matt_one

It's that poor red little thing a minifig? Wow, it's very huge! Nice work, I like it. It surely deserves some good rendered images.

Very nice! I think that proportions you give it are the real value of this creation. Color scheme is awesome. I'm going to see it on Flickr. Nice job!

Thank you very much! Don't be fooled by the pictures, the model has a certain degree of mobility, but definitely not what you see in the poses shown. Unfortunately, to pose the model in LDD is not easy, indeed it is often frustrating and unpredictable, and just the slightest interference can prevents all movement. Also, not doing renderings with Pov-ray would force me to set again scene and materials for each pose, therefore I prefer to pose the model in the rendering program. My ultimate goal is simply to get the renderings, so I don't care about the robustness of the model and its eventual building with real bricks.

Thank you! You will not find any Gundam Chroma S1 Virya on anime series. This one and other my models are completely invented. Thanks! Thank you! Soon I'm going to render other two poses I would like to make with it. You can find other pictures on my Flickr's album, but mainly pictures of work in progress and head's studies. Sorry, it cannot fit a pilot, the chest was a lot complex to do and I really don't like Lego minifigs.

The evolution of my first LDD creation, Rx-013 Nova. Hope you like it!

Thanks virtualrepublic! Actually this image has only HDRI ligthing, without any other light source. I'm not so expert with Simlab Composer to manage lights properly. I noticed that those halos are not visible in other pictures with different background, expecially when enabling environment reflection on the floor. I will check out if there is some options in Simlab to get 16/32 bit renderings. Thank you again!

I have a question for you, virtualrepublic. Why in some of my pictures, expecially those with grey background, there are those concentric circular halos? ( see the attached image from Simlab Composer ) I'd never see them again in my pictures, but I would like to understand why, Tried to do some searches in Google but get no results about that issue. Thank you in advance!

You're running in "God" mode!

Maybe my eye is not so good, but these images are wonderful.

Have I already said you that is breathtaking?

SimLab products are available for a 15 days trial ( at least SimLab Composer, that I'm trying right now ).

I have also asked myself the same question a little time ago. I want to start by saying that I'm absolutely not an expert in 3d graphics Like you, I started to build my stuffs with LegoDigitalDesigner a few months ago and render them with POVray. I'm satisfied with both programs, but POVray has very long rendering times and I was tired to wait 6 hours or more for get my rendered pictures ( sometimes 10-12 hours for bigger models ). virtualrepublic has already answered you in a comprehensive manner: LDD2POVray is the simplest and the only way to render directly from LDD. Other solutions requires more steps to do and, furthermore, to learn the use of a new software. It is also true that, no matter how little it is, even LDDtoPOVray requires some learning. I'm trying right now an interesting alternative, the only alternatIve I've found so far to come out from LDD. I was reading another virtualrepublic's topic some days ago, in which another user, Alcom1, describes how to extract LDD geometries in a 3dxml file with 3dviaprinter, a 3DS software, by simple pressing a key. Alcom1 then converted 3dxml format with a Simlab's plugin for 3D StudioMAX. I tried the conversion from LDD to 3dxml and it works very well, though geometries from LDD aren't so hi-res. I've found out that Simlab has a software, Simlab Composer, that can read directly 3dxml and make good renderings. There's a 15 days trial version on Simlab website, fully functional as regard rendering, only save options are disabled. I'm trying it now and it's pretty simple to use, obviously it requires a minimum of practice but in few time I was able to make good renderings ( i.e. a 3200x1800 picture in 20 minutes ). You can easily get an idea of ​​the rendering's quality by visiting the gallery on Simlab website.

Thanks! I agree with you about the glass floor, but I'm leaving Povray's renderings and trying Simlab Composer. Now rendering time is decreased drastically with it.

The very important thing for me now is to be able to come out from LDD. I'm not searching for absolute photorealism, since I'm focusing more on design side. The chance to reduce rendering time using Simlab ( I'm testing it right now ) instead of Povray is great. I took a ride to MODO site, very impressive but it seems less user-friendly than Simlab. I would not compare it to MODO, however, but keep in mind that I was a simple LddtoPovRay converter user until yesterday. I don't have enough time to get a hard-life learning a complex software. I agree with you about how would be nice to have more export options in LDD!

Really impressive! Do you used light source placed in the scene or HDR image as source?

I'm sure my brother knows how to get better geometries and fake bevels in Lightwave. The problem, as he said me, is working on a large imported model. He told me about some scripting in order to get all bevels on all parts. He made some optimizations on one of my models to increase the resolution of geometry ( only on the head you see below, about 50 bricks ) but geometries are still a bit jagged. I must, however, correct what I said about the software used. My brother's experiments between 3DXML and Lightwave were limited to the head below. About my recent pictures posted, due to my misunderstanding and to not having read one of his email, I said that they were made with Lightwave. Wrong! My brother made them with Simlab Composer and I'm going to download now the trial version. For my needs, the results achieved with this software are very nice. The interoperability between Simlab and 3dxml is good, as I have seen on my models rendering. Apparently it seems we do not miss anything, all geometries are there, bright and shining! And, first of all, I get my models out from Ldd simply pressing a keyborad's key, no further steps needed! I'm sorry to have said something wrong, but I'm new with all this stuffs. I've started using Ldd last September only.

Leewan, my core i7 tooks 6,5 hours for that head in Final mode, with HDR source image and glass-type floor. I'm happy with that results but I can't figure out how long would be rendering the whole 27,5 inches model ( still under construction ) with Povray.

Hi Leewan, some good results are possible with Povray ( check out this ) : but I agree with you that these results are not comparable to other rendering engines. Povray's rendering times are frustrating!

Hi virtualrepublic! No hi-res geometry from LLD, unfortunately. My brother has done some enhancements in Lightwave, but no bevels and no studs. It all depends on what you want to achieve. Personally I don't care about logo on studs : as a matter of fact I try as much as possible to hide them. I'm focused only on mech's digital design and their look is all I care. But if you want Lego bricks photorealism, you need good geometries, bevels and logos. Thanks Palathadric! My brother does some recent renderings, but I've made a lot by myself with Povray. Check out my Flickr albums!

My brother Max has done it, opened 3dxml file with a trial version of Simlab PDF 3d and converted it to fbx and obj. My rendering attempts was done with Povray only ( I've posted another picture in "Lego renderings - POVRay" topic ). I was happy with the results, but rendering time is so long! I will check that Modo software, as you suggested me.

another one. don't remember how long it tooks to compute it...

POVRay was not bad at all, but rendering times are really big. It took more of 6 hours to get this picture :

Thank you! These results were possible by reading your posts, finally I can leave POVray ( good, but too much rendering time ). Thus, thank you again! Software : 1) Lego Digital Designer - modelling 2) 3dviaprintscreen - converting model to 3dxml 3) Lightwave and some converter plugin fo rendering ( my brother, an advanced Lightwave user, done this rendering, not me ). I've seen your renderings, they are super-cool and way more realistic! Newtek Lightwave!

my last attempt to get some better result:

Well done! I like the design of Bomber ( I like Fighter and Gunship too ) and choosen colors.