• Joined: December 26, 2008

Topic: The Marty Rig - Rigged LEGO Minifig for Blender (beta version)

http://brixaranimation.com/MartyRig/MartyTheThird.png

Download (3.9 MB)

I've been working on this guy on and off for a while, and I'm uploading it now so that others can mess around with it. My hope is that posting this now leads to improvements and expansions on the rig, and the encouraging of additional high-quality content for CGI brickfilming. I've done a lot to make this as high quality as possible, and perhaps by putting it out there, it will lead to even better versions down the road.

A Few Things You Can Do To Help Me With To Improve This Rig:
— I'd like to make a video/videos explaining how to use this rig, but I need ideas of what you'd like me to go over. Ask as many questions as you like. Comments and critiques are also appreciated.
— Things that you would like to see in the future. Whether you add some feature on your own to the rig, or would like to see one added, let me know! Again, I want to make this as high-quality and accurate as I can (I know about the legs). Basically I'd like to make this open-source.
— USE IT!

If there's enough interest in seeing more done with this rig, I'll be ending the semester in two weeks and would love to work on it some more. I am not against others adding to the rig also. All I ask is that a consistent level of quality is maintained. I'd be willing to post links to resources that have been helpful to me in creating this thing if people are interested.

Have fun!

"[It] was the theme song for the movie 2010 first contact." ~ A YouTuber on Also Sprach Zarathustra
CGI LEGO! Updated occasionally...

Littlebrick's Website

  • Joined: February 25, 2011

Re: The Marty Rig - Rigged LEGO Minifig for Blender (beta version)

Oh wow, that looks really great. Especially the hands - I've hardly seen any well-done CGI minifig hands.

I'm not sure if this is just me or not, but the arms and torso seem a bit long. The upper part of the arms, specifically. Did you base this on real minifigure dimensions?

TobyMac - Lose My Soul music video - in LEGO!
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Mighty Wanderer's Website

  • Location: New Jersey
  • Joined: March 22, 2012

Re: The Marty Rig - Rigged LEGO Minifig for Blender (beta version)

Mint!  now I have to dust off my Blender program & try it.

https://vimeo.com/channels/holdingourown      http://holding-our-own.tumblr.com

"None practice tolerance less frequently than those who most loudly preach it."

HoldingOurOwn's Website

  • Joined: December 4, 2012

Re: The Marty Rig - Rigged LEGO Minifig for Blender (beta version)

This is great, Littlebrick. Thanks for sharing with the community. I'm new to the world of CGI brickfilming but this rig has definitely sparked my interest.

Last edited by Willow Tree (March 30, 2016 (05:54pm))

Willow Tree's Website

  • Location: Middle Zealand
  • Joined: July 6, 2011

Re: The Marty Rig - Rigged LEGO Minifig for Blender (beta version)

I finally have a computer that can run Blender, so when I have the time I'll mess around with this.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7340/16345454720_e04c98539a.jpg
Youtube Channel
  • Joined: December 26, 2008

Re: The Marty Rig - Rigged LEGO Minifig for Blender (beta version)

Mighty Wanderer wrote:

I'm not sure if this is just me or not, but the arms and torso seem a bit long. The upper part of the arms, specifically. Did you base this on real minifigure dimensions?

The arms are as close as I could get to the real thing. They were mostly modeled off of photo-reference.

I'm glad to see all your reactions, as I really do hope this sparks more interest in CG brickfilming.

"[It] was the theme song for the movie 2010 first contact." ~ A YouTuber on Also Sprach Zarathustra
CGI LEGO! Updated occasionally...

Littlebrick's Website

  • Location: Wales
  • Joined: July 21, 2015

Re: The Marty Rig - Rigged LEGO Minifig for Blender (beta version)

It looks amazing! Much more realistic than most CGI brickfilms by Lego. I would love to see a film like this mini/smile

William Osborne's Website

  • Location: New Jersey
  • Joined: March 22, 2012

Re: The Marty Rig - Rigged LEGO Minifig for Blender (beta version)

GOsh!  I ran Blender back when I had Windows 95.

https://vimeo.com/channels/holdingourown      http://holding-our-own.tumblr.com

"None practice tolerance less frequently than those who most loudly preach it."

HoldingOurOwn's Website

  • Joined: February 25, 2011

Re: The Marty Rig - Rigged LEGO Minifig for Blender (beta version)

Do you have a .obj file for Marty? My friend would like to mess around with your rig but he works out of Cheetah, which doesn't read .blend files.

TobyMac - Lose My Soul music video - in LEGO!
YouTube | Twitter | Letterboxd

Mighty Wanderer's Website

  • Joined: December 26, 2008

Re: The Marty Rig - Rigged LEGO Minifig for Blender (beta version)

I don't. Blender should have an Export to OBJ tool, although I don't know how well it exports rigs.

"[It] was the theme song for the movie 2010 first contact." ~ A YouTuber on Also Sprach Zarathustra
CGI LEGO! Updated occasionally...

Littlebrick's Website

  • Joined: December 26, 2008

Re: The Marty Rig - Rigged LEGO Minifig for Blender (beta version)

As far as I know, .obj only handles geometry information and materials; you could get the model but not the rig/blend weights. Could be mistaken.

If I am correct, you might try something like .fbx, which is a more robust format and is able to hold some information that .obj files can't. It's pretty common so I'd assume Cheetah can import it, though I'm not really familiar with the program. Unfortunately there's no guarantee the rig will come out correctly there either. You may have to put some work into moving it to another program.

  • Location: youtube.com/VideobyKB
  • Joined: November 12, 2013

Re: The Marty Rig - Rigged LEGO Minifig for Blender (beta version)

That looks great. I wonder what it'd look like rendered in renderman. I've never used Blender myself, so i'm not sure if renderman works on blender.

http://www.cxpulp.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=874&d=1279678499
The new KB Videos coming soon.

Kieren Barnett's Website

  • Joined: December 26, 2008

Re: The Marty Rig - Rigged LEGO Minifig for Blender (beta version)

Renderman does work in Blender. I've messed around with it a bit, but I'm sticking with Cycles for now. If anyone else wants to try rendering this in Renderman, feel free.

"[It] was the theme song for the movie 2010 first contact." ~ A YouTuber on Also Sprach Zarathustra
CGI LEGO! Updated occasionally...

Littlebrick's Website

  • Location: Legoland
  • Joined: March 16, 2016

Re: The Marty Rig - Rigged LEGO Minifig for Blender (beta version)

I love CGI, i make it for lego star wars films sometimes, this is looking nice!

Austin-Frame5 Studios https://i.imgur.com/6kA5imJ.png

Frame5Studios's Website

  • Location: Where do you think?
  • Joined: May 2, 2011

Re: The Marty Rig - Rigged LEGO Minifig for Blender (beta version)

Okay, so this is a bit of a stupid question, but I downloaded this rig this morning since I think it might be fun to mess around with some 3D animation since I'm in a dorm and that'd be a good thing to keep my animation juices flowing. Regardless, I can't for the life of me figure out how to rotate the arms or the head. Like, the hands, feet and torso all move just fine, but I can only make the arms and the head slide around like disembodied ghost limbs. Maybe I'm just an idiot, but I was wondering if I'm just missing some super obvious solution.

https://i.imgur.com/gGaR9Oz.png
Youtube @TheRealSonjira I consider it a personal defeat if my pee is not perfectly clear every time.]

Sonjira's Website

  • Joined: December 26, 2008

Re: The Marty Rig - Rigged LEGO Minifig for Blender (beta version)

Sorry it took me so long to see this. If you haven't figured it out by now, you can rotate by pressing R.

"[It] was the theme song for the movie 2010 first contact." ~ A YouTuber on Also Sprach Zarathustra
CGI LEGO! Updated occasionally...

Littlebrick's Website