RENDERING: visible parts connections

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Hey guys, how you achieve the visual effect of visible parts connections?

You know those "lines" you see in the places where bricks are connected...cos when I render my set out I always have one solid block/piece not visible separate bricks as it should in reality be which is pretty unpleasant of course.

Any suggestions/solutions to this?

Also does anybody know how to have lego-on-studs...I mean the word "LEGO" on them as in real sets?

[garethjellis]

Hey bublible,

What are you using do design the model and what are you using to render?

[___]

Hey bublible,

What are you using do design the model and what are you using to render?

LDD (for main build, very easy, intuitive, acts as real LEGO would in most cases) >> export as .ldr

MLCAD for importing the .ldr from LDD being able substitute all missing bricks in LDD (save again as now already edited .ldr)

LeoCAD for importing my edited .ldr and exporting as .obj for rendering in Blender 3D

Blender 3D v2.70a for all the lightning, camera work and final rendering

Adobe Fireworks CS6 for final visual enhancement and touch

[JM1971]

LDD (for main build, very easy, intuitive, acts as real LEGO would in most cases) >> export as .ldr

MLCAD for importing the .ldr from LDD being able substitute all missing bricks in LDD (save again as now already edited .ldr)

LeoCAD for importing my edited .ldr and exporting as .obj for rendering in Blender 3D

Blender 3D v2.70a for all the lightning, camera work and final rendering

Adobe Fireworks CS6 for final visual enhancement and touch

LDD2POV can add the bevels to the bricks, can you import .pov into blender?

I dont think that will work, not sure, but you could render with ldd2pov at 4k and downsize with photoshop to get rid of the jagged way ldd2pov does bevels.

Edited May 7, 2014 by JM1971

[___]

LDD2POV can add the bevels to the bricks, can you import .pov into blender?

I dont think that will work, not sure, but you could render with ldd2pov at 4k and downsize with photoshop to get rid of the jagged way ldd2pov does bevels.

I did try ldd2pov before exactly as you suggesting but what I don't like about it is its time curve needed to render basicly simplest things comapred to Cycles renderer in Blender, also povrays GUI is so "almost nonexistent" and not intuitive that I was completely lost not sure if what I did was really what I wanted to cos you simply have no visual feedback of what you are doing :( therefore I switch to Cycles and Blender...

also in povray my renders even if they took like 7 hour on my sixcore 3.4ghz/8gb ddr3/sdd machine in final results were some kind wrong, like wheels was blended into one something without parts etc. :(

[garethjellis]

I use LDD, then LDD to POV converter, then POV ray to render, great results every time.

[___]

I use LDD, then LDD to POV converter, then POV ray to render, great results every time.

ok, no problem, I just simply want to avoid povray and ldd2pov converter...I am looking for Blender solution or something similiar

[___]

I found the answer myself: LDView

- go to preferences and find "seams": its value states how much should every brick move away from each other, that is what I was looking for ;)

[JM1971]

I found the answer myself: LDView

- go to preferences and find "seams": its value states how much should every brick move away from each other, that is what I was looking for ;)

Nice way around the problem, if there was a way to do that with ldd2pov it would speed up renders so much, maybe there is way to move pieces automatcally within pov ray itself.

[___]

Nice way around the problem, if there was a way to do that with ldd2pov it would speed up renders so much, maybe there is way to move pieces automatcally within pov ray itself.

Yea, but as I do not use POVRay but Blender now I am facing another problem: LDView exports bigger sets wrongly to .3ds file needed for import into Blender so I try to fing out a way around this cos without it there will be no seams on the bricks looking not so realistic as it looks when they are there... :(

BTW: I am also LDD builder (absolutely much much faster way of building and more intuitive, almost like real LEGO...and you do not need to be a professor of physics compared to work with MLCAD :D ) but then exports to .ldr, opens it in MLCAD (OK I can live with this little time being in this SW for those just small repairments needed after export from LDD :D ) replacing all bricks missing in LDD saving and opening in LDView for export to .3ds - this way around I have lego-on-studs + seams, very nice but the last thing I am missing is implementing that grainy look of the skew part of slope bricks, still not there with this :(

But when I succeed I plan to write really detailed tutorial here as how to LDD to Blender rendering...I know juraj made year ago his own but his way doesn't work well for me,,better said not at all (he exports to .lwo files and then imports into Blender which introduces a lot of probs compared to .obj or .3ds import although he says that when he imported .obj there were mesh problems and I noticed it is because of exporting to .obj from LeoCAD cos if I did try to convert to obj the same file using another converter there were not these mesh problems at all, especialy with minifigs body with planet logo...ehm, to clarify things more as what I am talking about: well, before I switched to .3ds import I used to export from LeoCAD directly to .obj and had those artefacts I was talking about while ago)

Edited May 8, 2014 by bublible

[JM1971]

Yea, but as I do not use POVRay but Blender now I am facing another problem: LDView exports bigger sets wrongly to .3ds file needed for import into Blender so I try to fing out a way around this cos without it there will be no seams on the bricks looking not so realistic as it looks when they are there... :(

BTW: I am also LDD builder (absolutely much much faster way of building and more intuitive, almost like real LEGO...and you do not need to be a professor of physics compared to work with MLCAD :D ) but then exports to .ldr, opens it in MLCAD (OK I can live with this little time being in this SW for those just small repairments needed after export from LDD :D ) replacing all bricks missing in LDD saving and opening in LDView for export to .3ds - this way around I have lego-on-studs + seams, very nice but the last thing I am missing is implementing that grainy look of the skew part of slope bricks, still not there with this :(

But when I succeed I plan to write really detailed tutorial here as how to LDD to Blender rendering...I know juraj made year ago his own but his way doesn't work well for me,,better said not at all (he exports to .lwo files and then imports into Blender which introduces a lot of probs compared to .obj or .3ds import although he says that when he imported .obj there were mesh problems and I noticed it is because of exporting to .obj from LeoCAD cos if I did try to convert to obj the same file using another converter there were not these mesh problems at all, especialy with minifigs body with planet logo...ehm, to clarify things more as what I am talking about: well, before I switched to .3ds import I used to export from LeoCAD directly to .obj and had those artefacts I was talking about while ago)

When I make renders for instructions I use an outline feature of ldd2pov and set the outline colour just a tad darker than the lego piece, its way faster than bevels and looks ok, maybe blender has a outline feature or something better like crimp or round off the edges etc.

Somthing I'm trying is to explode the model ever so slightly to make a gap in the bricks, not going well though.

I also do not get along with mlcad and its a pain to get it working on my rig, but a while back I tried out the linux version of mlcad (pic) and its very much like ldd, it was not stable with a dual boot set up but did work ok with vmware virtual machine for pc which is free.

Edited May 8, 2014 by JM1971

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When I make renders for instructions I use an outline feature of ldd2pov and set the outline colour just a tad darker than the lego piece, its way faster than bevels and looks ok, maybe blender has a outline feature or something better like crimp or round off the edges etc.

Somthing I'm trying is to explode the model ever so slightly to make a gap in the bricks, not going well though.

I also do not get along with mlcad and its a pain to get it working on my rig, but a while back I tried out the linux version of mlcad (pic) and its very much like ldd, it was not stable with a dual boot set up but did work ok with vmware virtual machine for pc which is free.

Ah, everything would be so great and OK if only LDView export to .3ds file work as it should, wrrrrr...if it would I would not need to find some another way around, but you know what? a while before I read your comment I thought about something similiar like find if Blender supports something like make connections of ovject visible with adjustable value to it (thikness or something like that)...gonna search it right now :D

[___]

SOLVED IT MYSELF...this topic can be flagged by admins as that :)

[Calabar]

And what about the solution, exactly?

[___]

And what about the solution, exactly?

Of course, you just need to wait a few days more for the release of...ehm, I am finishing with works on my Blender LEGO addon that will include this beside other useful stuff to LEGO bricks, you'll see then, OK, Calabar? ;)

...meanwhile you can see this topic http://www.eurobrick...showtopic=95358 and my last post there (post #9, actually) for a quick short description, if you will ;)

Edited May 14, 2014 by bublible

[Calabar]

@bublible

Thanks!

Maybe (for future searches purpose) you can add the solution here or add a link to the guide when you will finish it!

[Renderbricks]

I did some .obj tests with LEOCad but the results are bad. The model list and naming looks nice but the geometry can't be rendered properly. And it looks like that the parts library of LEOCad is different because when I set the customs part folder to LDRAW I get a different result. Some parts are replaced by cubes.

Edited May 14, 2014 by virtualrepublic

[Philo]

And it looks like that the parts library of LEOCad

Isn't it an official/unofficial parts issue? Built in library of LeoCAD doesn't include unofficial parts, and even if you instruct it to use LDraw library, it doesn't manage the LDraw\unofficial\parts folder: you have to dump all unofficial parts in main parts folder (and LDraw\unofficial\p in LDraw\p)

[Renderbricks]

I will check. The wrong postition and rotation is a problem with ldraw.xml.

[___]

I did some .obj tests with LEOCad but the results are bad. The model list and naming looks nice but the geometry can't be rendered properly. And it looks like that the parts library of LEOCad is different because when I set the customs part folder to LDRAW I get a different result. Some parts are replaced by cubes.

Exactly that here, and therefor I being programmer myself (although not in Python) said to myself: OK, wait now, when so many people would like to have all these things and no one can tell them the exact right and functional way how to achieve this, then I make addon for Blender that will do exactly all of this and give it to them with tutorial....and as I said I did ;)

Edited May 15, 2014 by bublible

[___]

@bublible

Thanks!

Maybe (for future searches purpose) you can add the solution here or add a link to the guide when you will finish it!

Yes, I will... ;)

[JM1971]

Made a custom part position varience file for ldd2pov to replace the default one to make gaps by slightly shrinking the parts...

Top is shrink, botton is bevels, shrink is 5759% faster

[___]

Made a custom part position varience file for ldd2pov to replace the default one to make gaps by slightly shrinking the parts...

Top is shrink, botton is bevels, shrink is 5759% faster

Actually bottom one looks more natural...

BTW: where did you get your inspiration from? :D

Edited May 15, 2014 by bublible

[JM1971]

Actually bottom one looks more natural...

BTW: where did you get your inspiration from? :D

The bevels add depth to the parts, but I reckon more reflection could be added to the top one to compensate.

My inspiration came from van gough's lego bricks on the floor painting which is valued at 3 million dollars.

[___]

My inspiration came from van gough's lego bricks on the floor painting which is valued at 3 million dollars.

OK then...Van Gogh had to be actually kind of dadaist way before dada even happened

Edited May 15, 2014 by bublible