High-res LEGO bricks testing

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Lights_and_Shadows
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High-res LEGO bricks testing

Post by Lights_and_Shadows »

Hey there folks, bringing in some tests for some high-resolution LEGO bricks that I'm modeling on the side. Using the LDraw equivalents as a reference for these. I'm hoping to eventually have all of the parts in that database modeled out for future LEGO renders. Including beveling on the edges.

Here's a quick one of the standard 1x1 brick, in red.
3005_red.png
Still trying to find a good roughness value that's accurate to bricks in real life, as well as bevel amounts.
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Sprocket
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Re: High-res LEGO bricks testing

Post by Sprocket »

Thats awesome.They definitely need beveled edges for rendering. Cant wait to see more. :D
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FarbigeWelt
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LEGO brick photo

Post by FarbigeWelt »

Still trying to find a good roughness value that's accurate to bricks in real life, as well as bevel amounts.
Here is a picutre taken by me, you can use it like you want. There are a few things you should have a closer look at to get a more realistic shape.
In your case I would add your own logo on top of the brick, like LaS or LnS.
LEGO8xBlue, free image
LEGO8xBlue, free image
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Lights_and_Shadows
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Re: High-res LEGO bricks testing

Post by Lights_and_Shadows »

FarbigeWelt wrote: Sat Aug 18, 2018 12:16 pm
Still trying to find a good roughness value that's accurate to bricks in real life, as well as bevel amounts.
Here is a picutre taken by me, you can use it like you want. There are a few things you should have a closer look at to get a more realistic shape.
In your case I would add your own logo on top of the brick, like LaS or LnS.
LEGO8xBlue-1.jpg
I was considering that, but that would be hard to apply in my case. Mostly because I'm trying to maintain a single mesh for each brick, instead of the LDraw method of having multiple loose pieces per brick. This would allow for realistic beveling on certain components, like on the meeting points of the studs and the body. With that said, that usually requires more vertices than normal for say a box, and then having to grid-fill the tops of the studs. This would make having a decent logo somewhat hard to do, but that doesn't mean I'll try it :) I'll give it a shot, see how it looks.

btw, nice picture. Will come in handy for getting the rest of the details correct, much appreciated :)
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Lights_and_Shadows
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Re: High-res LEGO bricks testing

Post by Lights_and_Shadows »

Yeah, I wasn't able to fit in the custom stud logos, not in the way I need them to. Oh well.

With that said, here's another render. This time it's the 1x1 brick, round with fins. A bit more difficult to model properly like this, but it was done. Rather elegant too.
4588_green.png
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Lights_and_Shadows
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Re: High-res LEGO bricks testing

Post by Lights_and_Shadows »

I apologize for the lack of updates -- college courses had the high priority, and with the semester coming to a close, I have more time to devote to this. One of my upcoming classes involves 3D modeling as well, so this is good to get back into lol

Anyway, I've decided to adopt a new workflow to making these parts. It may seem more work than what it is necessary, but there's a reason for it. I'm now using FreeCAD for the main modeling portion, then exporting the solid to Blender as an .obj file, then cleaning it up from there. It solves so many topology issues that I've run into previously doing it by hand. Not to mention, if somehow the topology still doesn't come out right, I treat it as a potential "manufacturing error", which happens in reality. It's unavoidable -- sometimes, from what I've seen, some pieces have little divots in them from the cooling process, which the errors in the topology actually simulate in most cases. So, I'm leaving those in.

The lights in this render made it rather... unnatural. I'll have to fix this.
u9026_red.png
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Re: High-res LEGO bricks testing

Post by acasta69 »

I'm curious about this: how long does it take to correct the topology of a Freecad export in Blender?
I tried sometimes to export from CADs, but fixing them was sooo looooong... that I wondered if maybe it was worth to model directly in Blender.
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Re: High-res LEGO bricks testing

Post by Lights_and_Shadows »

acasta69 wrote: Sun Dec 09, 2018 9:19 pm I'm curious about this: how long does it take to correct the topology of a Freecad export in Blender?
I tried sometimes to export from CADs, but fixing them was sooo looooong... that I wondered if maybe it was worth to model directly in Blender.
For me, I simply took small sections of the model and Alt+J'ed them as I went, so honestly at the most it took a couple of minutes. However, now I've found that adjusting the settings in the Mesh Design workbench in FreeCAD in the NetGen category can produce pretty good results with no additional tweaks -- I even added in the beveling in FreeCAD to guarantee it. Sure, no one likes tris, but I don't need to add any modifiers to the model with this route. I like it :)
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Re: High-res LEGO bricks testing

Post by acasta69 »

Lights_and_Shadows wrote: Tue Dec 11, 2018 2:46 am For me, I simply took small sections of the model and Alt+J'ed them as I went, so honestly at the most it took a couple of minutes. However, now I've found that adjusting the settings in the Mesh Design workbench in FreeCAD in the NetGen category can produce pretty good results with no additional tweaks -- I even added in the beveling in FreeCAD to guarantee it. Sure, no one likes tris, but I don't need to add any modifiers to the model with this route. I like it :)
Thanks for your answer! :)
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Re: High-res LEGO bricks testing

Post by Lights_and_Shadows »

Back after a pretty decent hiatus. I've picked up a few tricks on topology from my 3D modeling class (we're using Maya 2018 in that one, but I still prefer Blender for home use) and wanted to apply it here. Plus, I read up on how to simulate edge wear using the Pointiness values, and I've implemented it on a new material I'm using. Liking the results thus far, currently rendering an image out as a test.

I have one (very slight) dilemma -- getting realistic uneven sections of the model. I'm hoping for a procedural approach, right now I have the Blender Distorted Noise node in place connected to a Bump node, but I can't really tell what it is doing. Maybe someone could point me in a better direction with it :) any help will be appreciated.

I'll post again with the image once I'm satisfied with the sample count. Added in some bloom and chromatic aberration from the Camera settings for some extra goodness :P
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