To SNOT or not to SNOT this is the question:

[Bluesecrets]

Lately every single MOC I am seeing is on a SNOT base, covered in SNOT even where it seems weird to see SNOT. For those of you still not in the know about the term SNOT, its studs not on the top. Basically, we are talking you see no studs.

I was talking to a buddy AFOL about this just today, because I’m beginning to think people are building SNOT because they think showing studs is a n00bish thing to do. Or is it becoming the n00bish thing to do to build SNOT bases for every single MOC?

Some contests are requiring studs up bases, including the one Aliencat and I ran. Why? So the judges can count the studs to see if your creation fits within the contest rules. But every single time this rule exists, the judges get a whole bunch of negativity about not being able to build SNOT.

I use SNOT sometimes myself, but primarily for floors to rooms (but only when I have a cool carpet design incorporated), water, roads, sidewalks and for sand under the sea. All times when I like having a smooth surface.

This is LEGO. Studs are beautiful and part of the brick!

Now to close with my question:

When building and planning a new MOC, when and what do you think should be SNOT and what shouldn’t?

[CastleLord]

I don't really build with SNOT. Mainly because i don't have enough bricks and i do also not really know how to build SNOT.
But i have to agree i personally is getting really tired of seeing SNOT creations.
They are all over the place!
Of course no offence meant Stuff buildt out of SNOT is nice to look at, but as i said it's just too many SNOT mocs around.

CastleLord

[Hob Took]

I definetly agree with you, SNOT has been way overused in the creations of these past couple months. The only reaso anyone is going to think a creation is cool is if it is unique. You could have a hundred people build a castle wall of specific length, but only four or five are really going to stand out because they have a new unique twist that makes them more interesting than anything that's been shown before it. If you want a creation to be popular you need something new of your own, and SNOT bases are cool and all but they aren't new anymore. If you want to use a SNOT base that's fine, but don't expect that using a SNOT base is going to make your creation cool.

-Hob Took

[Handar]

I think this is largely a matter of personal opinion, but my opinion is that I like my Lego to look like Lego. Lefo has studs, and so I like to see them. I can imagine some things cannot be built studs up, and those are definitely acceptable exceptions. They remain, however, exceptions.

[Count Blacktron]

Build however the frell you like to build and don't place any rules or restrictions upon it. Challenging yourself to build with no visible studs? Fine. Studs up on top? Fine. The point is to build with LEGO which has Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combination. I don't see that it matters more than your own design and creativity.

[RichardAM]

I think SNOT has it's place- it's something that's up to builder if they want to utilise it or not.

With the recent re-growth of Pirate MOCs I can safely say that there have been excellent examples of both studded and snotted water.

[DNL]

I'm not a fan of SNOT bases and grass or sand, but i do like making my castles studless. It looks kind of unfinished to me if the crenelations have studs on them, and i also like to make SNOT floors because they look more realistic than studded floors. I do like SNOT or tiled water because it looks much more like real water than water with studs.
I also like studdless rocks because rocks made of slopes don't look as blocky as BURPS or rocks made of normal bricks.

[Sir Nelson]

I agree with Richard; it's up to the builder. Unfortunately, though, some builders seem to use SNOT for water and terrain in each and every one of their MOCs - and that's a shame since it makes the technique passé. Oh well, I guess that's a limitation on their skills.

[Elephant Knight]

To not to SNOT, that is the answer.

I find that creations with studs look more LEGOish then those that have not a single stud on it. Oh, and I was never much into SNOT before, anyways. There are a few times when SNOT comes in handy, but when people use SNOT in every creation, it get's old.

EKnight

[Shadowviking]

Note that there is a difference between SNOT and Studless. Studless is the overdone, tiled-to-all-ends no-studs-showing nonsense, and I dislike this (mostly). But SNOT is actually orienting the physical position of the brick. Water bases are often done like this. More on that later.

SNOT, in my eyes, adds a fantastic depth to builds when done properly. As an example, check out Tiberium Blue's brilliant "The Clumsy Jester". The walls are built of sideways plates with tiles, allowing for greater freedom with the stone patterns and an interesting wall shape that may have been harder with vertically oriented bricks. Water is often done like this because it adds contrast to the studdy land.
Of course, SNOT like that also opens up other challenges- for instance, how do you add a floor or walkway to something that's not a straight wall? It's bad enough when the wall is studs up, but when you have to tie them into a wall built with the studs outward, it becomes more interesting. The result is either shoddy and painful to look at, or a stroke of brilliance as pleasing to the eyes as... something else that's pleasing to the eyes. Uh, like, the... Mona Lisa?
But it can easily be overdone, and worse, it can be used as a crutch. SNOT doesn't make a creation inherently awesome. Studs up is still cool, y'all.

Studless, I dislike for the most part. It has it's place- in a lot of cases it can help to give a smoother look, or a contrast to a studdy part somewhere else (like a tiled stone road against studded grass). But this is even easier to overdo, and in a lot of cases (the tops of slopes, for instance; sand; grass; dirt) it looks awful. It can be neat if done right, but doing it right requires very careful moderation. Keep it in check, or ur doin it rong.


'Course, that's just my view of it all. I know some people really like their tiled surfaces, and others swear by SNOT as the only thing that makes a good MOC. (they're wrong ;] )

hocrap long post...

[Foamrider]

SV put it quite well. It all comes down to looks for me though. I prefer SNOT water over just a blue baseplate. You can do great things with it, that you can't do with studs. LEGO is obviously inherently blocky, but I like to have an organic feel to my MOCs. I have a love/hate relationship with tiles. They can look nice in such things as paved roads and such, but using it for such things as water and other landscaping, it looks way too "squared" to me.

I would like some examples of SNOT use for landscaping though. I've only seen it used for water.

[LORD DOOM]

The only thing I dislike about "studs not on top" is this, sometimes I think certain MOC's can be overlooked by more experienced builders for how cool they really are just because they aren't all smooth, and generally creations that are all smooth and SNOTed out get more attention because they look more realistic....in ways. Some things just don't look good as SNOT like grass. Studs add great texture to certain things and some times tiles or SNOT just looks out of place. That's my two cents.

[Quickblade22]

I don't have a whole lot to add from what's been said. One thing I think is important is to preserve the style that has been promenent throughout most of our building days, and that's the beauty of using "studs on top". SNOT can be beautiful, but I do agree with the notion that people seem to look less favorable on great MOCs that are built the more common way. Both have their place, it just depends on the situation. "Beauty is in the eye of the Beholder.......that Quickblade will eventually slay"

[Garbageman13]

I use SNOT sometimes myself, but primarily for floors to rooms (but only when I have a cool carpet design incorporated), water, roads, sidewalks and for sand under the sea. All times when I like having a smooth surface.

Pretty much the same thing I do. I don't even want to try doing a green SNOT terrain to represent grass.
It can't be done for everything, rather obviously.

Also, one thing I'd like to note is that SNOT can come especially in handy when you don't have those proper colored tile pieces.

[Lewa Rocks]

I like snot but I like variety more.
Too much of anything gets bad.
(well not everything, if you gave me too much free Lego it would never get bad).