You know, I find most Lego cities to be an incomprehensible mess of multicolored plastic crammed with minifigures. Yours however is an exception. Your attention to realism and cohesion brings the build to a whole other level.
With real-life model cities, there is an incentive to cram more detail, narratives, easter eggs etc into the space, rather than enlarging the city itself. Constraints on cost and room space are hard to overcome. Also, the larger the layout is, the harder it is to transport-say to a convention.
Your city project is the pinnacle of what a lego city could be. I cant put my finger on how you do it, but I can confidently say you're doing an amazing job.
I have followed this digital Lego series from the start (and I love it) - and yet I still catch myself thinking about all these practical concerns like "I wonder how he'll carry that to a convention" or "that must have been so annoying to build". I think that speaks volumes about how masterfully realistic you've made your renders!
I absolutely love the aesthetic of your city. Seeing structures that actually show wear and tear feels so refreshing. And the verticality really allows for so much visual interest.
I love that the city is a fusion of Asian, European, and North American. That sort of thing might seem odd in a more realistic format, but its perfect for Lego!
Loving the added wild overgrowth and disrepair look of the old spaces. You have a great eye for the smallest of details. The added mechanicals on the corrugated walls is a great addition to that building. Looking forward to the next update.
Your channel is such an inspiration. Only 10 videos in and you have created something much more expansive and interesting than other channels with years, tons of money, and vast open space have ever achieved. The different levels, the conceptual design, bespoke random details much better than those who literally have made 100+ videos moving official modulars around ad nauseam. Take as much time as you need for design. Quality is more important than quantity. When I see new videos on your channel it is an instant watch and even more importantly rewatch.
I admire the 'translation' from your vision of what you want to build, the research and then how you execute it. It's truly wonderful and there is no doubt in my mind that you are one of the most talented and unique Lego builders!
please keep putting as much love and soul into every nook and cranny of your city. It will take wayyy longer to make visible progress, but I think all of us are in the for the long haul. It looks fantastic; If I was a billionaire, I would buy all the lego pieces and build this 1000%
This is fantastic! the attention to detail is incredible, I use to have an industrial area visible by apartment window and this is so reminiscent of it.
This is crazy cool, man. I clicked this without really paying full attention and the camera work and graphics made me think it was real for a solid minute. Really interesting project.
Really big fan of the series so far! It's really cool how the digital medium allows for a scale and color palette that would be much harder to pull off with real bricks, and it wonderfully accents your building style. The rendering itself is also impressive, I'm hoping to pick up some tips in the behind the scenes video.
absolutely brilliant mate, and just what I've been looking for! I love how realistic it all looks, and how much thought you clearly put into it, bravo.
My new conspiracy theory is that this is all being built with real lego bricks after all and being filmed for real, including the seemingly impossible shots like from inside the clearly completely blocked in and covered canal tunnel. Because that much dedication to the bit would be funny.
This city has so faithfully and lovingly captured the look and feel of ugly dilapidated industrial areas that I get the smell of metal filings and old grease in my nose just looking at it.
Wow, you really have some tremendous details on the those buildings! Your reference pictures suited you well and these actually remind me of how some expensive toy train model kits look when painted very carefully. I haven't built many buildings yet, but I always use reference pictures as a start for train cars... and also more commonly I use the HO and N scale train cars I had as a kid to inspire the build, just as you did for the wheel stoppers. Great work! Subscribed!
As always, your videos are absolutely fantastic and scratch a brain itch I had no idea I even had. The canal is one of those things that I would have never even thought of, but it's perfect history building for your city! It reminds me of the canal that runs through the city I went to university in (except this one's in a bit more disrepair). I keep having to remind myself that everything in here is digital and not real, but when the train rolled in at 5:40, it completely ruined my suspension of suspension of disbelief. In other words, I wrapped all the way around to seeing it as being real again. Thank you so so much for making these, and I'm so excited to see what you cook up next.
These videos are incredible -i love the builds and I know the amount of time it takes to build stuff like this -then the rendering and video editing is insane!!
The back of the plastic factory looks way better with the details you added. Maybe the brick factory chimneys could have the same treatment ? They look a bit monotonous to me. Great job overall, you're one of the best lego builders I know !
What a coincidence, I just watched the new wallace and grommit movie on netflix, and there's a narrow waterway boat "chase" in it, based on the exact inspiration for yours!
Yes! Love seeing my home Birmingham represented! Did you see any videos of Geowizard’s exploring the canals here? They’d probably be useful if you haven’t seen them already.
Most amazing Lego city. Hands down. Will you add height / elevation at any point? Canals with elevation use lock systems, which are very interesting visually. Excited to see your developments
hi, thanks! Yeah I intend to add a lock system somewhere on the other side of the big brown building. I think it'll be pretty interesting looking too ..
Can't find a photo you previously found? Felt that in my soul. I'm still not great about it but I try to always save any kind of reference like photos. Looking good though man, becoming quite the layout now.
It's always great seeing these pop up in my feed. Any way I could convince you to do a larger overview of the city at the end of the videos? It'd be great to see how it integrates and fits into the scene
There were canals with narrow boats (work boat ones) in the U.S. it just here when trains took over they became completely obsolete and most were completely removed and or built over the Erie canal here has some of the house boat like ones like Foxes afloat had but either way this city looks amazing and it's your city if you want a canal with narrow boats then do it
@CanosieLabs it's funny is I legit stumbled on to cruising the cut and foxes aflot and ended up building a working boat narrow boat and while looking at boats I seen a page talking about there are a few canals still here in the states that survived
@CanosieLabs cruising the cut he did a video on board of a still active working boat that sells propain and coal to boaters if you like narrow boats I would 100% look into it
@tylerdunning7363 thanks! I actually binged watched most of cruising the cut video's and know which one you are talking about lol it is interesting to see those working boats still working...
I'm not sure about the history of plastics, although I believe during World War II there was some form of early plastics manufactured; possibly even plexiglass, for example those bomber clear nose pieces and the clear covers for the gun turrets, etc.
hi, you are right, they had early plastics back then in the WW2 era. I did hear they used plexiglass in aircraft too. I was thinking my canal stub was older than WW2, maybe turn of the century or something like that.
broooo. i like your series. how do you render it all though? do you use regular modelling program or something more lego specified?? also like the storyline with the boss xddd
hi, Thanks! I make the Lego structures in Bricklink Studio, which is a program to build digital Lego builds Ie, it has a interface to select lego parts, select colors, etc. However, for the rendering, I import that file into Blender and do all the rendering and build my city layout in there.
The ending shot of that tanker car being rolled down the stub and it's jostling a bit from the uneven track pieces? But you did that as a render??? If I had not read the video description on the first one of these I watched, I would have absolutely no clue this was cgi. Really goes to show that cgi isn't the problem in modern movies, it's rushed production.
Hi, yeah, I added a slight jostling of the fright cars as they roll down the track to simulate uneven track. It's not based on the geometry of the track, but based on a noise texture. If you are interested, I made a video full showing more trains running on my digital layout - eps 7, "Train Operations". It shows more of that subtle jostling.
thanks! yeah, the coupler is a kadee type coupler. A lot of the Lego train community switch out the Lego round magnet type to the kadee kind so I decided to model that in my digital layout.
hi, It's based on MasterBuilderKTC rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-122099/MasterBuilderKTC/trinity-rail-30300-gallon-tank-car-138/ and khyrsed rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-178458/khyrsed/1445-utlx-dot-117j100w-tank-car/ since I never built a tank car before and needed to know how they are built internally. I then modified those designs to make it closer to a GP20 tank car.
are you going to eventually train stuff like ... a train depot or a mainline fright diesel or is that going to not happen. I love these videos on you city and I want to make a small lego city you know not too big but not too small.
Have you considered doing any "true" interiors? I.e. closed off rooms inside buildings you've already constructed? Would be cool to see a factory or office interior. Another potential idea is homeless tent camps.
hi, thanks for the idea, I think that'll be pretty interesting. I'm actually building something with a full interior right now. It's a old warehouse that's converted into a craft brewery with a restaurant.
hi, hmm. The bricks objects are normal Blender objects, so they should port over to something like Unreal. The materials (shader) is different in Unreal, so it won't look as good. I'm not sure how well Unreal handles things at small scales - my city is built at the correct size of Lego bricks. The other issue is the sheer number of bricks, there's bound to be some issue. Walking around would be cool though...
You know, I find most Lego cities to be an incomprehensible mess of multicolored plastic crammed with minifigures.
Yours however is an exception. Your attention to realism and cohesion brings the build to a whole other level.
Thanks for the comment!
Imagine that this was in real life the amount of dust lol 😂😆@@CanosieLabs
Most lego cities are a collection of modulars and so-so MOCs. Here it looks like a model train layout.
With real-life model cities, there is an incentive to cram more detail, narratives, easter eggs etc into the space, rather than enlarging the city itself. Constraints on cost and room space are hard to overcome. Also, the larger the layout is, the harder it is to transport-say to a convention.
Your city project is the pinnacle of what a lego city could be. I cant put my finger on how you do it, but I can confidently say you're doing an amazing job.
thanks!
The attention to detail is insane! Love how you seem to have struck the perfect balance between creativity and thematic consistency
thanks!
I like the industrial grittiness of it. It's different from many other lego cities and has an odd beauty to it.
my day is made
I have followed this digital Lego series from the start (and I love it) - and yet I still catch myself thinking about all these practical concerns like "I wonder how he'll carry that to a convention" or "that must have been so annoying to build". I think that speaks volumes about how masterfully realistic you've made your renders!
thanks for the comment, really appreciate it! glad you are enjoying series!
I absolutely love the aesthetic of your city. Seeing structures that actually show wear and tear feels so refreshing. And the verticality really allows for so much visual interest.
thanks!
I love that the city is a fusion of Asian, European, and North American. That sort of thing might seem odd in a more realistic format, but its perfect for Lego!
thanks! yeah I too think the mixture does seem to work well in the Lego world.
This is extremely satisfying to watch. Keep up the great work!
thanks!
You know it's going to be a good day when a new episode of Digital Lego City drops! And the boss was happy for once!
Loving the added wild overgrowth and disrepair look of the old spaces. You have a great eye for the smallest of details. The added mechanicals on the corrugated walls is a great addition to that building. Looking forward to the next update.
thanks!
I'm honest: the most beautiful lego city I've ever seen. Congratulations for the great work
Thank you!
Your channel is such an inspiration. Only 10 videos in and you have created something much more expansive and interesting than other channels with years, tons of money, and vast open space have ever achieved. The different levels, the conceptual design, bespoke random details much better than those who literally have made 100+ videos moving official modulars around ad nauseam.
Take as much time as you need for design. Quality is more important than quantity. When I see new videos on your channel it is an instant watch and even more importantly rewatch.
hi, thanks for the kind words. I really appreciate it! I am glad you are enjoying the videos!
I admire the 'translation' from your vision of what you want to build, the research and then how you execute it. It's truly wonderful and there is no doubt in my mind that you are one of the most talented and unique Lego builders!
thanks, glad you enjoyed it!
This has got to be my favorite on-going series on this platform. Thanks for the video!
thanks!
i can tell you are a gifted designer in all aspects of your life, not just this city. so much inspiration on so many levels, keep up the good work man
thanks! I really appreciate that.
Your sens of detail / precision /reality copy is just INSANE, congratz artist !
Thank you!
"He looks happy because everyone is working"
*cuts to next shot, showing a bunch of people having lunch behind a wall*
lmao, fantastic details. XD
gorgeous, I never saw any lego con where people made moc's so close to real life
It keeps getting better and better
thanks!
This is beyond incredible! Can’t wait for the next video 👍
thanks!
I’m in awe with the detail.
please keep putting as much love and soul into every nook and cranny of your city. It will take wayyy longer to make visible progress, but I think all of us are in the for the long haul. It looks fantastic; If I was a billionaire, I would buy all the lego pieces and build this 1000%
thanks for the feedback!
Holy moly thats an amazingly detailed and realistic build you have there. That attention to details and realism...just wow. Love your builds and city!
thanks!
This is fantastic! the attention to detail is incredible, I use to have an industrial area visible by apartment window and this is so reminiscent of it.
thanks, I'm glad you like it!
This is crazy cool, man. I clicked this without really paying full attention and the camera work and graphics made me think it was real for a solid minute. Really interesting project.
thanks!
Every day you post an addition to this masterpiece is something close to the top of my "monthly looking forward to's"
The canals looks really good!
thanks!
Really big fan of the series so far! It's really cool how the digital medium allows for a scale and color palette that would be much harder to pull off with real bricks, and it wonderfully accents your building style. The rendering itself is also impressive, I'm hoping to pick up some tips in the behind the scenes video.
thanks for the comment! yeah, I like how I can freely build out all the ideas I have without having to wait for parts.
bro it looks so real imagine how expensive it will be. And its also very cool I love the canal
Endlich mal jemand der was Cooles baut aus Klemmbausteinen, mach weiter so 👍👍👍👍👍
Incredible work. Extremely excited for a behind the scenes video, have been wanting one the whole time.
absolutely brilliant mate, and just what I've been looking for! I love how realistic it all looks, and how much thought you clearly put into it, bravo.
thanks!
1:16 absolutely favourite spot right here. That is so cool! I'm really glad you didn't put anything in front of it :b
My new conspiracy theory is that this is all being built with real lego bricks after all and being filmed for real, including the seemingly impossible shots like from inside the clearly completely blocked in and covered canal tunnel. Because that much dedication to the bit would be funny.
I keep thinking that when this wraps up that's going to be the reveal
This city has so faithfully and lovingly captured the look and feel of ugly dilapidated industrial areas that I get the smell of metal filings and old grease in my nose just looking at it.
thanks for the comment!
This is amazing, looking forward to seeing more of these
Man I am really impressed with your building style it just fits in so much detail
thanks! glad you like it!
The boss looks as happy as a boss can look xD
Give this man more followers! Fantastic thinking and building!
thanks!
@CanosieLabs Also, the "camera"-work in the render is flawless and 100 per cent realism! 🫡
i think my favorite detail you included is the paint palettes as lilypads, it's excellent
It's suprising everytime haha, amazing build again!
thanks!
Wow, you really have some tremendous details on the those buildings! Your reference pictures suited you well and these actually remind me of how some expensive toy train model kits look when painted very carefully. I haven't built many buildings yet, but I always use reference pictures as a start for train cars... and also more commonly I use the HO and N scale train cars I had as a kid to inspire the build, just as you did for the wheel stoppers. Great work! Subscribed!
thanks for the comment! I also use a lot of HO scale trains as reference too.
As always, your videos are absolutely fantastic and scratch a brain itch I had no idea I even had. The canal is one of those things that I would have never even thought of, but it's perfect history building for your city! It reminds me of the canal that runs through the city I went to university in (except this one's in a bit more disrepair). I keep having to remind myself that everything in here is digital and not real, but when the train rolled in at 5:40, it completely ruined my suspension of suspension of disbelief. In other words, I wrapped all the way around to seeing it as being real again. Thank you so so much for making these, and I'm so excited to see what you cook up next.
thanks for the comment! I really appreciate it!
i can not comprehend how this series is not very famouse is so greate and well done
Absolutely incredible, top notch building!
thanks!
These videos are incredible
-i love the builds and I know the amount of time it takes to build stuff like this
-then the rendering and video editing is insane!!
thanks for the feedback! The builds do take a while sometimes but I like that part the best. Rending takes forever...but it mostly happens at night.
Just beautiful. Love everything so far 😊😊😊
thank you!
A sunken subway depot would look pretty cool. It could connect to the spur under the plastics factory
yeah, I think something like that would be interesting. I thinking of having it connect to a subway line, acting like some access track.
My king, you're the best!😀
thanks!
Looking forward to more.
Just as amazing as always!
Looks great, as always ? Your builds always give me inspiration for my own city
that's great!
The back of the plastic factory looks way better with the details you added. Maybe the brick factory chimneys could have the same treatment ? They look a bit monotonous to me.
Great job overall, you're one of the best lego builders I know !
thanks for the feedback!
Amazing as always!
Finally a new episode!!! 🎉 I was getting really bored
It feels always so short 😂 great work (again) 👍🏻
thanks!
What a coincidence, I just watched the new wallace and grommit movie on netflix, and there's a narrow waterway boat "chase" in it, based on the exact inspiration for yours!
It’s really amazing
thanks!
Yay new episode
GREAT WORK!!
thanks!
Yes! Love seeing my home Birmingham represented! Did you see any videos of Geowizard’s exploring the canals here? They’d probably be useful if you haven’t seen them already.
oh, thanks for that. I took a look, it does look pretty useful. I'll probably use reference as I add more canals to the city.
Sensational🎉🎉🎉
thanks!
Please someone get this man a job at Traveler's Tales, I wanna see this artistry at work in one of the Lego game 🙏
that's fantastic!
Sometimes i just forget this is 3d it’s insane
You need a go fund me to actually build this Amazing
lets make this happen
As always keep up the very good work you do😅😊
thank you!
epic another new one :)
Wants again great work, love it 🎉
I think a more accurate track stopper could be made using part 78666 along with 5907. Love your project and am so impressed with your work.
oh wow, I just built it right now and you are right. it looks pretty good! I think I'm going to use your suggestion on the next ones.. thanks !
fantastic
Most amazing Lego city. Hands down. Will you add height / elevation at any point? Canals with elevation use lock systems, which are very interesting visually. Excited to see your developments
hi, thanks! Yeah I intend to add a lock system somewhere on the other side of the big brown building. I think it'll be pretty interesting looking too ..
I love this series man! Keep up the work! Could you please make a BTS?
one is coming up...
Can't find a photo you previously found? Felt that in my soul. I'm still not great about it but I try to always save any kind of reference like photos. Looking good though man, becoming quite the layout now.
lol I know right. I keep reference photos too but I tend to misplace those too...
It's always great seeing these pop up in my feed. Any way I could convince you to do a larger overview of the city at the end of the videos? It'd be great to see how it integrates and fits into the scene
thanks for the feedback!
There were canals with narrow boats (work boat ones) in the U.S. it just here when trains took over they became completely obsolete and most were completely removed and or built over the Erie canal here has some of the house boat like ones like Foxes afloat had but either way this city looks amazing and it's your city if you want a canal with narrow boats then do it
thanks for the info. I've been to a few of the towns along Erie canal in upstate NY. Nice places.
@CanosieLabs it's funny is I legit stumbled on to cruising the cut and foxes aflot and ended up building a working boat narrow boat and while looking at boats I seen a page talking about there are a few canals still here in the states that survived
@CanosieLabs cruising the cut he did a video on board of a still active working boat that sells propain and coal to boaters if you like narrow boats I would 100% look into it
@tylerdunning7363 thanks! I actually binged watched most of cruising the cut video's and know which one you are talking about lol it is interesting to see those working boats still working...
AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I like You mocs
thanks!
Amazing as always - as a brit we pronounce it 'Berm-ing-um" not .'..ham'
oh, thanks for the correction. I went to listen to some videos of people saying the city just now. I didn't notice till now. thanks!
Wow
That boss looks a lot like Qui-Gon Jinn.
lol it does...
I'm not sure about the history of plastics, although I believe during World War II there was some form of early plastics manufactured; possibly even plexiglass, for example those bomber clear nose pieces and the clear covers for the gun turrets, etc.
hi, you are right, they had early plastics back then in the WW2 era. I did hear they used plexiglass in aircraft too. I was thinking my canal stub was older than WW2, maybe turn of the century or something like that.
you rock!
When brickadia comes out I hope you can import this into the game.
broooo. i like your series. how do you render it all though? do you use regular modelling program or something more lego specified?? also like the storyline with the boss xddd
hi, Thanks! I make the Lego structures in Bricklink Studio, which is a program to build digital Lego builds Ie, it has a interface to select lego parts, select colors, etc. However, for the rendering, I import that file into Blender and do all the rendering and build my city layout in there.
@@CanosieLabs oh i see. thanks
The ending shot of that tanker car being rolled down the stub and it's jostling a bit from the uneven track pieces? But you did that as a render??? If I had not read the video description on the first one of these I watched, I would have absolutely no clue this was cgi. Really goes to show that cgi isn't the problem in modern movies, it's rushed production.
Hi, yeah, I added a slight jostling of the fright cars as they roll down the track to simulate uneven track. It's not based on the geometry of the track, but based on a noise texture. If you are interested, I made a video full showing more trains running on my digital layout - eps 7, "Train Operations". It shows more of that subtle jostling.
@@CanosieLabs ah wonderful! I will be checking that out
The boss was happy, but only because he didn't see some of the workers taking a break in the canal, fishing and having pizza?
lol, yes. I don't think he sees those guys down in the canal. Just the workers loading the fork lift
Is it really all digital? It Looks real but its also really clean
hi, its all digital. Made using Bricklink's Studio and rendered in Blender. My Instagram has some behind the scenes clay renders.
Thats super cool! Do you Plan to rebuild it in real life one day ?
@@AIlury. maybe..if I ever get the space and money lol.
Yeah, Lego is expensive!
❤ Impressive as every time! Why the tank car that arrives has coupler like those of the kadee brand and not lego?
thanks! yeah, the coupler is a kadee type coupler. A lot of the Lego train community switch out the Lego round magnet type to the kadee kind so I decided to model that in my digital layout.
That's the cleanest tanker I've ever seen! Where did you find it? Your MOC?
hi, It's based on MasterBuilderKTC rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-122099/MasterBuilderKTC/trinity-rail-30300-gallon-tank-car-138/ and khyrsed rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-178458/khyrsed/1445-utlx-dot-117j100w-tank-car/ since I never built a tank car before and needed to know how they are built internally. I then modified those designs to make it closer to a GP20 tank car.
are you going to eventually train stuff like ... a train depot or a mainline fright diesel or is that going to not happen. I love these videos on you city and I want to make a small lego city you know not too big but not too small.
hi, I will for sure be adding a rail depo and larger engines as I want to model some scenes like longer grain and intermodal fright trains.
Have you considered doing any "true" interiors? I.e. closed off rooms inside buildings you've already constructed? Would be cool to see a factory or office interior.
Another potential idea is homeless tent camps.
hi, thanks for the idea, I think that'll be pretty interesting. I'm actually building something with a full interior right now. It's a old warehouse that's converted into a craft brewery with a restaurant.
What would be neat is a way we could port this to an fps and walk around in it. Is that even possible?
hi, hmm. The bricks objects are normal Blender objects, so they should port over to something like Unreal. The materials (shader) is different in Unreal, so it won't look as good. I'm not sure how well Unreal handles things at small scales - my city is built at the correct size of Lego bricks. The other issue is the sheer number of bricks, there's bound to be some issue. Walking around would be cool though...
The boss aka QUI GON JINN
🤓👍
i just wish it was real
I have seen many of your video's. One thing is still not clear for me: is this a real lego city? Or does it only exists in Bits and Bytes?
hi, its all digital.
Damn! That's a really good job then!
Is this actually digital?
yes, all digital, made in Bricklinks Studio and I use Blender for rendering.
@ wow incredible work
@ thanks!
How do you build your virtual city?
I'm use Bricklink's Studio to build the buildings and then import the .io file to Blender to make the renders.