there are no shots of what's going on inside the top portion? That's because if you removed those plates of armor, it would look pretty ugly. So if you MOC looks bad from a certain angle, don't show that! When you are the photographer, and the pictures are the only way we're going to see the MOC, only show what you want to. Overall, you need three things: 1. Use your pieces wisely. Know them, and know them well. Know how they fit together, know what works and what doesn't. Know which ones look similar and which ones don't. Know them well enough, and custom builds (if that's what you want) will come naturally. 2. Use your colors wisely. Limit yourself to three main colors, accentuate with a forth SPARINGLY. If your third color is the accent, even better! (You should still use it sparingly though ) 3. Take good pictures. You can have the best MOC in the world, but if no one can see it properly, it won't matter. In addition, if the back of the creation doesn't look that good, you don't have to take a picture of it. ----- MOC Creds go to Brickeens (Brickshelf: "Brickeens" and "BrickeensBZP") and ToM Dracone (Brickshelf: "MuffinToa")
