noreha

I'm just happy to see the thread getting back to talking about modulars... and Lego... I have started designing my own MOC modular music/book shop, will post some pics soon of some of the elements, still trying to finalise the floor plans. Ground floor - Music shop, with instruments, etc. First floor - 2nd hand book shop Second floor - unsure if it should be a living space or storage/attic deal

Oh sure you're not shouting at me... haha... but I think I might have to MOC my music/book shop idea, with a door to a secret room behind a bookshelf, that sort of thing. And I agree that there doesn't need to be a "story" behind the set, I like my sets to simply speak for themselves...

Haven't been able to read through all 122 pages of this topic yet, but I want to put in a couple of ideas for the next modular... Music shop (with comic book or second hand book store on the second floor) Mechanic (with car lift and many tools) First modular I bought was the Palace Cinema, then I added Parisian Restaurant, Fire Station, Pet Shop, Town Hall, Department Store and finally Detective Agency... Would love to be able to get the green grocer and hotel...

Thanks for that Clone O'Patra, yeah I know as soon as I saw it I realised that I hadn't set it up right, but I will quickly do another render with it sitting on the floor, currently it is just hovering above the tiles (about an inch or so)... keep an eye out!!!

have been trying and trying and trying (and trying) to get the images to look as realistic as I can, and this one actually is quite good... this was the tester to see how the reflections work... not quite as good as the other one Hoth you reckon? means doing the AT-AT walkers... I have done the snow speeders... maybe

Managed to get this done a lot quicker than I expected (still have to do the stickers - just need a nice scan of them first though... HINT HINT!) Current rendering an animation of about 10-12 seconds which I think will look pretty awesome For me to do a short CGI film, I would need about $700 million... only joking... I would need to do a bucket load of work (texturing and optimising the models), and more than likely a new PC. It is something I have thought about, but I need to get everything mapped out first before I can even think of starting, but you never know!

Thanks guys!!! In answer to your question, I am hoping to get as many done as I can, some are a little too complex, but most should be able to get done, it's just some of those fiddly bits that will stop me from going any further (don't have many of the helmets etc. so it's harder to do the minifigs) Pretty much almost finished it, should get it done in the next couple of days...

Hey guys, decided to go for something a little different this time around... here is the start to 7930 - Bounty Hunter Assault Gunship

waste of a set? probably the reason that I don't own it, but I do like the look of it (barring those big gaps between wings and frame) Animation? well here goes... I basically set a series of waypoints for position and rotation, an example would be to have something rotate once through 360 degrees, I would set the initial position (0 degrees) then the final position (360 degrees), the program I use then does all the in between stuff, so if the animation was 360 frames (about 12 seconds) it would rotate the object by 1 degree each frame, it does get complex when you are looking at moving loads of pieces, but that is the advantage of parenting objects (means that when you move the parent object the children objects move along with it) and naming everything correctly. It can drive you slightly mad when you hit a tricky bit of engineering, an example is the front frame of the cruiser, the way the frame is made actually places stress on the pieces and they have some bend in the joints, because I have to approximate this, there is a little bit of cheating to make it look right. Overall though, it is an enjoyable process that allows me to use two of my loves, Lego and 3D Design, and every now and then maths :) Hope everyone is enjoying this, I love the feedback so tell me what you like, what you don't like, where things can be improved and some ideas about what sets you would like to see (it is tough with some sets because I don't have all the pieces and will need to fake some)... so in essence THANKS GUYS!!! here is what the process looks like when the animation is rendering... the left image is the last frame rendered, centre is the current frame, and the right window is the object tree (shows linked objects), had to come up with my own naming convention to make sure I could identify each type of piece, will show more images if you guys are interested in the process...

and here is the first test animation... a little flicker here and there, but still alright the animation

So you guys are wanting to kill me? Might have a go of the 6211, but like 8039 it will push the abilities of my PC (and brain), the 10030 and 10188 would be murder... why not ask me to do 10179? A couple more shots, am currently rendering a 10 second animation that shows the ship opening up... will be on my flickr thingy (hopefully tonight)

Completed the model, after a few issues at the end I finally did it!!! Very happy with it, now which set do I do next?

Still pushing through it all... almost finished book 1, and it is getting there, pretty stoked with it so far

thanks the program I use uses .lwo files, but blender can be used as well - it utilises most file formats .obj etc.

Finally have the front frame done... phew! more to come...

Yeah the shadows of the last few images are dodgy because they are just draft renders, so no realistic lighting/reflection/radiosity, but I have decided to start on a new model this morning... so here are the progress shots of 8039 - Venator-Class Republic Attack Cruiser... will be trying to get this done over the weekend, but I might hit a couple of unknown pieces a bit later, so fingers crossed!!! UPDATE!!! got up to the inner frame, but there is some flex in the plastic that I need to factor in... spent about 2 hours last night trying to get the angles right, with no luck

Yeah I have a feeling I will need to purchase some more RAM to get it to work... hopefully I will be able to get some in the couple of weeks, but in the meantime I think I will try and get another couple of sets done, maybe the Venator Class Republic Attack Cruiser (8039), Bounty Hunter Assault Ship (7930), Republic Attack Shuttle (8019), Millennium Falcon (4504) or even Imperial Star Destroyer (6211)... I will have to see what pieces I have in stock here are a couple more comparative images...

This is the only way I can get them together... for some reason the renderer I use doesn't like it when I put together about 2,000 pieces and push the render button, still trying to solve the reason behind the issue... dammit, hope this sates your appetite though

will see what I can do, once I see the instructions I will give it a go, any idea on a release date? Edit: Don't worry, I decided to take the 5 seconds and googled it... August... hopefully the lego website has the instructions around that time...

and now it is complete (excluding minifigs... still working on them), and my rendering program doesn't like it when I use over 1,500 lego pieces, so I will need to do a bit of research to try and bypass that issue to get the Tantive IV comparison completed...

Latest ones... I will do a comparison with the Tantive IV when I complete it...

thanks a lot, I just enjoy mucking around with both Lego and 3D modelling, so a marriage of the 2 is just heaven!!! Here is 7665 about 25% of the way done...

speaking for myself, I actually enjoy making the pieces individually, gives my uber-organised mind something to concentrate on :) and I like the challenges associated with making pieces I don't own (basing it all on assumptions and guess work) and complex pieces can take a few hours to do...

Hey guys, yes it has been a while, but managed to get back into this after a long layoff... the latest image of 7665 - Republic Cruiser (only part way through it)

Mach 5 & Snake Oiler cars... just need minifigs now!