Hi all

I've been experimenting with rendering Lego models.

Using a combination of MLCAD, Dat2dxf, PoseRay and POV-Ray 3.6 I've 
managed to render this scene (this is just using the PoseRay default 
radiosity settings)

I would appreciate some help in getting the texture/light settings right 
to simulate realistic looking Lego plastic!

Can anyone point me at some POV code to enable me to add a realistic 
dirt track for the Mini Off-roader to drive along?

Also, any suggestions on how to get rid of the strange artifacts that 
appear on the "ridged" brick.

Thanks in advance

--
Reuben
reu### [at] pearsecouk

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Reuben Pearse <reu### [at] pearsecouk> wrote:
> I've been experimenting with rendering Lego models.

They're highly addictive rendering - I spent some time on this earlier this
year! :)

> I would appreciate some help in getting the texture/light settings right
> to simulate realistic looking Lego plastic!

I'd add a floor to break the lighting up, and provide something for shiny bricks
to reflect. A single light source in combination with the radiosity would look
good (as well as making any artifacts less obvious), or maybe an HDR probe in
3.7 or MegaPOV if you know how (this will also improve reflections).

As for texture, I found keeping it simple seemed to work well - reflection 0.05,
some specular, bold colours and zero ambient.

> Also, any suggestions on how to get rid of the strange artifacts that
> appear on the "ridged" brick.

They look like radiosity artifacts to me. Raise count, and maybe lower
minimum_reuse. Make sure pretrace_end is nice and low too.

Bill

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Reuben Pearse <reu### [at] pearsecouk> wrote:
> Hi all
>
> I've been experimenting with rendering Lego models.
>
> Using a combination of MLCAD, Dat2dxf, PoseRay and POV-Ray 3.6 I've
> managed to render this scene (this is just using the PoseRay default
> radiosity settings)

Good job with the conversion! There is also a CSG-based Lego library somewhere.
It overcomes triangle-mesh artifacts, while possibly increasing the render time
;)

> I would appreciate some help in getting the texture/light settings right
> to simulate realistic looking Lego plastic!

A higher-than-default brilliance setting may help, if you haven't already given
the textures that. Specular highlights help. Some refraction for those
transparent pieces is definitely needed. And fresnel reflection, of course.

> Also, any suggestions on how to get rid of the strange artifacts that
> appear on the "ridged" brick.

I agree with Bill. They look a lot like radiosity artifacts. Good things to keep
in mind: lower error_bound tightens the sampling, higher count increases the
samples, and a higher nearest_count smooths the patches. As Bill also said, a
lower pretrace_end could help  :)

Sam

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On 10/28/2009 6:16 PM, Reuben Pearse wrote:
> Using a combination of MLCAD, Dat2dxf, PoseRay and POV-Ray 3.6 I've
> managed to render this scene (this is just using the PoseRay default
> radiosity settings)

Also search for:

L3P			(LDraw to POV converter)
LGEO			(LDraw parts recreated as POV primitives)
Anton Raves library	(Another set of POV primitives)

Mike

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Reuben Pearse <reu### [at] pearsecouk> wrote:
> Hi all
>
> I've been experimenting with rendering Lego models.

Nice model.

> Using a combination of MLCAD, Dat2dxf, PoseRay and POV-Ray 3.6 I've
> managed to render this scene (this is just using the PoseRay default
> radiosity settings)

I haven't tried MLCAD, looks but the models I've seen with it look pretty good.

> I would appreciate some help in getting the texture/light settings right
> to simulate realistic looking Lego plastic!

LUGNET has a color reference for POV-Ray, you might give it a try:

http://guide.lugnet.com/color/

I personally didn't like some of their colors and tend to use the "official"
colors here:

http://www.isodomos.com/ColorTree/LegoList#Lego43Info

I'd recommend starting with LUGNET's and tweaking until you are happy.

You may also find this article of interest as it uses MLCAD and has some
examples of how to make the bricks look more realistic:

http://lego.velociworks.com/2006/09/improved-lighting-and-using-radiosity.html

It has some include files for the colors that may be what you're looking for.

Steven
http://lego.reids4fun.com

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On 10/28/2009 9:46 PM, SafePit wrote:
> I haven't tried MLCAD, looks but the models I've seen with it look pretty good.
>
>> I would appreciate some help in getting the texture/light settings right
>> to simulate realistic looking Lego plastic!
>
> LUGNET has a color reference for POV-Ray, you might give it a try:
>
> http://guide.lugnet.com/color/
>
> I personally didn't like some of their colors and tend to use the "official"
> colors here:
>
> http://www.isodomos.com/ColorTree/LegoList#Lego43Info
>
> I'd recommend starting with LUGNET's and tweaking until you are happy.
>
> You may also find this article of interest as it uses MLCAD and has some
> examples of how to make the bricks look more realistic:
>
> http://lego.velociworks.com/2006/09/improved-lighting-and-using-radiosity.html
>
> It has some include files for the colors that may be what you're looking for.
>
> Steven
> http://lego.reids4fun.com

There's also an include file called "fastrad.inc" somewhere that quickly 
sets up radiosity for L3P exported scenes.

Mike

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High!

Reuben Pearse wrote:
> Hi all
> 
> I've been experimenting with rendering Lego models.

Wow, a comeback after eight years! Your last image submission in my 
collection dates from September 2001!

See you in Khyberspace!

Yadgar

Now playing: Glad To Be Here (Lake)

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Reuben Pearse wrote:

> Can anyone point me at some POV code to enable me to add a realistic 
> dirt track for the Mini Off-roader to drive along?

You could always have a look at some of the TORCS off road circuits :-).
(see from Torcs to Pov thread)

Could be a cool thing to bear in mind if Jaime writes his tutorial.

Post a reply to this message

> Reuben Pearse wrote:
>
>> Can anyone point me at some POV code to enable me to add a realistic
>> dirt track for the Mini Off-roader to drive along?
>
> You could always have a look at some of the TORCS off road circuits :-).
> (see from Torcs to Pov thread)

   Yes, sorry: I overlooked this request. You are right that TORCS dirt
tracks could be what Reuben was asking for.

> Could be a cool thing to bear in mind if Jaime writes his tutorial.

   I'm on it... but as usual it will take some time due to work, and also due
to my diffuse creative process.

   I have almost ready the "basic" tutorial, which simply describes how to
import stock tracks and cars, and how to create a spline for the track so
you can place the cars and the camera along it. The import part is easy, you
only need Blender and the .acc import plugin, then export to OBJ and convert
to POV-Ray either with Wings3D or Poseray. The difficult part is getting the
spline with Wings3D... well, it's really more tricky than difficult, and
needs some detailed explanations with screenshots that I didn't write yet.

   Apart from this basic tutorial, I'm also creating another one on how to
add roads to existing scenes, using some of the tools included with TORCS
(trackeditor and trackgen). Hopefully I will have it ready before the year
end... :)

--
Jaime

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Hi all,

Thanks for all your comments so far.

It has inspired me to experiment further!

--
Reuben
reu### [at] pearsecouk

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