grainy sloped bricks material

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Does anyone know how to achieve that grainy look of those skew parts on slope bricks?

Do I need to find some custom materials/bricks somewhere for LDraw as it was with the "lego-on-stud" problem or should it be handled in rendering program, I am using Blender with Cycles renderer so solutions for POVRay don't apply here for me. :(

I was looking for this stuff on Google and also here on the forum but no luck with it...

Also if you know of any other process that would add bevel to bricks like LDView's "seam" function please let me know here if you can, please.

P.S.: ideal solution would be such that is completly made within LDraw itself without need to export to any other format than its native .ldr as now there is an option in Blender to load .ldr files directly... ;)

Thanx in advance

Edited May 7, 2014 by bublible

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hahahaaa, GOT IT...and again found it myself playing with Blender so as you may guess: yes, it is made in Blender...oooh being sooooo happy now :D

So now all that left for me is to find a way how to achieve "seams" effect from LDView without need of LDView... ;)

Later will explain how to add that grain effect to the skew parts of the slope bricks in my future LDD to Blender tutorial, so finaly!

THINGS TO ACHIEVE:

1. "lego-on-studs".....OK

2. partial "grain" look for skew parts of some slope bricks.....OK

3. find a way to apply "seam" effect presented in LDView...fail

Edited May 8, 2014 by bublible

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TRADAAAAA...mission succesufly done: :)

1. "lego-on-studs".....OK (using modified LDraw bricks)

2. partial "grain" look for skew parts of some slope bricks.....OK (using Blender editing just the skew face of only single one brick applying separate material for that part and then linking all such bricks to this one as "Object Data", so any change on the first one appears on any brick linked to this one)

3. find a way to apply "seam" effect presented in LDView.....OK (using Blender modifier called "SimpleDeform" applied on every brick)

Ah, nice...tommorow will be THE day ;) So now after the good work was done gotta go to sleep...see you

Edited May 9, 2014 by bublible

[Darats]

I'm not using Blender but I'm creating my own library of LGEO-type parts to replace ldraw ones for rendering.

Than I can add bevels on sharp edges, to have the seam between bricks, and also change some surfaces to grainy ones.

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I'm not using Blender but I'm creating my own library of LGEO-type parts to replace ldraw ones for rendering.

Than I can add bevels on sharp edges, to have the seam between bricks, and also change some surfaces to grainy ones.

Yes, that is basically the same as I have done in Blender... ;)

But in fact in Blender it is much faster actually, as you do not need to building your own bricks, instead you just add modifier and that's it, besides it introduces another quite pleasing effect of sort like real life inaccuracy of bricks and one is able - if he wants to play with it - set values for each brick separately...and you can switch it off/on as you will having back your original unmodified brick(s)

BTW: can you tell how do you make your own bricks? in what sw, format..any tutorial? :) you could do one tutorial here about this if you don't mind tho as I think many would be interested including myself ;)

BTW2: your renders are one of my favorites as I wrote elsewhere

Edited May 9, 2014 by bublible

[Darats]

I'm modeling with Catia and export to stl to import it in Pov Ray. I'm modeling from scratch, so I can't really make any tutorial.

[Leewan]

I'm modeling with Catia and export to stl to import it in Pov Ray. I'm modeling from scratch, so I can't really make any tutorial.

Which software do you use to convert the .stl into a pov file ?

[Darats]

You can find something called stl2pov somewhere on the net.

Just google it.

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hey guys, after several days of really very very intensive coding/scripting/programing in Python big thing will happen soon, just a few days later: I finaly made Blender script addon that enables automatically this kind of things by just one click on button:

• add seams to bricks with dynamic width therefore more ralistic seams look can be achieved
  
• automatic replacement for selected slope bricks adding grain to their sloped parts
  
• lego-on-studs
  
• automatic corrections of some colors like gold
  
• repairing face smoothness on some slope "computer" bricks
  

+ I also write one really long and extremely detailed tutorial how to LDD/LDraw to Blender with Cycles realistic rendering including all needed files, download links etc. everything in one place ...finally, cos I always want people to have everything concentrated to one post not needed finding bits and peaces here or there and mostly being in a mess...so wait a few days more, people ;)

Edited May 13, 2014 by bublible

[Scrubs]

I'm looking forward to reading your tutorial.

[Renderbricks]

1. "lego-on-studs".....OK (using modified LDraw bricks)

The same I do.

2. partial "grain" look for skew parts of some slope bricks.....OK (using Blender editing just the skew face of only single one brick applying separate material for that part and then linking all such bricks to this one as "Object Data", so any change on the first one appears on any brick linked to this one)

That's nice.

3. find a way to apply "seam" effect presented in LDView.....OK (using Blender modifier called "SimpleDeform" applied on every brick)

Did you check if this won't destroy or mess up some geometry? In MODO I use a shader option called "rounded edge". This will fake a bevel edge what will give you automatically a seam effect. If you look very, very close you'll see that the bevels are faked but it will keep the original more simple geometry. To add bevels by an operator failed. It frakks up the geometry here and also round faces will be beveled. And without instances the geometry will grow insanely. I did some tests with LEGO studs using their own bevel because the bevels are bigger compared to the edges of the bricks. I used a tool called Primitive Generator but it made the bevels too complex and a test showed up that a model like the Millennium Falcon UCS will have so much more geometry what makes no sense then.

What is very important. Your converter should take care about instances. A brick used 100 times should use one master and 99 instances. Is this what you talk about in 2.? Linked duplicates? With this you can deal with very complex models. Actually the file size of the Millennium Falcon is 1.6 GB here in MODO. With instances it should be significantly less.

Edited May 14, 2014 by virtualrepublic

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The same I do.

Right...as many others ;)

That's nice.

Yea, it is, indeed :D

Did you check if this won't destroy or mess up some geometry? In MODO I use a shader option called "rounded edge". This will fake a bevel edge what will give you automatically a seam effect. If you look very, very close you'll see that the bevels are faked but it will keep the original more simple geometry. To add bevels by an operator failed. It frakks up the geometry here and also round faces will be beveled. And without instances the geometry will grow insanely. I did some tests with LEGO studs using their own bevel because the bevels are bigger compared to the edges of the bricks. I used a tool called Primitive Generator but it made the bevels too complex and a test showed up that a model like the Millennium Falcon UCS will have so much more geometry what makes no sense then.

Well, actually, I made it in another way in final script: scaling in microsize with dynamic random values added to every brick which causes some reallife inaccuracy although not much visible as we talking about micronumber but it is there anyway, cos Deform introduces some problems with bricks being rotated that didn't look quote right. Also my script works very tight with another great addon called LDR Import that imports our .ldr DIRECTLY INTO BLENDER and they do many good stuff upon import itself so I basicly added all that was missing + I corrected some of their errors like strange shading on slope computer bricks etc., just wait for the release of my addon...BTW: simple beveling didn't work cos upon import of the .ldr it does many things to the bricks thus beveling do not work right, strange things happen to bricks if you do that, also simple beveling DOES NOT THE THE RIGHT THING: in real LEGO the seams is caused by NOT THOROUGHLY STICKED to previous brick and not by having bevel, so the scale effect is more exact as we talk about comparing to real bricks ;)

What is very important. Your converter should take care about instances. A brick used 100 times should use one master and 99 instances. Is this what you talk about in 2.? Linked duplicates? With this you can deal with very complex models. Actually the file size of the Millennium Falcon is 1.6 GB here in MODO. With instances it should be significantly less.

No, you got it wrong: my script do not replace MATERIAL, but instead NODES IN A MATERIAL, somnothing change or is added except that the material data change...very neat, isn't it? ;)

P.S.: oh,,and BTW, Erich von Daniken is here in Trnava this evening and I go to his seminar...being sooo happyyyyy!!! :D

Edited May 14, 2014 by bublible

[Renderbricks]

I am in contact with the author(s) of the LDR-Importer for a while. They are rewriting it completely but the actual version 1.1 works very nice. the 1.1.5 version is unfortunately 10 times slower. They will consider instances (linked duplication) in Blender what will be supported by the Collada format, too.

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I am in contact with the author(s) of the LDR-Importer for a while. They are rewriting it completely but the actual version 1.1 works very nice. the 1.1.5 version is unfortunately 10 times slower. They will consider instances (linked duplication) in Blender what will be supported by the Collada format, too.

Oh, sounds great to me...I am using 1.1.5 right now and yea it takes like 5 mins to load the model...but as I am quite such a restless guy I decided not to wait for the new version and rather repair what looks wrong to me caused by their importer (like strange shading on slope computer brick mainly) :D

Also maybe you could tell them to include AUTOMATIC SEAM effect (quite easy to do in the script itself) + adding grain to skew parts of slope bricks...or I could send the code part to them if they wish (tho I think they are clever enough to do it themselves, but if not...they can contact me, before I release my stuff...or maybe we could join my achievements not included in their importer and make one including their and my works?)

Edited May 14, 2014 by bublible

[Renderbricks]

Use the 1.1 version. I couldn't see a difference in the results.

Edited May 14, 2014 by virtualrepublic

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Use the 1.1 version. I couldn't see a difference in the results.

I ddll it today and try it later...thanx for advice

BTW: did you already asks those authors of LDR Import (as you said you are being in contact with them) what I said, please? Like joining what I have with what they have?

Edited May 15, 2014 by bublible

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Use the 1.1 version. I couldn't see a difference in the results.

Well, I have installed v1.1 and do not know how about you but here it still loading .ldr like 5 minutes, exactly as mentioned "wrong" v1.1.5

[Renderbricks]

Well, I have installed v1.1 and do not know how about you but here it still loading .ldr like 5 minutes, exactly as mentioned "wrong" v1.1.5

The latest 1.1.5 should have fixed that. When you use the Unofficial folder in LDRAW also the LSynth data will be upported because the LSXX.dat files are in the unofficial parts folder, too. Usually LSynth installs its own folder and they will add the folder to their script. And there's one file called LS22.dat where the author name contains an "ö" what will stop LDR-Importer to load with an Unicode error. Changing the "ö" to an "oe" will fix this.

"0 Author: Fredrik Glöckner" > "0 Author: Fredrik Gloeckner"

Edited May 17, 2014 by virtualrepublic

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The latest 1.1.5 should have fixed that. When you use the Unofficial folder in LDRAW also the LSynth data will be upported because the LSXX.dat files are in the unofficial parts folder, too. Usually LSynth installs its own folder and they will add the folder to their script. And there's one file called LS22.dat where the author name contains an "ö" what will stop LDR-Importer to load with an Unicode error. Changing the "ö" to an "oe" will fix this.

"0 Author: Fredrik Glöckner" > "0 Author: Fredrik Gloeckner"

That's OK, but I am telling you that both 1.1 and 1.1.5 are loading my .ldr file like for about 5 minutes...so I guess v1.1.5 did not repair this.

[Renderbricks]

That's OK, but I am telling you that both 1.1 and 1.1.5 are loading my .ldr file like for about 5 minutes...so I guess v1.1.5 did not repair this.

Are you using the actual 1.1.5? Because in the actual 1.1.5 you can download from github they'd fixed it. If it takes as long as in 1.1 it's fixed otherwise it would take 9 times longer. The time you need with 1.1. is the reference.

5 Minutes importing sounds normal to me if it's not such a complex model. I did actually an import of the Technic Unimog model with all LSynth parts and labels and it took over 4 hours. The resulting Blender file is 390 MB and the FBX export is 747 MB. I hope they can speed up the conversion overall.

https://github.com/le717/LDR-Importer

Edited May 17, 2014 by virtualrepublic

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Well, then it's probably OK that 5 minutes loading time - I am only loading my test file of set #493 which has 40mb still working on my Blender LEGO addon (actually all is functional except one thing that for some strange reason rotation of replaced bricks do not work, gotta find what is wrong but being lost at the moment for a few days... ), so I can return to v1.1.5

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... (actually all is functional except one thing that for some strange reason rotation of replaced bricks do not work, gotta find what is wrong but being lost at the moment for a few days... )...

Well, today I successfully found out why the rotation does not work in my script: it is because of LDR Import script - although it places all the bricks in the exact right rotation to the scene it states brick's rotation values wrongly in Blender's GUI in object rotation fields where all bricks are stated as their rotation is always 0, but it should correspond to .ldr brick's rotation (which is not), and therefore newly replaced bricks are always not rotated (rotation = 0) simply because of this fact alone...and I think this could be clearly taken as a bug in LDR Import addon script

Aaaaah, so many days lost scratching my head thinking I did something wrong just to find out it is not my fault...probably

Edited May 17, 2014 by bublible