Comments on: Making Photo-Realistic Lego Bricks in Blender

By: Thomas Stevens

Thomas Stevens — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 19:45:20 +0000

OH MY GOD thank you I will definately try this right now.

By: Nero. F. Martin

Nero. F. Martin — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 17:33:03 +0000

http://web.olp.net/wildernesslodge/Bricks%20Tutorial.pdf

By: Thomas Stevens

Thomas Stevens — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:31:24 +0000

The link is dead, please help me, ive never made anything photorealistic!!!

By: Stefan

Stefan — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:15:37 +0000

As I've recently learned (despite being a lifelong fan of Lego), the top studs are not simple chamfers. They have a distinctly rounded profile (my own cg Lego currently does not). It also pays to pay attention to the underlying geometry to minimize smoothing errors. Ideally, the material for solid Lego is a semi-glossy mat with low hardness and and raymirror enabled (though I usually disable it for time concerns). Transparent parts will also need an appropriate IoR for Polycarbonate (1.585).

Here's some of my own results using an independently developed process, perhaps they will help.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3053/2628999579_1f1d407d9e_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3105/2629534252_5126c67860_o.jpg
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/sastrei/BrickSpace2/dev10.jpg

-Stefan-

By: ysvry

ysvry — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:26:15 +0000

i agree with leo

By: Leonardo

Leonardo — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:41:53 +0000

I'm disappointed in some of you, especially Bmud. Instead of bashing the tutorial, how about you suggest improvements. Mocking is not going to get you anywhere.

Thanks, WC, for taking the time to write this. I personally found it helpful. It's not perfect, but for a beginner it's pretty helpful.

By: William Chamberlin

William Chamberlin — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 12:03:46 +0000

I must say that seeing my tutorial on this site came as a total surprise (albeit a pleasant one). Let me endeavor to answer a few questions.

Urenze:

• I'm not an expert here, so I won't be too specific – but yes, radiosity does have more effects than you originally thought.

• There are many different ways to set up the lighting for a scene like this. I used an inverse square spotlamp (and I believe the reason it was so far away was to give a perfect evenly-lit look for that shot), but this can be confusing. For most scenes, a sun lamp would probably work just as well (or better), in which case an energy of only about 2 is needed, and the distance and position of the lamp doesn't really matter.

I see there have been some complaints about the tutorial. Bmud: remember that what seems simple to you might not seem so to others. I know that when I was first learning all this, I would have really benefited from a tutorial like this one. I'm not a Blender expert yet, but I'm happy to share what I do know!

By: Bmud

Bmud — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:22:49 +0000

n/m found it: http://content.luxology.com/gallery/45138bc5ff4e90a4085dee80ab63d5d3.jpg
Here ends my posts. Wish I could just edit my first one. Lousy wordpress… :(

By: Bmud

Bmud — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:18:58 +0000

@Matt: hahhaha I agree. Didn't catch that the first time. XD All my legos have little dings in them too from the sharp corners of other legos in the giant bin i keep them in.

This article also reminds me of this image I stumbled upon in the modo site's menu
http://www.luxology.com/whatismodo/
but I can't seem to find a full-size image. A photo-real mini lego pod race would be really cool if you ask me :P

By: Bmud

Bmud — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:11:10 +0000

That was a lame excuse for a tutorial. The fact that it only mentions LeoCAD is limiting all by itself.
Here's my version of the same tutorial…

Hey look, you can model Legos in 3D! Dur!

http://www.ldraw.org
http://www.leocad.org

Hey, you can import them in to Blender – no surprise since it imports practically everything!
Then you can press render with the renderer of your choice. No duh.