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Helryx Canister Design


Humble_Matoran

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Hey Bionicle community! I’ve been watching & reading BZ Power content for a while now but as this is my first post, I just want to say it’s an honor to be here & it’s a great community to be a part of with so much great content!

So based on the title of this post I’m sure you all can figure out what it’s about. Like the rest of us, I’m super hyped about this new TTV canon contest, and I really want to participate. However, I’ve never been the most phenomenal at Bionicle MOCs, so I thought I’d take a different direction – the canisters!

Obviously canisters, at least in Bionicle G1, were a big part of the Bionicle universe, & I think as we’re doing this canon character contest and having things verified as canon, it would be cool for them to come with canisters (lots of words that start with C I know). I’d really like to design & create these canisters, & I’m willing to do it for each & every contest that will be held. (Just a sidenote: I’m also open to creating boxes if the “set” requires it, but I’m more passionate about the canisters)

The reason why I like to do this is two-fold - 1, because of my passion for Bionicle, & 2, because of my passion for design. From a young age I always loved to build and create, & that’s actually what I went to college for! I’m proud to say that I have a degree in product design with a solid skill set around CAD and 3-D printing, sketching, model making, & general design principles. I’d really like to utilize the skills & sort of give back to the Bionicle community.

As far as how this would work, personally I think it would work best to design the canister after each character is finished, just to help me tie it in together (to the character/mask) and also let the original MOCist do their work without me influencing it. I would love to even make the actual canisters & gift them to the winners & maybe even send some to TTV to review on their YouTube channel as a set.

And obviously I’m open to any ideas the community might have for how I could go about structuring/creating these canisters! So long story short: I’d like to join the TTV cannon contest by creating canisters for each character & then sending them out to the winners & TTV. I would love to get in contact with Greg & the cast members to make this official, but I’m not sure exactly how (if anyone knows, please let me know. Update- I did send Eljay a message). I’m really looking forward to the opportunity of working with such a great community.

Anyways, that’s a lot of text. But please, let me know your thoughts & comments about this idea! I'll be using this thread to post my progress photos, which are also on the TTV message boards (obviously lol), Reddit, & Instagram (all with the same username). 

My first round of sketches is posted below. Please please please give feedback! I would love to know how I can improve this design as I go through the process. 

I’d love to hear from you guys & I would value your input greatly. Let’s continue to keep the legend of Bionicle alive! #Unity #Duty #Destiny1950804595_IMG_3618copy.thumb.JPG.851e3df6c4283636d26989a5e720dca2.JPG

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  • 1 month later...

Helryx Canister Design mini-update 1

Got some orders in the mail recently for this project! I’ll open them soon for all to see…

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On 10/22/2020 at 7:14 PM, Xboxtravis said:

Looks at canister sketches...

Okay Faber you can drop the user name now, we know its you. :biggrin:

Just kidding on the Faber thing, but those rough canister sketches do have a very early Bionicle concept art vibe to them which I am digging! 

Haha thank you for the kind words:D I appreciate the support! Really trying to go 'old-skool' since Helryx is so early in the Bionicle timeline, so I'm glad to hear its starting to hit the mark.

 

On 10/24/2020 at 12:25 PM, Distorted said:

Interesting stuff. If you haven't already, go check out the various style guide PSDs at the BioMedia Project; you get to see the various layers that make up box/canister art and it's pretty fascinating.

wow. I just started to look around a little bit at these and they are EPIC:OMG:thanks so much for telling me about them, I haven't heard too much about this media type yet - but now that I know about it, I'll be referencing it as much as possible throughout my design process (and even getting my hands on some if thats even a possibility....)

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IMG_9766.JPG

Okay, some of this might read a little weird because I posted this on the TTV message boards about a week ago (@ names are for TTV member feedback), but with this now my BZ Power thread is all caught up to my TTV thread:

Hey all! First off, I am very sorry about the delay - as some of you know, a few of my co-workers got covid (both recovered now praise the Lord :)), which meant I had to take on their responsibilities and therefore didn’t have as much time to work on this as I wanted. But they are back now, and I can spend time on the real priorities haha. I appreciate all of your patience with me.

Helryx Canister Design Update #2!

I really didn’t want to rush this. I want to do it right. Therefore, I am still in the idea exploration phase and am not ruling out any ideas that pop into my head yet. This is how I was taught product design, so I’m simply defaulting to it during this process.IMG_2867.JPG

A couple of my thoughts:
I think this canister should be (relatively) simple. Since Helryx is the first Toa, and she deals heavily with the Mata, it seems fitting.

 

I have also developed a list of design criteria to help influence the project. They are as follows:

  1. “Dome”-shaped lid (based on early Bionicle artwork, this seems fitting. @Count_Pewku @akirk47 striving for that early ‘prototype’ look)
  2. Smooth canister main body (for display wrapping - @Eilrach this is probably where a picture of some sort will go)
  3. Mask display (this was suggested by @GX_05, and I really like this idea. I’m not sure exactly how its going to play out yet, but I do want the mask displayed in some fashion, especially since it was part of the contest)
  4. Logo resin disc (you’ll have to wait to hear more about this ;))

Not an end-all be-all list yet, but I am going to try to stick to these. If you have any further suggestions, feel free to post in the commentsIMG_0997.PNGIMG_0998.PNG

I’m still going super wide with these sketches, & purposely not narrowing it down yet. Each sketch is a new idea, so I’d love your feedback! I enjoy incorporating your ideas into this, and it gives me something to go towards when my mind goes blank haha.

An idea was mentioned by @Kanohi_Cantri to give a nod to Daxia in this design. I really like this, so I thought of an outline of the island on the bottom of the canister (sort of ‘foundational’ vibes).

Another idea was to make this canister compatible with others (@Lesnichiy). I’m having a bit of trouble with this tbh, and she is kind of a unique Toa… still giving it a shot though

Screen Shot 2020-10-22 at 1.56.41 PM.png

This was suggested by reddit user Pirate_Puma on r/bioniclelego - having a set of guidelines (as there will be many more of these to come). I really like this idea. These are not hard rules yet and obviously not fully flushed out, but I’d love input on this as well.

Oh I almost forgot, but as you can see the Bricklink parts are for my canon Helryx, who I * almost * have all the parts for :rolleyes:cannot wait to see her standing next to her canister!

I’m really enjoying this process :DI have so many ideas, I cannot wait to see the final product. I’m going to be able to post much more regularly now - hoping to have at least 1 more page of sketches up by this weekend.

Well, thats enough of me talking. I hope you like the project so far. Please please please leave your comments, questions, and criticism. It really helps me make this the best it can be. (haven't done any exploration of comments from this BZ thread yet simply because these sketches were done before the comments were posted - but rest assured I will in the next round of sketches!)

HM

  • edit * : canister guideline #3 should say FIT the theme, not fix the theme
Edited by Humble_Matoran

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6 hours ago, Humble_Matoran said:

IMG_9766.JPG

Okay, some of this might read a little weird because I posted this on the TTV message boards about a week ago (@ names are for TTV member feedback), but with this now my BZ Power thread is all caught up to my TTV thread:

Hey all! First off, I am very sorry about the delay - as some of you know, a few of my co-workers got covid (both recovered now praise the Lord :)), which meant I had to take on their responsibilities and therefore didn’t have as much time to work on this as I wanted. But they are back now, and I can spend time on the real priorities haha. I appreciate all of your patience with me.

Helryx Canister Design Update #2!

I really didn’t want to rush this. I want to do it right. Therefore, I am still in the idea exploration phase and am not ruling out any ideas that pop into my head yet. This is how I was taught product design, so I’m simply defaulting to it during this process.IMG_2867.JPG

A couple of my thoughts:
I think this canister should be (relatively) simple. Since Helryx is the first Toa, and she deals heavily with the Mata, it seems fitting.

 

I have also developed a list of design criteria to help influence the project. They are as follows:

  1. “Dome”-shaped lid (based on early Bionicle artwork, this seems fitting. @Count_Pewku @akirk47 striving for that early ‘prototype’ look)
  2. Smooth canister main body (for display wrapping - @Eilrach this is probably where a picture of some sort will go)
  3. Mask display (this was suggested by @GX_05, and I really like this idea. I’m not sure exactly how its going to play out yet, but I do want the mask displayed in some fashion, especially since it was part of the contest)
  4. Logo resin disc (you’ll have to wait to hear more about this ;))

Not an end-all be-all list yet, but I am going to try to stick to these. If you have any further suggestions, feel free to post in the commentsIMG_0997.PNGIMG_0998.PNG

I’m still going super wide with these sketches, & purposely not narrowing it down yet. Each sketch is a new idea, so I’d love your feedback! I enjoy incorporating your ideas into this, and it gives me something to go towards when my mind goes blank haha.

An idea was mentioned by @Kanohi_Cantri to give a nod to Daxia in this design. I really like this, so I thought of an outline of the island on the bottom of the canister (sort of ‘foundational’ vibes).

Another idea was to make this canister compatible with others (@Lesnichiy). I’m having a bit of trouble with this tbh, and she is kind of a unique Toa… still giving it a shot though

Screen Shot 2020-10-22 at 1.56.41 PM.png

This was suggested by reddit user Pirate_Puma on r/bioniclelego - having a set of guidelines (as there will be many more of these to come). I really like this idea. These are not hard rules yet and obviously not fully flushed out, but I’d love input on this as well.

Oh I almost forgot, but as you can see the Bricklink parts are for my canon Helryx, who I * almost * have all the parts for :rolleyes:cannot wait to see her standing next to her canister!

I’m really enjoying this process :DI have so many ideas, I cannot wait to see the final product. I’m going to be able to post much more regularly now - hoping to have at least 1 more page of sketches up by this weekend.

Well, thats enough of me talking. I hope you like the project so far. Please please please leave your comments, questions, and criticism. It really helps me make this the best it can be. (haven't done any exploration of comments from this BZ thread yet simply because these sketches were done before the comments were posted - but rest assured I will in the next round of sketches!)

HM

  • edit * : canister guideline #3 should say FIT the theme, not fix the theme

Really looking forward to your project! I'm very curious to learn more about your canister designs for Helryx! Did you print those posters from BioMediaProject? Those ones on your bedroom wall?

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On 10/30/2020 at 7:57 AM, bohrokmaster said:

Really looking forward to your project! I'm very curious to learn more about your canister designs for Helryx! Did you print those posters from BioMediaProject? Those ones on your bedroom wall?

Thank you! I'm going to be posting all along the process, so stay tuned! 

As far as the art on the wall, I got most of it from the Faber Files, besides the Helryx images (obviously) & the top left 'thingy' haha, which is an image I took. I like to look at those images for inspiration - soon I may add/replace with some different ones, maybe from the '08 era as some have suggested 

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Helryx Canister Design Update #3!

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More sketches! I have added another page of exploratory ideas to this process - would love more feedback, & thank you to all who have provided some thus far.

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Still striving for an old skool design language here B-). I’m starting to have some ideas in my head for what this might officially turn out to be…

Getting some of these shapes not only from the mood board I have up but also from pieces of Helryx, most notably the mata head, foot, and robo rider head.

Let me know what you guys think! Would love feedback as I progress through this design process!

Also, I’ve taken another look at my guidelines:Screen Shot 2020-11-08 at 11.55.09 PM.png

I really want to push the artwork as the display portion on the canister, since it was equally as much a part of the contest as the moc portion was. These are just rough ideas at this point for how to go about that. I’d also like to include some sort of booklet with a bit of the ‘story of the contest’, if you will. I feel like it could be a nice touch for those who want a canister, & a nod to many of the good designs that didn’t win. I also feel like it can really showcase the Bionicle (or Bonkle) community. Let me know what you think!

 

My next steps will be to sketch some designs inspired by the '08 year/theme. I’ve had a fair amount of people say this is pretty relevant to Helryx, so I’m going to see what happens!
I know originally I said I wanted this to last the duration of the Artakha contest, so that when his contests were done I could start right on him, but obviously I got a little delayed in the beginning…oops haha. I’m still going to finish in as much of a timely manner as possible, but I really don’t want to rush this and I’d rather take my time and do it right. Thanks all for being patient with me during this process!
And as always, any feedback/comments/critique is ALWAYS appreciated :):happydance:

HM

 
Edited by Humble_Matoran

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  • 2 weeks later...

Helryx Canister Design mini-update #2!IMG_4597.jpg

As many of you have suggested, I will be taking some inspiration from the '08 era & Karda Nui landscape/area(s) - these images are going up on the mood board :hyper:. Thank you so much for your suggestions! I know this is taking a little longer than usual but I appreciate the interest, support, and constant feedback.

 

Also, this is going to be one of the last round of broad ideation sketching - after this, I will be focusing on narrowing down on a few solid ideas & eventually one final concept for the canister. If you’ve been following along (or haven’t :turn:) & want to make some suggestions before things narrow down, now’s your chance! Thank you to all who have done so - I can’t wait to see how this turns out!

Edited by Humble_Matoran
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  • 2 weeks later...
On 11/20/2020 at 6:25 PM, bohrokmaster said:

This might be way too early; but would you use the contest winner's art as the canister sleeve? That would be cool!:happydance:

I can almost guarantee this will happen haha. Especially since, technically, that is the official representation for each character. Moc art will be show in the instructions and possibly the back of the canister (haven't decided yet tbh)

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Helryx Canister Design Update #4!

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oooh yes, yet another round of canister sketches! (I promise we are nearing the end of just sketching and will soon get on to more stages of the project - you have my word)

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(sorry for the glaring light here :blink:) As you can see on the updated mood board, lots of these new sketches (the 2 pages shown above) take most of their inspiration from 2008/Cordex/Karda Nui.

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Because of this, the sketches became more angular, which was a nice change of pace for me. I also focused on iterating the top of the canister from a different angle, which is the right side of the page. (yes, I tried a “logo” at the top…not super in love with it tbh :P:dozingoff:)

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As far as broad exploration goes for this canister, I’m about done. I’m going to do just one more page, to try to consolidate any ideas form 2001 and 2008 that can be merged, & also to get out any final ideas. After that, it will be basically no more new ideas for sketches, just consolidating all of the previous ideas into 3 (or so) main concepts to further evaluate.

 

As always, please let me know your thoughts - half of these sketches wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for people giving me tips/ideas on different directions for this.

That final exploration sketch page will be up very soon. Until then, I look forward to hearing from all of you!

HM

 

Edited by Humble_Matoran
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  • 2 weeks later...

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The Mask of Psychometry! Taking a little break from sketching posts to show off this kanohi.

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This is not the version of the kanohi that will come with the canister. I just needed one on hand for design work - to get a sense of shape & size as I begin to move from sketching to 3D prototyping (finally :glare:) Obviously the quality is a bit low for now. Nonetheless, its a really cool design! Of course, all credit goes to @Mister-N for the design, & @Galva_Nize for the 3D model (TTV usernames).
Some more shots & specs for those interested:

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This kanohi was ordered on Shapeways, as ‘Blue Processed Versatile Plastic’. (The stand is just a very simple mod from Mask Maker vs. Skull Grinder set).

More updates coming soon!

HM

 

 

 

Edited by Humble_Matoran
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  • 2 months later...

Helryx Canister Design mini-update 4 - seeking instructions!

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Hey y’all! Hope everyone is having a great start to 2021!

I am continuing on this Helryx canister project, & am excited to share the next couple updates.2.png

However, no Bionicle set would be complete without instructions, & this is no exception! I have what I think is a pretty good stud.io build of Helryx, with a complete parts inventory & instructions. However, I’ve seen several different stud.io files/instructions floating around for Helryx, & I want to make sure mine is as accurate as possible. If you think you have an accurate (or even close) version, please let me know or get in touch with me to compare - I’d really like to get this perfect, & I know there are people more experienced than me doing this. Your help is much appreciated! :D

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Stay tuned, more updates coming next week!

 

HM

 

Edited by Humble_Matoran
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  • 8 months later...

Helryx Canister Design Update #5!
Finally, we are nearing the end! Without further delay, here is another update!

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Here are the final 3 concepts from which the canister will be formed, in order of least to most favorited by me (all of these revolve around the idea of being able to display the Mask of Psychometry with the lid):

1.) Dome

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This concept stays fairly basic, while adding some design elements to make the shape a bit more interesting.

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It has potential, and definitely is the most similar to the mata canisters of old.

2.) Square

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This concept really tries to use sharp lines and shapes to give a ‘foundational feel’ to this canister, tying into the theme of the backstory of Helryx.

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I am particularly fond of some of the shaping potential of the sketches, and it is definitely a unique shape for a canister lid.

3.) Kini-Nui

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This design is by far my favorite of the 3. I love the shaping of this design, and I feel the potential to display the mask is very exciting.

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I personally think that the Kini-Nui ties into the character of Helryx very well, and looks much more like a canister that would fit her.

 

I’m pretty excited to finally  :turn: see this coming together! I have had lots of fun working on this project, and I cannot wait to get to a final product. Please let me know your thoughts!

NOTE - please check my Instagram for a video shot of each of these concepts; I think it adds a little more depth than text and images :)

I’ll be back with another update very soon! :D

HM

 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Helryx Canister Design mini-update 6

 

Here are resin 3D-prints based on the 3 lid designs (finally have my own resin printer :D)

Kini-Nui:

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Square:

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Dome:

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Very happy with the resin print quality. The Helryx Set is almost here!

HM

 

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Helryx Canister Design Final Update!

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Well folks, here we are! This has been a long time coming and I am so glad to have a finished Helryx set I am very proud of.

A few details about the canister:

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This canister is resin printed in a translucent light blue, and I could not be happier with how this turned out. It uses a pretty basic threading system (very similar to the mata canisters) to attach the lid to the body.

 

The sleeve features several things, including the official artwork, official moc, and a few other things. Currently the plan is to use some spray adhesive to attach it, although this one is attached using tape.

The mask on this particular model is also a resin print, and painted using spray paint that has been color-matched to mata blue (or at least extremely close).

In the background you can see a few things as well. The poster is laminated, and flanked by spiral bound color-printed instructions on the right and a spiral-bound artbook on the left, which gives some details about the Helryx and her process of canonization.

I always wanted this to feel like an actual set of Helryx, like we were getting a new Bionicle set after so long. I think it is safe to say that I have achieved this goal and for that I am very happy. I cannot thank you all enough for the constant feedback that has helped me design this set. I will probably fail to mention everyone who has helped me, but a special thanks goes out to Natetromino, Yoshi, Vahki6, KingSidorak, Kodiak, Synnova, and VootCaboot for making this a reality. I know I am no doubt forgetting people and I will definitely edit this post and add them in after I comb through my notes.

Also, this Helryx canister set coincides with the releasing of the Metru Nui Market! If you want to check it out, click on this link or check out www.metrunuimarket.com 

Yet another note: I would be remised not to mention the terrible irony that the completion of this set falls on the same day Greg has announced he will be leaving Lego. Lots of mixed emotions for sure, but I just want to take the time and say that he will be missed as a Lego employee, and I am forever grateful for the work he did in creating a theme that was such a big part of my childhood as well as so many others. The theme will always live on through the fans, and my prayers to out to Greg and his family.

edit: I have been a bit rushed this week due to work and haven’t been able to take the right amount or highest quality of photos that I think this project deserves. I will be updating this post this upcoming Sunday with some more in-depth and higher-quality photos

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