Photoreal LEGO Rendering

[Alucard77]

I've got this beloved Snowspeeder and honestly your render is awesome !

[Angmarec]

Can you discrabe the final solution of lego logo on studs, and attach files you use.

[Renderbricks]

Can you discrabe the final solution of lego logo on studs, and attach files you use.

There are some optional .dat files with different LEGO logo variations. I used one with a simple extruded LEGO logo and replaced them with the official stud.dat and stud2.dat. But there are also some other special parts I had to edit what isn't that hard if you understand the .dat format. MODO has a feature called "Rounded Edge" in the materials what fakes a bevel. It's not 100% identical with a real bevel but very close to it. Noone will really recognize the difference. A real bevel would increase the geometry dramatically.

[Angmarec]

I wanted to try modo, but i never use it before, can you help me plese?

I import model to blender using script. I export model to *.obj. In modo i import model from obg, but it did not appers on stage. Stage is steel empty, What i am doing wrong?

...Very strange, it appers, after, i did nothing))

Edited May 24, 2014 by Angmarec

[Renderbricks]

I wanted to try modo, but i never use it before, can you help me plese?

I import model to blender using script. I export model to *.obj. In modo i import model from obg, but it did not appers on stage. Stage is steel empty, What i am doing wrong?

...Very strange, it appers, after, i did nothing))

You want to export from BLENDER to fbx. Then you need to cleanup the models and delete the fbx normals after the cleanup. Not before. And also important: scale down the geometry to the correct size. In MODO there's a dimension tool what shows the scale of objects in mm. In my tests I did a scale down to 10% what isn't 100% correct. Just export a 1x1 brick and check out in MODO what the scaling must be to get an 8mm x 8mm size. You need to get familar with MODO because the concept is different to other 3d apps. Especially with the shader and material tree. It's a very powerful concept but confusing at the beginning. Use the help system of MODO to understand the material settings.

Edited May 25, 2014 by virtualrepublic

[Angmarec]

and delete the fbx normals

can you describe step by step, how to do it? I found how to clean up model, but stuck with this

[Angmarec]

I understand how to work with material in modo( i think so ). My problem is exporting. I use this script. But when I export it from blender there are pretty much different options. Can you screen what are you choose there. And how od you cleun up model, and delete normals.

[Renderbricks]

Next step. I added a bump to the slopes but I get stucked by another issue now. When I select the polygons and add the noise bump this way I'll lose the round edge shading. The polygon method is the fastest way but I guess I need to do it by a texture projection. What means: more work.

Edited May 27, 2014 by virtualrepublic

[Renderbricks]

I understand how to work with material in modo( i think so ). My problem is exporting. I use this script. But when I export it from blender there are pretty much different options. Can you screen what are you choose there. And how od you cleun up model, and delete normals.

Use the latest LDR-Importer 1.1.5.

When you export from Blender to fbx turn off all options. After importing to MODO you select all models and do a clean up. Then you go to the "Vertex Map List" tab of the window with the "Item List" tab (Render) where you will find the FBX Normals and right-click delete them. You select the Folder of all items and scale this down to 10% (I still did not check the correct scaling yet to get the original measure of the bricks but 10% is close to it). You need to move your imported materials between Base Shader and Base Material. Your LUT should be set to sRGB. Unfortunately the RGB values need to be gamma corrected with 0.45 manually. I'll do this in the Schematic Window with a Gamma node I will pipe into the material node. And finally the colors are not 100% correct. Use http://www.peeron.com/inv/colors to set the right RGB values. I am at home atm and can't check MODO. I have to write down all my steps before I'll forget all the little details I worked out because the stuff is getting really complex now. The optimal method will be to setup a material preset in MODO for the LDRAW imports to replace the imported materials with the final ones by one click. But I don't have real references for a lot of special materials. There's still a lot to do.

Edited May 26, 2014 by virtualrepublic

[Angmarec]

Thanks a lot.

You need to move your imported materials between Base Shader and Base Material.

Yep, i figured it out after few hours of white renders)))

About color i have few thoughts. There are defenition of color for Pov-ray http://guide.lugnet.com/color/ And most of those colors looks pretty real. So probably we can use it.

Edited May 27, 2014 by Angmarec

[Bob De Quatre]

Next step. I added a bump to the slopes but I get stucked by another issue now. When I select the polygons and add the noise bump this way I'll lose the round edge shading. The polygon method is the fastest way but I guess I need to do it by a texture projection. What means: more work.

*snip*

Looks really nice! You're close to your goal

I think the slopes should be a little grainy, and you could lower the reflection a bit.

[Renderbricks]

Thanks a lot. Yep, i figured it out after few hours of white renders)))

About color i have few thoughts. There are defenition of color for Pov-ray http://guide.lugnet.com/color/ And most of those colors looks pretty real. So probably we can use it.

Nice link.

[Angmarec]

here file, i used for pov-ray. It is compilation from all those files for great amount colors, used in lego. It was made by Chris Mitilo and i think it can help

[Infernum]

Wow! I can't tell the difference between your renders and actual sets! Incredible work!

[Jim]

Next step. I added a bump to the slopes but I get stucked by another issue now. When I select the polygons and add the noise bump this way I'll lose the round edge shading. The polygon method is the fastest way but I guess I need to do it by a texture projection. What means: more work.

OMG!!!!

That's all I can say

[OscarWRG]

Wow, amazing Work

[Renderbricks]

When I have time I will share some stuff for the MODO guys here *:-)

Edited May 27, 2014 by virtualrepublic

[Angmarec]

- reduced bevels from 500 um to 300 um

i can't found where i can set it.

And about scaling. If you set 0.1 scale while importing ldraw to blender, you have to scale you model to 0.04 in Modo. ANd it will much perfect size

Edited May 27, 2014 by Angmarec

[okiba75]

This is some very impressive work - these renders are very photorealistic!

I wonder if you could offer a service to the many people on here who make LDraw MOCs to show them how their creation would look in real life before they build it

[Zeon]

Your renders are more than impressive, I'm speechless. I was always after high-res renders of lego sets to be used as wallpapers, even made some humble attemps in pov-ray (and now sir, I'm on the edge of being ashamed of them), I hope when you reach your holy grail of auto-conversion, you'll do a few renders for the classic town community too :)

The 8K render is almost photorealistic to the 100% zoom for my untrained eye. This is where I envy your work turning into your hobby.

Keep up the great work, I see you got some people started with MODO :)

[Blakbird]

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.

Because I didn't make that render. I don't know who did. I do have models of pretty much every Technic set though if they are needed.

[jeffnf]

Holy crap this is impressive work!

[Phoxtane]

[image removed as per moderator request]

How hard is it to set this up? I think I can handle it - my computer has four cores to work with but only 4 gigs of RAM - and I'd love to do these, especially since it seems to give better results than LDD-to-POVRay *and* takes less time. Would it be possible for you to make some sort of write-up on how you do this?

Edited July 7, 2014 by Phoxtane

[Zeon]

How hard is it to set this up? I think I can handle it - my computer has four cores to work with but only 4 gigs of RAM - and I'd love to do these, especially since it seems to give better results than LDD-to-POVRay *and* takes less time. Would it be possible for you to make some sort of write-up on how you do this?

Don't forget he does it on a monster machine that would cost you half a kingdom with a software that is both hard to use and expensive :) He promised to write up some guidance as soon as he can make his filters or effects and scripts right.

[Phoxtane]

I must have missed that bit. I'm sure I can make it work though! Besides, I will be getting a new computer hopefully this fall that's got a lot more oomph to it...

How does one get 12 cores in one computer anyway, unless it's one of those blade-based systems?