Photoreal LEGO Rendering

[Philo]

t01o0714.dat, t02i3333.dat, t02o3333.dat are tori primitives used to get bevels on studs and soften logo. But I see no reason why your extruded logo3 file gives weird result, it's geometry is very simple and flawless IMHO. See a colored snapshot (LDView) showing its structure:

[legolijntje]

I know you're currently busy with the Lego logo on the studs, but I already forgot to mention this and I'll probably forget it again when I don't post it now

Your dark gray looks not like the dark-grey (or to be precise, the dark-bluish-gray, normal dark-gray is the old version from pre 2002/2003) in real life and it looks a bit dark-greenish. Maybe this (outdated, but still useful) table might come in handy, if you avehn't seen it yet.

[The_Cook]

Looking at the picture you posted earlier it looks like only one of the vertexes in each triangle are being displaced from the surface, the others remain on the surface itself. This is most obvious on the one that forms the bottom of the L; you can clearly see the left-hand end raised up, whilst the right-hand end is level with the surface.

I'm not familiar with your software packages but my instincts would be telling me to:

• Look at the surface normals for the vertexes to check that they're facing the correct direction.
  
• Ordering of vertexes might be important in order to determine forward or backwards facing and the order that your package expects might not match what the original source provides.
  

[Renderbricks]

FIXED! But I can't set separate roundings for the bricks and logo. It should have a less rounding to look less bumped and more displaced. Well. Better than nothing.

Edited April 29, 2014 by virtualrepublic

[Philo]

Pretty nice! What was the problem?

[Renderbricks]

I know you're currently busy with the Lego logo on the studs, but I already forgot to mention this and I'll probably forget it again when I don't post it now

Your dark gray looks not like the dark-grey (or to be precise, the dark-bluish-gray, normal dark-gray is the old version from pre 2002/2003) in real life and it looks a bit dark-greenish. Maybe this (outdated, but still useful) table might come in handy, if you avehn't seen it yet.

Thanks for the info. I am using the color table from MLCad/LeoCAD what will be converted automaticall. But I will take a look into the materials later.

Pretty nice! What was the problem?

I am importing with a script what is using a cleanup. If I don't use the cleanup the mesh has bad normals and flpped polygons. The problem was that the basic measure for the import is set to 0.05 what is perfect for the real scale in MODO but I have to set it to 0.1 to prevent that the cleanup will merge close points and destroy the small scale LEGO model.

[Renderbricks]

OK. I replaced the studs with the beveled ones but it looks like they are just available in low-res. And the top will be interpolated smooth and not flat. A pre-bevel of the studs had been fine to adjust the rest of the models with a thinner edge what is better for the LEGO logo. The LEGO logo model is anyway a bit too bold compared to the real ones *:-)

[legolijntje]

Can't you model your own lego stud text using the LDraw version as guidelines and add the new one on the studs? It doesn't seem to difficult if you know what you're doing with that MODO software.

[Calabar]

Your dark gray looks not like the dark-grey (or to be precise, the dark-bluish-gray, normal dark-gray is the old version from pre 2002/2003) in real life and it looks a bit dark-greenish.

Dark Gray was right, this is an old version of the snowspeeder (dated about year 2000, maybe even the first series from 1999). Maybe the light gray is a bit too... brilliant.

I recognize it because the frontal slope 4x2 with that decoration appears only in one set.

Anyway, great design for such an old set.

Edited April 29, 2014 by Calabar

[legolijntje]

Dark Gray was right, this is an old version of the snowspeeder (dated about year 2000, maybe even the first series from 1999). Maybe the light gray is a bit too... brilliant.

I recognize it because the frontal slope 4x2 with that decoration appears only in one set.

Anyway, great design for such an old set.

Hmm, well, indeed then it must be the "normal" dark-grey. It still looks a bit too greenish though.

[Renderbricks]

Can't you model your own lego stud text using the LDraw version as guidelines and add the new one on the studs? It doesn't seem to difficult if you know what you're doing with that MODO software.

That's not simple. The studs need to be a part of each model and not separated. When you import the Millennium Falcon UCS with over 3000 bricks you don't really want to replace them in MODO.

[Philo]

OK. I replaced the studs with the beveled ones but it looks like they are just available in low-res. A pre-bevel of the studs had been fine to adjust the rest of the models with a thinner edge what is better for the LEGO logo.

Well, only the low resolution of the regular angular stud exist too, so it must have been substituted with a true cylinder at some time in the LDraw -> MODO conversion. Since the beveled stud can be easily defined mathematically (cyinder+torus+disk) it should be possible to get a non-facetized render.

And the top will be interpolated smooth and not flat.

This is a more tricky issue, but I think it should vanish if you use a higher resolution torus.

The LEGO logo model is anyway a bit too bold compared to the real ones *:-)

Not a big deal to change ;) How much thinning percentage is needed, according to you? Edited April 29, 2014 by Philo

[legolijntje]

That's not simple. The studs need to be a part of each model and not separated. When you import the Millennium Falcon UCS with over 3000 bricks you don't really want to replace them in MODO.

Ah, I thought you were adding the logo with some kind of script to determine each stud.

[Renderbricks]

RENDERING SITREP

There's a polygon error inside the front of the cockpit. Investigation in progress...

Well, only the low resolution of the regular angular stud exist too, so it must have been substituted with a true cylinder at some time in the LDraw -> MODO conversion. Since the beveled stud can be easily defined mathematically (cyinder+torus+disk) it should be possible to get a non-facetized render.

This is a more tricky issue, but I think it should vanish if you use a higher resolution torus.

Not a big deal to change ;) How much thinning percentage is needed, according to you?

Due to the rounding effect the LEGO logo is fine so far. Making it thinner would not help and it looks actually really good. Thanks!

Edited April 29, 2014 by virtualrepublic

[Renderbricks]

OK. Here's another update with logos on the studs. And due to the fix to get the LEGO logo right also other details will be fixed like the "textures" on the piece left back and the cockpit glass.

And here's a result where you see the missing panel in the cockpit now. The panel picture is modeled with MLCad I think and not based on a .dat model. Therefore the python script couldn't convert it. But in MLCad you can export in primitives and then you get the complete model but no separate bricks anymore. And this causes again problems with the rounding shader, low-res studs only as you can see and that's not the model I want to have. So I need to do more investigation and talk to the dev team of that LDR importer to fix this for the future.

Edited April 29, 2014 by virtualrepublic

[Superkalle]

Looking better and better.

Only major issue now is the greenish dark grey color that was pointed out earlier. Should be a cleaner dark grey without the green tint.

Also the surfaces of the bricks should generally be a bit more very glossy and clean, without so much roughness. see attached image

Besides that...great to watch the progress

[Renderbricks]

The roughness is a result of low samples atm. I will check the greenish grey later. Next steps - when I worked out the perfect method to import the models I will work on two shader: one for the edges adding scratches and bumps and one for the faces adding very subtle scratches and bump to make the faces looking more imperfect. Lot of work to do.

Edited April 29, 2014 by virtualrepublic

[legolijntje]

I just saw you render the images on 1920x1080. If you keep doing that (also with other models), you will build up a fantastic collection of wallpapers!

Only "problem" is that I have a dual monitor setup and I use dual monitor wallpapers, so I have to stitch 2 1920x1080 together to makea 3840x1080

But, yea, it looks better and better. It's also interesting to be able to not only read but also see your progress. And, maybe at some point, you will reach the perfect imperfection to make it as realistic as possible

[Renderbricks]

I just saw you render the images on 1920x1080. If you keep doing that (also with other models), you will build up a fantastic collection of wallpapers!

Only "problem" is that I have a dual monitor setup and I use dual monitor wallpapers, so I have to stitch 2 1920x1080 together to makea 3840x1080

But, yea, it looks better and better. It's also interesting to be able to not only read but also see your progress. And, maybe at some point, you will reach the perfect imperfection to make it as realistic as possible

Tell me what you want and I will render it *:-)

[legolijntje]

Tell me what you want and I will render it *:-)

Well, if you're asking....

It would be amazing if you could make a 3840x1080 wallpaper with all the Lego Technic supercars (853/956, 8860, 8865, 8880, 8448, 8070). Blakbird rendered something like that a while ago (but not in that size and without the 8070) which you can view here. But, it's quite a big project.... You need all 6 LDraw files. They already exist (although I'm not sure about the 8070), but I'm not sure if anyone has uploaded them on the internet.

[lego2lego]

The model (8070) is available here, it's without the flex axles but Blakbird did add them and made a render. Don't know why he didn't include it in the poster.

So, yeah a lot of work.

Beautiful renders by the way, shame it's quite an expensive piece of software for a hobby.

[Renderbricks]

The model (8070) is available here, it's without the flex axles but Blakbird did add them and made a render. Don't know why he didn't include it in the poster.

So, yeah a lot of work.

Beautiful renders by the way, shame it's quite an expensive piece of software for a hobby.

When I have finished the research I will take a look.

[Renderbricks]

When I have finished the research I will take a look.

The Foundry sells als a student version of MODO.

[Renderbricks]

Here are the actual renderings with the LEGO RGB Colors from the Peeron Color List.

+++

I made intense tests with high-res studs and bevels I created in Primitive Generator 2 to have a fixed size of the bevels and adjust the LEGO logo and edges by the rounding feature. But finally the result was the same and the geometry is much higher. Here's a pretty nice 4K render what took 14 minutes on my DELL: http://lego.virtualr...RGB_Wide_4K.jpg

Edited April 30, 2014 by virtualrepublic

[Renderbricks]

Here's another test with a Technic model sent by lego2lego for a nice wallpaper in 3840 x 1080. Rendering took 10 minutes. *:-)

Unfortunately MLCad reports missing parts. So it's incomplete but the level is detail is impressive. Please not that some roughness isn't a texture. It's caused by still too low samples. And there are mirrored LEGO studs. No idea why. But my actual setup works also here pretty well. Next steps is to create a library for MODO for all LEGO materials. This stuff is really addictive *:-)