haha, yeah, I had the idea before, if say you use/make something for a film, you can just add it to the library.

I did notice those mistakes, I messed up some stuff, so I'm going to redo it. It's to reflective anyway.

I rendered this out mid-last year for a brickfilm I never finished (I may eventually finish it just for laughs). It is one of my most recent LEGO photorealism renders (This one linked is my most recent, but it's based on the one below). Shall we go for more realism, or is that good?

The United Kingdom - LEGO Render by rioforce, on Flickr

I'm going to render a couple more tests soon, and if they meet a level of realism that we want, I (or someone else can, I can give them the model and the bevel amounts) can make tutorial videos based on the bricks.

Last edited by rioforce (February 23, 2015 (01:20pm))

YouTube • Website

"Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." - 1 Corinthians 10:31b

Haha, well, I guess I can say that I succeeded in the realism department.

In simple terms, I practiced and "tried tried again" until it looked right. In technical terms, I used Cycles Render Engine, which makes everything much more realistic, I observed and did an extensive "study" on LEGO bricks, marking their imperfections, I used my scanner a lot to get some bump maps, and I experimented with the nodes and a lot of rendering to get the right shader. As for the color inconsistencies, there's a thing in Blender to do that (for all you nerds, it's the Object Data and Color Ramp node plugged into the color socket of a diffuse shader. I didn't take into account the glossy inconsistencies, but have that solved now, so the gloss can be slightly variable on each one).

YouTube • Website

"Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." - 1 Corinthians 10:31b

I made another little CGI animation, this time for a new Lego magazine that's launching in the UK.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbCsZeXlM90

Rendered with Cycles and making use of the rigid body system for some mostly accurate physics.

The walk cycle is a toned down, somewhat less fluid version of one they used in the movie. There's a lot more flexibility in how you move figs when you don't have to worry about gravity and blu-tack.

The magazine is independent but approved by LEGO, I think. They have permission to use the word "LEGO" on the cover at least, which is rare. There are no plans for me to do anything else for them at the moment but I know one of the editors so it's a possibility.

Just a cool shot I made

Wondering the same thing, too. If so, that's amazing.

More ads for friends' online enterprises. This one may be familiar to some of you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IYtzNIUDg8

I'm working on a brickfilm script currently, and I'm not holding back on the visual elements I'm writing in the script. I am however a little concerned that I wont be able to achieve everything in the script simply in brickfilming.

I'm thinking of perhaps compositing CGI elements into a brickfilm, but I'm not too sure how easy this would be. I know CGI, but I'm not sure how well the two would blend. Has anyone ever blended the two successfully, and more specifically, using Maya? If so, do you have any tips, like how to achieve more realistic rendering, or if I should have all the CGI elements really blurred in the background so they aren't even noticeable?

The new KB Videos coming soon.