Lego architecture rendering suggestions

[LUCKINESS]

Dear fellow brick enthusiasts,

I would like to hear your opinion in my case:

I would like to write a book about architecture and LEGO. Lego MOCs would serve as illustrations of some points I would like to make. I have the basic framework, but now I encountered a minor problem. How to do the LEGO illustrations?

I have already written a small e-book. (You can read it when you subscribe to my site here http://www.constructingarchitect.com/free-thingies/). For this e-book I simply took a photo of MOC and made a cut-out of it. But for this second book I would like to step it up. I tried using Bluerender and the result is okay, but I would probably like to do better. What software would you suggest? I have read through the options and I am not sure what to pick. I am looking for some middle ground, not too hard to make the rendering, but with an adequate result.  

The outcome does not have to be photorealistic, but it should be worthy of a book.

Testing of bluerender on an official model:

 

united_nations_headquarters.lxf by Ondrej Slunecko, on Flickr

[NathanR]

You need to use mecabricks and blender.  Trust me, you'll never look back.

Mecabricks allows you to upload models built in LDD, or build using their dedicated editor (which is really good!).  Export your model as a Collada .dae file, and then load into blender using the plugin that mecabricks offers (there's a lite version, and a paid for version with extra features for putting thumprints or scratches on the lego bricks...). All you have to do is position the camera, adjust the backdrop (there are links to free HDR lighting files), click render and wait for the result to pop out.

Some example renders I did with the lite script can be found here:

http://www.mecabricks.com/de/models/LVyvnmw4jl3

https://www.mecabricks.com/en/models/Z1Xjd3LP28b

[LUCKINESS]

Those renderings look great. That is the quality I look for. And the workflow does not seem too hard. I will give it a try and post a result. Thank you for your suggestion.