Burnout Incarnate: Final Phase
The amalgamation of late-night building sessions and imposter syndrome, it seeks to take down all contestants. In a last-ditch effort, it has taken on the twisted form of a certain cup...
Bio-cup finals… honestly surprised I made it this far. It’s been quite the summer, but before I can take a long-needed break, one last build remains. For the final theme, the other finalists and I were tasked with building a “Final Boss”. As someone who plays quite a bit of JRPGs, I knew I wanted to create a boss reminiscent of something you would find in those games. For those unfamiliar, it is a common trope to fight some sort of god as the final boss. Before I explain more of this though, let’s flashback to round 3 for a second.
During the last round, I had begun to experience some burnout, particularly during the latter half. There were many, many thoughts of, “I really do not want to do this anymore”. With these lingering feelings of burnout carrying over to this final round, I decided that the concept of burnout would make for the perfect final boss - after all, it is truly the final obstacle between me even submitting something or just giving up. With the underlying concept of burnout for the MOC, I then went about trying to tie in the JRPG boss tropes. Typically, these final bosses are twisted humanoids and can have many interesting qualities such as multiple faces, multiple bodies, stacked bodies, etc…. For this MOC, I drew inspiration from the designs of several bosses in the Octopath series (Bestower of All, Lyblac, Vide) as well as the upper portion of Bizarro Sephiroth / Sephiroth Reborn from FFVII.
I first began with the upper figure, Sheer Frustration. I had come across this artwork of artistic burnout, which gave me the idea to make a head as if it were on fire. From last round, I had been watching and reading some media about monster design, and one of the things that was interesting was the importance of the mouth and how much expression can be made here. I put emphasis on the teeth by using multiple barb pieces, and used energy wisps to shape the mouth as if it were screaming. I decided to not go for any eyes so that all the attention would be on the expression of the mouth. From here, I referenced some human muscular anatomy to create the rest of the figure. I used only black as it fit the darker theme of the figure while also having a wider part selection to work with. And of course, I added a sneaky Nuva mask into the torso - I’m 3 out of 5 this year on Nuva mask usage.
Following my video game boss references, I wanted another head; this time a very detailed face. However, I wanted the expression to contrast Frustration. Throughout Bio-cup, there have been some very late-night building sessions, and I’m sure many contestants can relate to just feeling dead inside. With this idea, I settled on a light-bluish gray color scheme and a more sculpture/statue like appearance for the face. I felt that both of these contribute to the idea of being drained of life. Furthermore, by having Frustration emerge from this character (Soul of Emptiness), it connected both of my emotions during Bio-Cup - the sleep deprived exterior and the frustrated interior (when things aren’t going well).
Now, for every round this year I have been building creatures. It was quite the jump in difficulty from creature to human face. Needless to say, I struggled a lot with this section, but I also learned a great bit. To try and get the proportions right, I used what artists used, which was the rule of thirds vertically and rule of fifths horizontally for the eyes, nose, and mouth positions. Additionally, as this is the 3-D medium of Lego, I had to worry about my textures and making sure everything was smooth. Then, there was the challenge of introducing the right lines in the face, particularly in the mouth section. The frowning expression is reliant on the line created by the two Technic macaroni assemblies, and introducing any further lines would muddy that section. However, human faces have a slight groove (philtrum) between the mouth and nose, and getting that detail was imperative to making the mouth read correctly. I used some modified 2x2 curved slopes for the groove, but then had some ugly studs to deal with. By using the sharper, angular slopes, I found a solution in hiding those studs as well as maintaining the line differentiation for the mouth.
Designing the eyes and nose were not nearly as difficult as the mouth, but still were not easy. The eyes use a ball turret socket usually found in Star Wars sets. It’s quite the strange piece but had a unique curvature compared to regular dome pieces. The nose uses an engine for the main structure. Additional bars and barbs are used for the triangular shaping, and then an Imperial helmet (also from Star Wars) is used to round off the tip. I’m quite happy with this part usage as I had previously used a regular dome, which was ever so slightly off shape.
While designing the head, I started to notice that it resembled a goblet. From here, all the ideas tied together - this would be the Bio-Cup… or some twisted version of it. Everything felt thematically appropriate. Burnout as a deity embodying the cup - truly a final boss for this contest. I added in the handle by running axles through the Technic wheels; however, this was still very unstable and the cup kept leaning forward. To mitigate this, I added in some boat weights and weight bricks behind the face. Lastly, I spammed almost every constraction flame piece I could find to frame the cup and solidify the burnout theme.
This was by far the most difficult build I’ve made for Bio-Cup, and definitely up there for difficult builds in general. The cup face was such a struggle, and while I don’t think it’s perfect, I think it’s a pretty damn good effort. I guess since this is the last round and all, might as well go big or go home… with at least some guaranteed prizes for being a finalist. In all seriousness though, it’s been a fun summer. I’m glad I got to achieve one of my goals of even making it to the finals of this competition, and I definitely made some of my favorite builds along the way. I don’t know when I’ll be building my next MOC as for now, I need some rest. I’m finally free…
