[MOC] The Flying Toucan

[Sneaky Melarky]

Here it is… The Flying Toucan; thrown together by me in Stud.io. This is not my best ship and there are a few things blatantly missing. However, I love how the render came out and I thought I would show the awesome people of this forum. I would love to hear your thoughts and criticisms, but please keep in mind this ship wasn’t built to be 100% realistic. I built it in the same vein as some of the older smaller LEGO ships with almost a fun campy nature. Anyway I hope you all enjoy it!

Edited January 12, 2022 by Sneaky Melarky

[Mister Phes]

On 1/13/2022 at 1:54 AM, Sneaky Melarky said:

This is not my best ship and there are a few things blatantly missing.

You mean you've built other ships?

[Sneaky Melarky]

8 hours ago, Mister Phes said:

You mean you've built other ships?

Yes, I have some parts I am waiting on to complete a smaller scale ship. My ships aren't anywhere near the level of ships assembled by some of the people on this forum but I feel like they are starting to look good enough to share. Anyway I hope to have a smaller scaled imperial ship assembled by February.

[Mister Phes]

13 hours ago, Sneaky Melarky said:

Anyway I hope to have a smaller scaled imperial ship assembled by February.

Most excellent!

But is this the only render you've got of The Flying Toucan?

[Captain Braunsfeld]

That ship has a nice feeling to it!

Great brickbuilt background  - creates a fitting atmosphere.

[Professor Thaum]

The bow is killer, I like those garlands !

[Sneaky Melarky]

23 hours ago, Mister Phes said:

Most excellent!

But is this the only render you've got of The Flying Toucan?

Yes, I have a good enough computer but it still takes a while to render stuff. There's also not really that much to show off besides what's seen. I might try to figure out an interior eventually but it's not currently anything I'm worrying about.

8 hours ago, Professor Thaum said:

The bow is killer, I like those garlands !

It's a shame they cost $40 because of the 1 x 1 round plates in blue only being released in one set. I guess that's just how it is sometimes!

Edited January 17, 2022 by Sneaky Melarky

[Mister Phes]

3 hours ago, Sneaky Melarky said:

There's also not really that much to show off besides what's seen.

So there's no chance of adding minifigs to crew the ship?

[Sneaky Melarky]

2 hours ago, Mister Phes said:

So there's no chance of adding minifigs to crew the ship?

Well it's all digital and I'm not skilled enough to add in special printed pieces, however, I'll check to see what's already available in Stud.io. Besides that I'll try to cobble some extra details and stuff into what I have already. I'd say give it a few days and I might have a more detailed render up. Thanks for you interest!

[Mister Phes]

On 1/17/2022 at 2:21 PM, Sneaky Melarky said:

Well it's all digital and I'm not skilled enough to add in special printed pieces, however, I'll check to see what's already available in Stud.io.

You're in a forum with digital builders who do know how to use printed pieces and minifigs... maybe they can be kind enough to impart some wisdom.

[Sneaky Melarky]

On 1/18/2022 at 7:19 PM, Mister Phes said:

You're in a forum with digital builders who do know how to use printed pieces and minifigs... maybe they can be kind enough to impart some wisdom.

Possibly but I don't have photoshop or any of those other programs that they use. Also for some reason the lighting and other things broke in my renderer but here is a concept of The Flying Toucan w/ minifigs: https://imgur.com/a/LEoK6lg

[Marooned Marin]

On 1/17/2022 at 12:09 AM, Sneaky Melarky said:

Yes, I have a good enough computer but it still takes a while to render stuff.

What is your resolution size when rendering?

TIP: go with resolution 1024x768 and very high quality. This should take around 2 hours to render your ship with background made of thousand Tiles.

BEWARE: when you go to higher resolution 1600x1200 the same picture can take 3-4 hours to render... It took me once solid 7 hours to render one BIG set-up on 2048x1536 resolution.

another TIP: close all applications when you render. Having PDF, Firefox, Photoshop and Studio open during the process will slow things down. Best thing you can do is adjust everything, click 'render' and go to sleep.

On 1/20/2022 at 3:15 PM, Sneaky Melarky said:

Possibly but I don't have photoshop or any of those other programs that they use.

May I suggest nice little powerful software which I use regularly (even though I have Photoshop): PAINT.NET

It is FREE if you download it from the original developer website and install it. If you use Microsoft Store it comes with price.

On 1/20/2022 at 3:15 PM, Sneaky Melarky said:

for some reason the lighting and other things broke in my renderer

As for lighting I repeatedly found that for me render come out best when I use 'Building' lighting 'Right-Front' and 'Intensity' 1.5

Hope this helps. Give it a try.

[Sneaky Melarky]

On 1/23/2022 at 11:35 AM, Marooned Marin said:

What is your resolution size when rendering?

TIP: go with resolution 1024x768 and very high quality. This should take around 2 hours to render your ship with background made of thousand Tiles.

BEWARE: when you go to higher resolution 1600x1200 the same picture can take 3-4 hours to render... It took me once solid 7 hours to render one BIG set-up on 2048x1536 resolution.

another TIP: close all applications when you render. Having PDF, Firefox, Photoshop and Studio open during the process will slow things down. Best thing you can do is adjust everything, click 'render' and go to sleep.

May I suggest nice little powerful software which I use regularly (even though I have Photoshop): PAINT.NET

It is FREE if you download it from the original developer website and install it. If you use Microsoft Store it comes with price.

As for lighting I repeatedly found that for me render come out best when I use 'Building' lighting 'Right-Front' and 'Intensity' 1.5

Hope this helps. Give it a try.

Thanks so much for the advice! The water is just made out of upside down baseplates because for some reason in Stud.io they don't have that bubble texture like the real ones. It cuts down on rendering time and LEGO has enough blue colors for the different shades of water. I didn't know about the pixels (I think I used 2100 by 2000 for the latest render, whoops.) I'll have to give paint.net a try but I have one question for you, how do you disable the lighting? I tried playing around with the lighting intensity but nothing seemed to work. Anyway, thanks for all the tips I really appreciate it!

Edited January 24, 2022 by Sneaky Melarky

[Marooned Marin]

18 hours ago, Sneaky Melarky said:

how do you disable the lighting?

As far as I know you can't. You need light while rendering just as same as you need light when taking a real photo with camera. Imagine a photo taken in pitch-dark without flash. 

 

Here is something I would suggest you can try and experiment, since you are to embark on photo-editing journey in Paint.net. This is only for your consideration.

1. Loose the water and background! Hide all parts and leave only ship and island. Add minifigures to make Mister Phes happy.

2. Create the render of your with this SET-UP of resolution, quality, and lightning. Use Transparent background. I will use as example C-Clipper ship, just follow everything in red field.

3. After two or three hours, should be 2hours, open a sea background also in Paint.net (you can find great sea backgrounds on Google)

4. Open your new render in Paint.net. (I used your original picture minus the unnecessary parts)

5. Select ALL and copy render (CTRL + A, then CTRL + C)

6. Go to SEA-Background tab in Paint.net and click 'Layers' and then Add new layer

7. In the new layer click PASTE and adjust your render as you consider best.

 

Now the result looks promising, and with the right angle and better background you can create truly stunning image of your creation in just a few easy steps.