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The Real Indiana Jones

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  1. The Real Indiana Jones
    All right, the renders are all complete... And I might jazz them up a bit more! If you want to join the discussion, come on over to the newly launched Project Cover Page at http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/52602 We are voting on new name, and then it's time to start actively publicizing!
  2. The Real Indiana Jones
    Hmmmm... I notice that every one of the sets I am tracking (including mine and several other different builders) have all had zero new votes added for more than three solid days now. Most of them usually get several votes per day normally, so obviously something is happening... Has anyone else noticed the same thing? Are they doing something behind the scenes? I know that from time to time, they freeze the vote totals while they are purging out cheaters (e.g. people with multiple accounts). How long does that usually take? Any intel? Any guesses?
  3. The Real Indiana Jones
    OK, great! I think that they were not allowing certain HTML codes to be inserted before, but now (wisely) they do. target="_blank" also works, and opens multiple tabs for each. Thanks! =D
  4. The Real Indiana Jones
    Here's a technical Cuusoo question: Is there any way to get it to open a link to a Flickr slideshow in a new window or a new tab, rather than leaving the Cuusoo page? They can always come right back to Cuusoo by pressing the back button, but naturally I'd rather have it open in a new window or tab. Does anyone know how?
  5. The Real Indiana Jones
    Oh yeah, a big-fig mold would be supreme, but they can't do new molds for Cuusoo. A brick-built one would be cool too, but it would push the total price tag above the critical $130 point. I want to keep them all at that price point so they can sell them on the shelf at normal stores. $130 or $140 is the max!
  6. The Real Indiana Jones
    I'd love to see at least one set each for... A real Asgarian set for Thor. A Themyscira island set for Wonder Woman. And a Fortress of Solitude for Superman or for Man of Steel.
  7. The Real Indiana Jones
    And yes, a few other people have had similar thoughts, and I've been thinking about it..... So the first thing I did was simply to create a new "cover page" that features all of the sets together on one page, essentially just like everyone else does with themes on Cuusoo. So now people can click once to vote for the whole concept on one easy page, and then they can also vote for their favorite individual sets on separate pages, so that Lego will have a perfectly clear idea of which ones are the most popular in the end! Plus, it also brings all of the discussion onto one nice easy page. So far: 1) Sparta and Rome are definitely in the lead so far, with The Odyssey close behind... 2) At least 50% of voters are voting for all of the sets across the board. The new page should help to consolidate things... 3) The Glory of Rome has slowed down dramatically to just 3 votes per day, and it will take 5 years from now to finish... 4) Legolympus has slowed down even more sharply, and from this point it will take over 7 years from now to finish... 5) That gives me half a decade to publicize it to various Lego and non-Lego blogs and bump it up the ranks. After 500 votes, a project will pop up on the critical top 15 pages or so that all of the casual visitors normally browse through and click on out of idle curiosity. Once there, it gets a ton more visibility, and the perception of inevitability kicks in, and things start to accelerate very quickly! =)
  8. The Real Indiana Jones
    Absolutely, with the new CMF figs and a careful eye, you can do almost any major civilization... We just need more Inca, Maya, Aztec, and perhaps more India, China, etc. I am sure we'll see it soon!
  9. The Real Indiana Jones
    This is Dynamite!! I love that you gave some unique attention to the Dark Ages and Low Middle Ages, plus the Renaissance... A lot of builders skip over those! And then every century since the Renaissance has it's own little vignette, am I right? ...15th, ...16th, ...17th, ...18th, ...19th, ...Modernity! A+
  10. The Real Indiana Jones
    Yes, I just was exaggerating a bit. I know that they will have to wait. Plus I'm sure they will want to save the good news to balance out two or three more rejections. I am pretty sure that in the case of "A List" properties like Star Wars and TMNT, etc, the contracts are specifically written right from the start to deal with several different toy companies, and to clearly define who has the rights to produce what, before everyone signs on the dotted line. Most critically, they must clarify the legal grey-area of what exactly defines a "construction toy with minifigure playset" versus what is an "action figure playset" versus what is a "collector's shelf figurine", etc. I am guessing that all the companies involved just put their concept art images right there in the contract pages, and then all the competing toy companies all sign off on each other's designs right from the start, so no arguments pop up later. I'm sure that's also one of the many reasons they plan themes so far in advance. On the other hand, if a competing toy company like JazWares already has the exclusive right to make toys out of the characters, then they hold all the cards, and so they can demand a crazy amount of money, or just say flatly no. One force that might break the deadlock is if the IP creators really want the other toy company to cooperate with Lego, and so they can threaten to not renew the other company's contract after it's expiration date if they do not cooperate. I made the point a few times over on BrickSet, because a lot of people there were accusing Lego of being cheap, or lazy, or short-sighted, because they rejected their favorite video game... But there are many more difficult factors in the mix!
  11. The Real Indiana Jones
    Yes, you are probably right on... The gladiators are not a big deal, but it definitely hurts him. Lego did make the gladiator, but they won't do a set with blood sport or combat to the death or fighting versus real-world animals. So anyone who voted mainly for the gladiators, then their vote will have to be discounted, and that adds a big dose of ambiguity. Yes, the more serious business issue is the question of "Which set were people really voting for?" At his current rate, he will reach 10k in about 5 years. There's at least a few different Rome builders who could easily pass him in that time. And yep, and the wildcard issue is "What kind of person would slander and accuse Lego of fraud right there at the top of his Cuusoo page?" I'd say he's out! On a brighter note, I'm guessing that since they had to say no to so many proposed licences, and since they now have a backlog of open production slots to offer, then Japanese Architecture is pretty much a guaranteed "yes" at this point! Hopefully it will also help to reassure people who were embittered after the Modular Western Town (MWT) was pre-empted by Disney's Lone Ranger, since it is such a similar set in terms of scale and price-point, and it's a historical themed set very similar to the Western Town. Also to show that a Japanese-themed Cuusooo set can co-exist happily with an internal Lego property like Ninjago. If I were the Cuusoo Team, I would announce its approval as soon as it hits 10k in two more weeks, or they can wait, since they will probably have to drop even more bad news about Macross/Robotech, plus the next Zelda submission, plus Adventure Time, for which the exclusive license to make figures is held by JazWares Toys... They will definitely need at least one happy announcement to balance those three out!
  12. The Real Indiana Jones
    Hmm, yes, overall it seems like they are willing to let builders propose a wider theme, as long as each individual set is posted on its own individual page, so all voting is separate, and each one rises or falls by its own merits, and so they know which ones people really want. I think that they may be a bit more forgiving with projects like "Japanese Old-Style Architecture", where the three proposed sets are very similar in size and concept, so if people are voted for one of them, then they would probably gladly buy any of them in the end. And I want to ask about "The Glory of Rome" as an example. He has three images. One is a $13 gladiator battle pack. Another is a $30 set with a chariot and a campsite. The third is a $150++ warship that would need to include a minimum of 12 figs. So is "The Glory of Rome" doomed? I think it should be. Add to that: 1) I think they have already said no to gladiators and blood-sport, specifically when they rejected The Hunger Games. 2) He still has several new molds shown on his page, so thousands of his votes were gained in direct violation of the rules. 3) He gave up in a huff over a year ago, actually writing veiled accusations of fraud against TLG right there on his Cuusoo page! I might really like to see them make that giant war-ship as a UCS set, but overall I'd say he's doomed himself!
  13. The Real Indiana Jones
    Yes, I definitely remember reading one or two official-sounding statements about that several months ago, before I started designing. I'm sure I remember them saying very directly that putting multiple sets on one voting page is illegal, and for the exact same reasons you cite. When the project reaches 10,000, Lego does not have any clear way of knowing which project people were really voting for. Hmm, but now that they've rearranged their Knowledge Base and categorized FAQ into a more blog-style format, I can not find exactly where they said it. It may be that they are purposefully letting this question be vague, at least for now. Do you have any data on this?
  14. The Real Indiana Jones
    And here are the last four finals of the main images... As you can tell, some of these take a long time to compose and render, so I hope you like! This is the main Rome set. It also has a Hannibal's War-Elephant, and a full set of artillery, plus Forum monuments, a Triumphal Arch, and more... This is the Odyssey, including the Trojan Horse, Odysseus's ship, the Islands of the Cyclops and the Sirens, the Gates of Hades, and lots more... To give us something new for the Egyptians, I did Cleopatra's Royal Embassy Sail-Barge, a Nubian Tower, an Egyptian temple fortification, and more... And for the Titans set, you get a Bronze Colossus, black and white Pegasi, the Stygian Coven, Medusa's Temple, the Kraken, and the most gods of any set... These sets have been in the making for 36 years now. In sum, this is the fruit of the input of a hundred archaeologists, scientists, and historians from six continents, most of whom have 4-to-8-year-olds of their own now, and all of whom are thinking a lot about what kind of toys they want for their kids, now and in the near future. You can see the Flickr slideshow of all the hi-res images and concept art for the whole series. There are 9 sets in all... If you think that this sets a standard for design quality that Lego should uphold, or if you just want to see the possibility of more full themes from Cuusoo, or heck, if you just think that these will make a nice profit for Lego that will help fund everybody's favorite themes and dreams, then please come and vote for them all for free! And a big thanks once again to everybody! See you on Cuusoo... therealindy
  15. The Real Indiana Jones
    Wow, yes, these are all brilliant points! You should echo this over on BrickSet.com, since this topic seems to be raging over there. It's so fast, I can't keep up!
  16. The Real Indiana Jones
    Ah, well I am glad it is working for you! Yeah, just let it save the rendering files to wherever it wants, and you can always copy the PNG images to a different folder afterwards.
  17. The Real Indiana Jones
    Also, did you go through the "initial setup" steps on the LDDtoPOVRay page that involve setting up the "includes" files? http://ldd2povray.lddtools.com/index.php?p=2_13_Initial-settings This is the link.
  18. The Real Indiana Jones
    Yes, this thread ran for 100 days, and it was essentially complete about a month ago. The main goal was to get feedback on the creation process, which is done. It's all about Cuusoo from here on out...! It will be a lot of fun to see which ones win. I think most people have a pretty clear idea of which civs that they want to see, and they just dive in and vote for their favorites without worrying about it too much! Most people are voting for Sparta and Rome, then they pick one or two other wild-card civs. Surprisingly, a handful of other people have said that there are too many civs. That actually totally astounds me, because The Legend of Chima has over 12 different factions now, and more and more with every wave! Most Lego themes and other kinds of toy lines have lots and lots of factions. Also, Lego has already made the Spartans, and the Persians, and Celts, either as CMFs or else as part of previous themes, so it has already been done. Therefore, there are no issues there. I can definitely see that they might not choose to do a Norse set while the Thor movies are on, which is totally fine because I had a lot of fun making it, but no one owns a copyright over the Spartans, etc. The Spartans were "invented" over 2,500 years ago, so the "copyright" expired a loooooooooong time ago! (P.S. - Also, even if people aren't into ancient civs, a lot of them are just excited to see someone make a realistic push to get a small series or a partial theme made through Cuusoo, because that will open the door for many other creators to expand their visions...! Alternately, if it turns out that a few of them are the runaway favorites, then the first thing I would do is just to remove any mention of it being a series, so that voters will only know that there are multiple parts to it if they proactively click on my project page. Or in the end, I could even delete a few, if that is the right strategy as things progress... I've already deleted four Cuusoo project pages with a total of over 200 votes in order to make way for these, so it is not inconceivable!)
  19. The Real Indiana Jones
    And here are a few more final renders of sets... Some of these take quite a long time to complete, even with "normal" radiosity settings! In this one, all of the parts are printed during the render, and I just used photoshop to adjust the contrast and vibrancy overall. (This is the army building set. It also has a War-Elephant, battle standards, and a variety of artillery.) Here again, all of the shields are printed automatically during the render. I only had to photoshop in the flat banner printing. (This one fits right in with Classic Castle and LOTR. There is also a fort and an elephant-mounted-ballista.) The translucent-dark-blue and translucent-dark-azure tiles didn't catch any reflections at this angle, so I added highlights in photoshop. (This one also includes a Greek-Fire Helepolis siege tower, four-horse chariot, and Alexander the Great's cavalry.) This one is a still a "work in progress", but it came out really nicely so far. I just had to add in the black runes over the golden pillars in photoshop. The giants are still just photo cut-outs, and their hammers are still in LDD. This one is definitely the longest render so far... It calculated for over 36 hours to get all of those multiple overlapping transparencies in the portal and in the staircase... and that was just on the "fast" radiosity setting! And there is lots more, so if you think these set a good standard for real Lego sets, then come and support to an up-and-coming project today! Thanks again! therealindy
  20. The Real Indiana Jones
    And here are a few of the final renders... Some of these take quite a long time, so I hope you enjoy! This is the army building set. It also has a War-Elephant, battle standards, and a variety of artillery. This one fits right in with Classic Castle and LOTR. There is also a fort and an elephant-mounted-ballista. This one also includes a Greek-Fire Helepolis siege tower, four-horse chariot, and Alexander the Great's cavalry. And this one is the longest full render so far... It calculated for over 36 hours to get all those overlapping transparencies...! And there is lots more, so if you think these set a good standard for real Lego sets, then come and support to an up-and-coming project today! Thanks again! therealindy
  21. The Real Indiana Jones
    That is dynamite! Reminds me of the Hagia Sophia, and a variety of other sites...
  22. The Real Indiana Jones
    No worries, it took me *days* of trial and error to get it all perfect!
  23. The Real Indiana Jones
    For starters, make sure to test it with the radiosity turned on, (if you haven't already!) That brings quite a lot more light onto the scene overall. If you just choose the "debug" or "fast" setting, you can get nice results with only about an hour or so of total rendering time. Also, within a minute or two, the preview pane will show you if you are getting the right colors and exposure overall. Also, under the "scene" tab, make sure you've set the background color to pure white, if you haven't already. You do that by clicking on that rectangular box that is just a centimeter to the right of the words "set color to"... and then select pure white on the color box that pops up. Hope that does it for you. If not, then you can also try clicking on "settings" and then "reset to initial" to reset the background to pure white. That would also reset all the other choices back to their defaults. But the default settings work beautifully for most purposes!
  24. The Real Indiana Jones

    "therealindy" is getting back to work! =)

  25. The Real Indiana Jones
    OK, looks great so far...! I am very happy with just "normal" radiosity settings, because it only takes an hour or so, and you can always pick up the contrast and saturation in PhotoShop afterwards. So next, is there a way to set up a "work-queue", so that the computer will do several renders overnight, one after another? I have at least 32 more of these to do! =D You can see them all bigger on Flickr. As you can see, I am replacing all the older LDD images with POV-Ray renders as fast as my computer can spit 'em out... Sparta... Rome... Egypt... And the main UCS temple building set, which also builds a chess-board... And you can vote for them on Cuusoo too, Thanks! therealindy
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