Renderbricks

Yes. Hi-poly models with optional LEGO logos for the studs is missing here. But I won't complain. MECABRICKS is nice. For a background I could arrange some stuff from Modular Buildings... later... maybe *:-)

Ghostbusters Time!

MODO

Thanks! The models from LDRAW will give better results because they have a higher mesh and you can add LEGO logos onto the studs. The LDD models are nice but in low-res only. I wished LEGO would give us much better converted models from their original CAD database. But MECABRICKS is the most easy way to get models into MODO. I am in contact with Scrubs who is doing an awesome job. The LDRAW or LDD way takes much more effort and tricks to transfer models. Well, if the world would be easy, there would be no challange, passion and satisfaction. *:-) Display pictures and click into the 4K version. I need to fix some grain in the renderings.

Hi LEGO-Addicts *:-) I had a longer break from my research about photoreal LEGO renderings with LDRAW and LDD models. Then I got attention about MECABRICKS. The latest version supports OBJ export and here's a first test in 3840 x 2160. Everything looks awesome. If there were hi-res bricks and parts it would be super-awesome. Good job, Scrubs! *;-)

Thanks for the OBJ exporter. Everything looks awesome. *:-)

My deepest sympathies from Germany. *:-(

Unbelievable awesome!!!

NICE! You have a LDD file for a render test?

Nice render. I never checked out SimLab this way. I guess the background halo (vignette) is created by a lighting falloff what is a nice effect. The concentric circular halos is a typical effect when you have a limited color gradient in 8bit. Especially when you have a ramp from dark grey to black the colors are more limited. You can fix this by adding a noise onto your picture or the software has a feature to compensate this by adding some kind of noise to the ramp. Rendering in 16/32bit (higher color depth) will usually fix this.

As I understand it's not possible to build this with LDD due to bending parts? What about the outer hull only? I am really interested to render this masterpiece in MODO. If you have other MOC's prepared in LDD or MLCad just contact me. http://www.eurobrick...showtopic=95292

I WANT TO RENDER THIS!

I saw this yesterday and it's absolutely mind-blowing. You should apply to LEGO for a dream job as a set designer. I am wondering how you design and plan a construction like this before you start to build. Do you use tools like LDD?

Well. The two methods I had actually worked out are not that simple. I still need to write everything down to keep all steps in my mind. LDRAW The main way to get models from LDRAW into MODO is using BLENDER. OBJ or 3DS give bad results. There's a python script called LDR-Importer. Usually you can export a LDD model to LDR but this method has some issues. The ldraw.xml file in the LDD folder isn't supporting all parts for LDRAW. And I think that LDRAW lacks of actual LDD pieces. Let's say we have a perfect LDR model. This has to be imported into Blender. Depending on the complexity it might take a while. The Millennium Falcon took over two hours to import if I remember right. For the studs with the LEGO logo you need to replace the files in the LDRAW library. Actually I use a simple version but I realized that I need pre-beveled studs to make it perfect. But this will increase the geometry dramatically. Save the Blender result first and export it to FBX or COLLADA. I would recommend to use FBX actually because for COLLADA you need another script to rename the pieces first because the COLLADA exporter will cut the names which are part numbers and replace the first number with an underscore what will mess up the naming if you need to identify bricks by numbers later. The COLLADA file will be important when the LDR-Importer will support instances of bricks. What means: if a model is using copies of a brick there should be one master brick and instance copies of them. This would allow MODO to deal with extremely complex models. Actually I am using a 12 core DELL with 32 GB RAM. And the Millennium Falcon isn't easy to handle. Now you import the FBX file into MODO where you have to scale down the bricks and setup all imported materials. You need to replace the RGB values with the Peeron Color list and additonally you need to do a gamma correction of 0.45. I am using a HDR picture for the lighting. Actually I am working on a LDRAW material library. When I import the models I just replace the imported materials with the library by using the same material tags. But it's not complete yet. The slopes are tricky because I don't see an automatic method for the grainy texturing. As you see the whole process is more complex. To write it down gives me a headache. The best would be I prepare a simple scene and share it. LDD As mentioned you can export to LDR but there are issues depending on the model. Parts will be misplaced or missing what can be fixed with some editing. But this isn't a very efficient way. The other method is to capture the geometry directly from LDD with 3Dvia Printscreen. The result is a format called 3dxml and you need SimLab Composer for this. From there you can export again to FBX and the imported scene has to be aligned and scaled in MODO to the correct LEGO measure. Also here you should habe a material library based on the LDD materials. Otherwise you have to edit everything from scratch everytime you import something new. What I did actually is to create a LDD scene with all bricks using the colors from the LDD color list and imported this into MODO. I made a first setup with 2x2 bricks of all the materials. Unfortunately I need real references of those special metal or glitter materials. Someone gave me a helpful link to a POV-Ray library. I had no time yet to check this out if I can "convert" them to MODO. http://guide.lugnet.com/color/ Sorry that I can't give more helpful details atm. Please be patient. My life is a bit too intense to speed everything up. I'll be back.

Holy LEGO. As a 3d artist for over 20 years I am speechless that this is build with LDD. You are a genius. Now I am wondering if I am able to render such a masterpiece in MODO. *:-)

Yes, MODO has a baking feature and I think the rounded edge effect will be converted to a normal map. But I am not sure, yet.

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

Nice link.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Yes. There is no texture like this. The problem is that I can't do that automatically because there's no texture information when I import the models. What I need to do is to tag the polygons for a procedural bump texture. But when you have a model with hundreds of slopes it makes no sense. I hope the next importer supports instances. Then changing a few master slopes manually should be worth the little time.

Final adjustments of today. Something between low and high reflective. Click on picture to take a look at the 8K version what took 4 hours to render. At this resolution the LDRAW bricks look still fine.

I don't think it's a problem in general. LDD is a free product for the masses and I guess LEGO will keep it simple. Hopefully not. The question is: will read LEGO this thread? *:-P