The Real Indiana Jones

Yes, Perfect! The bush-and-axle trick (#4) works beautifully, and it's easy, and it keeps all of the heads exactly on the axis of the neck. To use bbqqq's trick, first assemble a bush-and-axle like you see in the background of the image he made here with the three wrestlers. Next, you can use the normal pointer, but you must hold down the control key so you can select both the popped-up head and the bush-ring at the same time. Then just use the normal pointer to nudge the bush ring downward a tiny bit on the axle, and you will see that the head will be nudged downward on the neck by the exact same amount. You can also select multiple heads at the same time. It will work best if the figs are all standing perfectly upright. There will still be a miniscule gap, but you will never notice it if you tilt the camera upwards or downwards by just one or two degrees. In fact, the a quiver normally creates a tiny gap just like that too, but I never even noticed it at all. Plus, when it renders in POV-Ray, there will be shadows under the cape and head to camouflage things. Also, I realized by accident that if you have minifigs with beards that attach around the neck, like Gandalf or Gimli or Sensei Wu, then you should always put the head on the figure first, so it goes all the way down, and then add the beard on ***afterwards***, and LDD should snap everything into its proper place on the first try, with no tricks needed. Hope that's useful for everyone! Thanks again to bbqqq!

GIMP looks great, but it's not installing all of its files, and I get an unexpected error. No problem, since every time they update PhotoShop, they let you have a new free trial again, or else you can just subscribe to all of their tools monthly in the cloud nowadays. They also have nice video tutorials at tv.adobe.com/products So here are those sky-sphere-images all complete now. They look nice! It's startin' to look pretty Ancient up in herrrre! =D Feel free to take them and use them, and show us the results. The Oracle of Delphi. This is a dome and rotunda that wraps around a small square pool. The Parthenon of Athena. A statue can go right on top of the raised part in front of the red. The Forum of Trajan. It has half-domes on the outer sides, and a Column of Trajan out front. And "The Temple to the Age of Enlightenment". A bit of Post-Renaissance fun I made up, based on various Neo-Classical styles. Note the statues with the curly 18th Century wigs in the background. They appear on the pediment too. Also, as I said, there is one last thing I had barely even noticed before... Is there a way to get the minifigures heads to go all the way down while they are wearing a cape? Apparently it senses that as a collision detection, so it leaves a small gap. Is there a way to push the heads downward a bit until they sit right on the cape? Then at that point, I am totally ready to go with renderings, so thanks to everyone! I will put the glossy new POV-Ray images up as quickly as I can compose the shots, and render them with deluxe radiosity, and then photoshop them... In the meantime, I updated all the text and did nice LDD screenshots to sketch everything out. So please take a fresh look, and if you like them, or if you just think that they set a good standard for Lego to uphold in all it's work, or heck, even if you just think that they will make some nice profit for Lego, so they can fund everyone's favorite themes and dreams and projects in the future, then please come and click to support! Thanks again to everyone!

OK, here is one last thing I had barely even noticed before... Is there a way to get the minifigures heads to go all the way down when they are wearing a cape? Apparently it senses that as a collision detection, so it leaves a small gap. Is there a way to push the heads downward a bit until they sit right? Thanks!

Yes. One easy solution would be just to allow capes to be exempt the collision-detection, since they are perfectly flexible anyway. The cape and the armor would go through each other just a bit, but I think that would be a perfectly fine and easy solution. ...Plus, then you would be able to push the head all the way down when a fig wears a cape! It's a bit annoying that they always have that gap above the cape. Does anyone know a way to fix that?

These are excellent... So can you show us what the original sky-sphere-images looked like? I can generally tell that one is an interior, and the other is a bit abstract with some spectral colors, but can you show us the original flattened-out images of the sky-sphere-images for these? Thanks!

OK, more success... 1) I finally figured out how to get all of those last few random errant parts to show up in metallic. I simply went into the "LDD_part materials" file and deleted all of the text that forces any specific parts to always be in "dull plastic". Now everything shines, right down to the minifig's hands! 2) While I was there in the "LDD_part materials" file, I also deleted all of the text that forces all the slopes to have that rough texture with "rough plastic" on their sloping surfaces. That is just a matter of preference, since I like slopes to be nice and smooth! 3) As one last thing, I also went back into the "LDD_default_finishes" file again and deleted all the text that tells it to "conserve energy" on certain surface finishes. I am not sure what that does, but I want maximum deluxe-ness here! Here are four test examples, each using a different sky-sphere, which you can see pretty clearly in the polished hemispheric domes, and in the overall color cast... therealindy

Excellent! Here is a brief update: 1) Yes, merging the files works perfectly, Thanks! 2) And yes, the Greek round convex shield and the Roman rectangular shield can both be printed using bbqqq's method... Plus, his tutorial got me almost all of the additional torso and leg prints I need ready to go in LDD. The rest of them I can swap out using the LDD-to-Pov-Ray menu... Just be aware that every time you use bbqqq's method, it may add some extra unneeded text strings for group-transformations to the bottom of the LXFML file that can confuse and stall the camera, but it is perfectly easy to delete that part and the file should be like new again... Thanks again! 3) It looks like the hanging banners can not be printed in LDD yet, even if you try to trick it by adding text to the LXFML file that would decorate every possible defined surface anywhere on it. This part has definitely been printed in the past, although nowadays it is usually just stickered, and so apparently it just has not yet been programmed to know where it's decoration surfaces could be or should be. Anyway, that is OK, because it is just a perfectly flat surface, and so I can just paste the decoration afterwards with a PhotoShop-type program, just by rotating and skewing the 2-D image. So let me ask again, should I buy PhotoShop, or subscribe to it monthly in the cloud? Or is there a nice simpler image editing program you like that does all of the professional things without taking so much system resources? If anyone has any favorite programs they like to use to manipulate graphics and images (similar to PhotoShop) please let me know!

Oooh, here are eight additions we need...! Royal regalia hair for Queen Amidala on Naboo (Minifig, Headgear Hair Bun with Braid and Gold Hood with Royal Insignia Pattern (SW Queen Amidala), 98119pb01) Royal regalia dress bottom from Queen Amidala on Naboo (Lower Body, Skirt with SW Queen Amidala Pattern, 75103pb01) Hair from Padme Amidala on Tatooine (Minifig, Headgear Hair Female Long and Top Braided, x161) Cerberus as Fluffy from Harry Potter (Dog Three Headed 'Fluffy', Complete Assembly, 40245c00) Hippogriff or Griffin Buckbeak from Harry Potter (Hippogriff 'Buckbeak', Complete Assembly, buckbeakc01) Cave Troll from LOTR Mines of Moria (Cave Troll, lor027) Raised temple baseplate from Indiana Jones and Pharaoh's Quest (Baseplate, Raised 32 x 48 x 6 with Level Front, 51542) Raised island baseplate from the Loot Island set (Baseplate, Raised 18 x 22 No Studs Two Level, 11 Holes, 64649) Also, any similar parts in this vein...

OK, success... first, I found a nice standard sky-sphere just by searching on Google Images. The whole image is exactly twice as wide as tall, and it starts in the "east" and then wraps around clockwise for 360 degrees. Note that the subtle brightest highlight on the sand is on the center-left here, which will be due "south", indicating mid-day sun. Then I composed a matching panoramic view of my Oracle of Delphi rotunda model from the center. Note that the real Oracle of Delphi was considered to be the true physical center of the earth in the Ancient Greek World! First, I built a temporary center-post made of a trans-green 2x2 jumper plate and a trans-green vertical pole, then pressed right-mouse-click on the pole to pin the camera to that piece, then I flew the camera into the scene from directly above, then aimed it perfectly horizontally facing due "west", then I used the color-selector-tool to automatically select all the temporary trans-green pieces to delete them out before I rendered the shot. Remember to choose the box for spherical panorama under the camera tab in LDD-to-POV-Ray. M.C. Escher would approve! Then I just combined the two. I'm using basic graphics software so far, but it's good enough for a sky-sphere-image. And I made it monochrome, so it won't impart any unwanted hues into the scene. It does darken the scene a fair amount, so adjust your lights. And if you want to take these component layers to recompose it in a different way, or just experiment with it, feel free... It might look great to paste a nice image of Mediterranean mountains or the azure Aegean Sea over the horizon line in the sand, and then paste the columns on top of that. I just used Google Picasa to do the image editing here... Should I buy PhotoShop, or subscribe to it monthly in the cloud? Or is there a nice simpler image editing program you like that does all of the professional things without taking so much system resources? Please let me know! Thanks! therealindy

Hi, everything is going wonderfully, and I am seeing my models in their true colors for the first time... I am just having a few issues... Can anyone help with these? 1) First and most important, is there any way to merge two LDD files together? I built the various models separately, and now I want to merge multiple models together into the same scene, in the same file. That way, I can set up a dynamic story-telling scene with multiple built models, and render that all in one shot. 2) The Egyptian scarab shield does not want to take a proper shiny finish, for some unknown reason. A few other parts are also acting the same silly way. 3) The Greek round convex shield is not taking a printed design. Is there any way at all to give it a print in the render? 4) The Roman rectangular curved shield is not taking a printed design, and it does not want to take a shiny finish either. So it is has both of the issues of points 2 and 3 above. 5) And the hanging 7x3 tapestry banners are not taking a printed design. Is there any way to give them their prints in the render? I guess I could possibly add that in PhotoShop afterward, since it's just a flat surface, but I'd much rather add it for real as it renders! Thanks! =)

All right, here is a much more elegant and naturalistic solution... To do this, I simply copied the the definitions text from the "shiny metallic" finish, and pasted it over the definitions text for the "shiny pearl" finish. That instantly makes all of the pearl-metallic colors become automatically fully-chromed. The foreground of the image below shows gold, silver, and bronze. In the back are pearl-gold, pearl-silver, copper, and dark iron. If you like, you can also adjust the definition text for the reflection variables however you like. I lowered the reflectiveness about 33% for the ones that were originally pearlescent, and the ones that were originally chromed are still perfectly unchanged in every way. If you want to take it to the next level of subtlety, then you can glance at the first few paragraphs about the Phong Reflection Model and related topics on Wikipedia. As an added bonus, using this method gives you seven different shades of chrome to work with, and then if you want a complete rainbow of chrome-colors to play with, then you can easily remap some of their RGB hues in the LDD colors file to create a chrome-red or chrome-blue or chrome-purple... The colors will be correct as it renders, so you won't need to manipulate any colors in PhotoShop afterward. Have fun! And post whatever you do for us all to see! =D therealindy

Looks great! I am doing that with the lights now, and I am doing touch ups in PhotoShop or Google Picasa... Plus I am looking for a sky-sphere-image with maybe some greek columns in a rotunda, or maybe the dome of the Pantheon Temple in Rome. Do you know where I can get one that is visually warped in the correct way, so that it will look correct when it is rendered? Thanks!

OK, success! Let me write this up before I forget what I did... To get all of the pearl-metallic colors to be as shiny as you want, first open the file named "ldd_finishes.inc" in a text editor. You can use the "find" function in the text editor to search for all instances of the word "reflection" throughout the file. As you go through, you will see that each style of finish has several defining variables, including: "reflection" - the percentage of incoming light that will bounce off a surface, (where dull plastic is .01, and shiny steel is .60) "metallic" - the default will be 1.0 for a full metallic sheen, (or it can be followed by a decimal like 0.5 for a partial sheen) "brilliance" - a parameter that effects multi-layered reflections, (where dull plastic is 1.0 and a metallic is a 5.0 or 6.0) It definitely seems like the original LDD file has a simple typo in it, since the variables listed for the "shiny pearl" finish are strangely much lower than the corresponding variables for the "dull pearl" finish. That must be a mistake, but it is easy to fix. One easy solution is to change the numbers for the "shiny pearl" finish, raising its "brilliance" to about 6.0 and increasing its "reflection" to about .25 or so. That makes the pearl-bronze as shown on the right appear bright, but more subdued than the fully-chromed-gold and fully-chromed-silver on the left.

Hmmm, I can't see how to make trans-reddish-orange show up as transparent, so I just went ahead and re-mapped trans-orange to be trans-reddish-orange now... Now all of my torches will come out just right! Thanks!

Wow, this is all excellent work, both of you! And I see that bbqqq did a chrome-red Iron Man torso. How did you do that? I could probably use the same method to adjust the pearl-metals' reflectiveness upwards to be closer the chrome colors. P.S. - They also look nice and vibrant with great contrast. Do you just edit them in PhotoShop afterwards, or do you adjust the lighting/palette beforehand in some way? What standard default settings do you usually use?

Hi Hrontos, Your LDD to POV-Ray software is excellent, and it works beautifully! This was my first official test. The grid of cubes in the center shows all of the colors in the palette in order, except for two pink ones. The statues are metallic-gold and pearl-bronze. And this one, with the vexillum-banners, is a test of the metallic colors specifically. The two rows of hemispheres show all of the metallic and pearl-metallic tones. From left to right: the first is copper, then pearl-bronze (a.k.a. "legacy metallic sand yellow"), then pearl-iron (a.k.a. "titanium metallic"), then pearl-silver, chrome-silver, pearl-gold, and chrome-gold. The one thing I want to do next is to make those pearlescent-metallic colors look a little bit more shiny, like they do in LDD, and like they do in real life. I see that they definitely have a little bit more reflectivity than the standard plastic colors, but I think it should be increased a bit. Is there a way to do that with custom files? I see in the manual that you referred to custom files called "ldd_best_finishes.inc", "ldd_best_materials.inc", and "ldd_best_part_materials.inc". I ran a search for them, but I do not have them. Is there a way to get them? And will they make those pearl-metallic colors look more pearlescent or lustrous? I'm working on a huge Ancient World project, so I want to make sure that all of the metals, especially bronze and iron, look their best! You can see images of it in post #180 and #184 of my thread here. Thanks! Excellent Work! therealindy

Thanks again! And while I was finalizing everything, I made his crest better. 90% of the models are noticeably updated, at least in some little way. This is my first official render, to test the color-matching, metallics, and transparencies. It took a little time to learn, but we are ready to render! And here is a glimpse of Babylon... Plus a little glimpse of Rome... There's no need to post any more here... I'll just put them right up on Cuusoo, probably doing a few new ones every day while I'm watching the news. Hmmm... And I see my biggest competitors are slowing down suddenly... Please come to Cuusoo and support to an up-and-coming project today! Thanks again! therealindy

OK, done! The thread has passed 10,000 views, it has gone nearly 100 days now, and the printed-out text of it all is well over 100 pages long... All the builds and all the minifigs are ready to be rendered. You can see it all if you scroll upwards a bit to post #180... If anyone has any helpful insights, now would be the perfect time to share your thoughts! In the meantime, I will be over on the Rendering Tools Forum! Thanks to everyone for your help! therealindy

Yep, Totally agreed. If this is one of those crime dramas that starts with a corpse and a cold-blooded murder at the beginning of every episode, then it's a no-go. I have not seen it.

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Yes, excellent points. And overall, it must be "a process, not a contest" like you mentioned, since the early entries have an outrageously-unfair 18-month head-start versus later entries! I think everyone agrees that this is a critical issue with Cuusoo... The people who started in 2011 get all the visibility... How do you think TLG adjusts for that problem? What exact calculations do you think they do behind the scenes to seek out the sets that are moving much faster than other sets with a similar amount of votes / visibility?

Oh, I was definitely agreeing with you, but just balancing a bit. You were saying that "TLG is going to avoid risk as much as possible", but it is always a delicate balancing act between avoiding risks and pursuing rewards... the rewards of profit and market growth. So yes, we agree!

Ah, just like any smart company, Lego will seek to maximize their opportunities for profit-making, as long as the risks and downsides are within a calculated tolerable limit. In this case, the downside is far less than 1/3000 of their current total annual revenues. If a set falls short, then I think they usually just donate them to schools around the world, and take it as a nice charitable deduction on their taxes. I imagine it's easier to justify that with educational sets. We should take a closer look at their Annual Business Report, and their Annual Progress Report again. I have them highlighted somewhere in my files.....

Ah, and so here is another vital Cuusoo question, and I think it is open to any number of educated guesses. What do you think is the maximum number of times they would let one competitor get sets made on Cuusoo? I'd say at least 2, just to incentivize good builders to create more, and just to get more quality ideas out there. But then maybe they might not let any one person win 3 times or more...? or 5 times or more...? But on the other hand, if you win 12 medals fair-and-square at the Olympics or in the Army, then you win 12 medals. What would you say is the max? I see that lots of quality builders have 10 or 20 entries posted, and most have at least 5 up, so I am sure that a lot of people are looking for multiple wins.

Yes, good point there Blondie-Wan, It looks like a lovely Architecture set, plus it will include several minifigs of Ninjas and Samurai, which are globally popular favorites. When I was in middle-school, I wanted to be a Ninja, and when I was in high-school, I wanted to be a Samurai, even though I've never even visited Japan! Sounds like a strong contender to me! It should be interesting to hear how their decision goes in a few months. Overall, I think that any set that is like a "vacation-in-a-box" (British: "on-holiday-in-a-box") will have a lot of appeal!