Studio 2.0 "Photorealistic" Renders

[Plastic_Goth]

The 2.0 version has a new rendering engine option, and it comes with some lighting presets that I've put together here. 

 

 

I've rendered these parts at full and 60% intensity. Light is coming from two sources via the front and left light source setting. Also, I have rendered the scene against a "floor" of a very light grey.

My thoughts on each:

Asteroid - makes for a good balance of brightness and contrast. The render is very "legible".  

Building - There's some light coming from above that illuminates the top faces of the bricks. This resulting sheen may be distracting, unless intentional. 

Mechanic - The dimness of this setting makes me wonder if it is best used where the background is simply transparent pixels. The light is a bit "harder". Notice the oblique shadows that have the potential to highlight surface details such as studs. 

Dawn - It is not likely that I will use this because of the bluing effect. Otherwise, the results are similar to Asteroid except for slightly more contrast. Notice that at full intensity the white brick is being lost to the background. 

Piazza - This is a blinding, high contrast setting. At full intensity the shadows nearly vanish, and definition is lost on lightly colored pieces such as white and medium orange, as I have used in the scene. Lessening the intensity brings back some definition, but at a cost to the color saturation. Notice how the blue and red pieces look less lively at 0.60.

 

Conclusion:

I have been using Studio for a year now, and it has become my main tool for Lego building. That these render options are more powerful than what is possible with POV-ray, yet are now just accessible by being bundled with Studio 2.0, makes me a very excited builder. Based on these tests I would recommend the Asteroid setting at an intensity between  and .6 and 1 for most scenes. I would like to try the Mechanic setting against a transparent field for showing off things like technic assemblies where the goal of the illustration is showing off construction. The Building setting may suit illustrations emphasizing the overall form of a build. 

 

 

Edited September 19, 2018 by Plastic_Goth
had more to say

[SylvainLS]

Thanks!  Very useful.

[Plastic_Goth]

 

Here's a render of one of my SW builds that I did in Lego Digital Designer some years back. I've since imported it into Studio and fired up the renderer. The above scene uses the Mechanic setting. It turns out I suspected right when I thought the long shadows would do well to bring out details. It suits a grey, greebly model fantastically. I adjusted the colors and levels in photoshop only a little. It really is exciting to see my models in new imaging software. 

[SquirrelArmy]

I'm really liking Studio 2.0. I'll be trying to do some comparisons of digital vs real life soon just to see how good the rendering is. Only thing holding me back is the lack of somewhere to take studio quality photos at home. 

In the meantime here's my favourite render of my latest MOC. This was done using Asteroid. Don't think I changed any of the other settings though 

[1963maniac]

OOH! This IS a thrill. I'm so happy with this , I don't have to set up a studio anymore. These renders are GREAT!

[Holodoc]

8 hours ago, Plastic_Goth said:

Here's a render of one of my SW builds that I did in Lego Digital Designer some years back.

You can hardly tell, it's a digital picture! Fantastic!  

[The Mugbearer]

Here's a couple of renders I did on my machine, the settings are not through the roof, I just wanted good-looking pictures.

[Shroud]

It’s awesome that this is inbuilt, POV ray wasn’t the easiest to setup up for a lot of ppl

[Plastic_Goth]

Here's a comparison between an illustration created with POV-ray, and one created with the new renderer. 

 

[deraven]

OK... this is really great.  I'm absolutely firing up Studio when I get home tonight and pulling in some of my old digital models.  Thanks for the work on that, and some new inspiration!  

[mocbuild101]

This is so cool, I so wish my computer wasn't having the problems that it is... 

[sed6]

I just started using stud.io and the learning curve is...well probably not much worse than LDD. Two questions. Is there a way to get the light to "preview" on the render page as I switch light sources. Mine just stays the same. Also is there a way to change the lighting angle when building? Mine seems to come from left and below, which isn't useful. I need to rotate my model upside down to "catch the light" on the top and really see fine details. 

Thanks anyone!

Edited November 3, 2018 by sed6
cnat spele

[pagicence]

/

Edited June 5, 2025 by pagicence

[KLF]

Awsome!

Edited November 6, 2018 by KLF

[anothergol]

On 11/6/2018 at 12:47 PM, pagicence said:

No.

Not when building, but just before the rendering. Under the "photo realistic" tab on the "render image" window, under the section "light", when you chose your light type, just under is a drop menu for the direction of the light. And under it there are two fields "x" and "y" for rotation; this is to adjust the light position only in 2 dimensions on the photo that you will get (that you see in render "preview"). This will give you miner adjustment on the before chosen direction.

 

Also here are my examples on some renders with nothing changed but the light type.

building

[snip]

Note the glowing of round pieces and the flair they cast on the swords, also the reflection of the LBG face in the red brick. It's just awesome and I did nothing special to do achieve that effects. Only thing I set up are the colors of the bricks. The round glowing ones are some neon transparent colors and the swords are metallic colors. 

 

Not sure it's "awesome" that it did that only with neon colors, but I've already asked to get some special colors for lights. But hey, perhaps instead of true lights we could get new "virtual" colors that have more of their own light.

Talking about neon colors, right now transparent orange is very very dull, while it's rather hard to differenciate transparent orange from neon red with real bricks. I think that needs to be fixed.

Edited November 7, 2018 by legolijntje
Please don't quote so many images.

[adwind]

Hi everyone! I was trying to make a good render with Studio but faced with a problem that when I choose "floor only" option the background gets that nasty black stripe in the top of the shot. And when choosing transparent it makes it all just black. Is there any way to get rid off that black field above the color I chose as a background? 

Thank you in advance! 

Adding link 

Edited November 14, 2018 by adwind

[Philo]

That line is the horizon. Look at your model slightly more from above to avoid seeing the black "sky". I'd like Studio had possibility to use a sky sphere...

[adwind]

8 minutes ago, Philo said:

That line is the horizon. Look at your model slightly more from above to avoid seeing the black "sky". I'd like Studio had possibility to use a sky sphere...

Thank you, I though maybe there's a way to paint it the same color as a floor (as it shows on a pre-render).

[supertruper1988]

6 hours ago, adwind said:

Thank you, I though maybe there's a way to paint it the same color as a floor (as it shows on a pre-render).

It sounds a little backwards but I would suggest rendering it with the transparent floor option and then using a free program like GIMP to place it over a background color if that is what you need. 

[adwind]

3 hours ago, supertruper1988 said:

It sounds a little backwards but I would suggest rendering it with the transparent floor option and then using a free program like GIMP to place it over a background color if that is what you need. 

Thank for advice, I'll definitely check that program. Now It's all about how well a program will cut out the object.

PS I'm not familiar with PS ((

[supertruper1988]

2 minutes ago, adwind said:

Thank for advice, I'll definitely check that program. Now It's all about how well a program will cut out the object.

PS I'm not familiar with PS ((

If you render it with the floor color unchecked, It will have a transparent surrounding so you can place it over any color you like. 

[Hollander]

Hello all. From what I read in this thread I understand it is possible to import creations from LDD to Lego Studio 2.0? Is this correct? I just downloaded and installed Lego studio after I had seen amazing renders done with this program. 

[mocbuild101]

10 hours ago, Hollander said:

I understand it is possible to import creations from LDD to Lego Studio 2.0? Is this correct?

Yes, you can just import the .lxf files directly into Stud.io (which you can also do with LDraw's .ldr and .mpd files).

BTW, Stud.io is made by Bricklink, not Lego 

[anothergol]

On 11/14/2018 at 9:21 AM, Philo said:

That line is the horizon. Look at your model slightly more from above to avoid seeing the black "sky". I'd like Studio had possibility to use a sky sphere...

I've already requested that the floor gets replaced by an "infinite background" like we do for photography, I hope they will implement that

[Alec2378fb44]

The light types are missing. I can only render using "building" or "mechanic". Can anyone help?