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The Long and Short of Rendering Lego Blades

Katana by Shipmaster,  2022 by Steven Reid

Wandering through Mecabricks the other day, I ran across a fun pair of Mini-Katana’s by Shipmaster. Digging deeper, I also discovered his excellent Katana. Both models really appealed to me. Given my recent binge watching of Forged in Fire, both made for excellent subjects to render. As is usual for me, I promptly saved the models and fired up Blender.



Revisiting Running Blender in Apple Silicon Using a MacBook Pro M1

Spring Fall v2 by Steven Reid, on Flickr

While watching a review for the new M1 iMac, they ran the typical Blender test as a benchmark. That wasn’t overly surprising, but the reviewer did say something that peaked my interest. Apparently, the latest version of Blender now supported Apple Silicon. Tucking that tidbit away at the time, I got around to downloading LTS 2.93 today and giving it a whirl.


My Adventure with Apple’s M1 and Blender

497 Galaxy Explorer by Steven Reid, on Flickr

Although my late 2013 MacBook Pro still works well, it was showing it’s age. Sadly, I found it freezing from time to time and generally not running like it used to. Given that my Window’s laptops lasted only a few years, I’ve been very happy with longevity my mac. Yet, this was going to be the last year it received an OS update. With the release of the M1, I took the opportunity to upgrade and try it out. That means it was time to render some LEGO bricks!


Happy Holidays! Here Is a Fun Render to Close out the Year.

1628 Santa with Reindeer and Sleigh by Steven Reid, on Flickr

Tis the season to render Santa. Well that wasn’t really my plan, but it worked out that way. I was browsing around Bricklinks, mostly trying to update some of the recent sets. Searching for a small reindeer figure, I ran across LEGO set 1628 Santa with Reindeer and Sleigh. A great set from 1989, it looked like it would be a fun set to render.






Here Is the Refresh of My Favorite LEGO Fire Station

590 Engine Co. No. 9 - Blender - Front by Steven Reid, on Flickr

Last week, I shared my POV-Ray version of LEGO 590. Now, it seemed like a good time to build a Blender version. Starting in Mecabricks, I was fortunate to find that awesomo had recently built the model. Although missing a few parts, it gave me a shortcut into building a realistic render of the box art. Starting as a simple idea, my journey towards the final image wouldn’t be a straight one.


Here Are the Results of My LDraw and Blender Experiments

886 - Space Buggy - LDraw Importer by Steven Reid, on Flickr

Not quite done trying things out, I spent time the futzing around with Blender the other night. Looking around for LEGO materials, I ran across a Blender importer for LDraw files. I didn’t know such a thing existed. Intrigued, it resulted in a night of experimentation and the results look pretty good.


Learning New Tricks With LeoCAD and Blender

Mini ZX81 - v3 - LeoCad - v2b by Steven Reid, on Flickr

On Monday, I decided to hack around with Blender a bit. I’d been playing with POV-Ray and looking for a way to convert my LEGO scenes to Blender. I was unable to export SDL to a mesh. Loading up LeoCad, I discovered that I could export my models and import them into Blender. Before I knew it, I’d spent the night futzing around with shaders and modifies. The results weren’t half bad.


Now It Is the Time to Give My LEGO Renders Some Love

Playing with POV-Ray by Steven Reid, on Flickr

I can’t believe how many LEGO sets I built and rendered using POV-Ray. Over the years, starting in 1996, I’ve built 125 different models—yes I counted them. To note, that doesn’t include the variations or alternate scenes within each set. Around the same time, I started to share my models online. To my surprise, many of my models were never shared! It’s time for me to fix that!


Struck by Random Inspiration, Here Are the LEGO Renders From Last Month

1611 Marinair (Holland) - Bottom by Steven Reid on Flickr

Sometimes inspiration arrives from odd places. For years, I have subscribed to BrinkSet’s newsfeed which serves up a random set of the day. A recent airplane set got me interested in playing with Mecabricks again. Plus Scrubs had released an update for his Advanced Blender Script. How exciting is it to flip through your feeds and end the day creating something. Even better, it sparked more renders that allowed me to escape pandemic news, if only for a bit.


A New Pair of Images to Test out Mecabricks

1808 Light Aircraft and Ground Support by Steven Reid, on Flickr

Over the weekend, Mecabricks released an overhaul of its parts system. As noted in his announcement, it culminates over six months of research and development. Not wanting to lose the opportunity, I took the time to model and render a couple of images using the new system. So far, I’m enjoying the changes.


A New Year Dragon for the New Decade

40395 Chinese Dragon by Steven Reid

I’d taken a bit of hiatus from my LEGO rendering in the later half of last year. Life sometimes kick you in the teeth and some pleasures fall to the way side. Rendering was one of them. To my benefit, other interests flourished. But my heart was still yearning. Trying to kick off the new decade, I grabbed a model of the latest LEGO mini-build and set to work.


Spring Is the Time for Fun with LEGO Bricks

Shuttle and Earth by Steven Reid

Spring is in full swing and I’ve taken time away from running to complete a few LEGO renders. The topics range from movie blockbusters, old BASIC sets, to random sets from Pinterest. I even did some experimenting with Mecabricks rendering to see how it compared with mine. Here are four images to show off this Spring.


Have a Super Happy Blocky Easter!

Easter 2019 by Steven Reid

With the arrival of Spring and warmer weather, I found myself inspired by the cheerful colors. Looking through my pins for ideas, a rainbow sparked my creativity. Thoughts of an Easter hunt with eggs and grass completed the theme. The blocky nature of the LEGO bricks invoke adolescence and whimsy.



Moai on Easter Island

Moai on Easter Island by Steven Reid

Although I posted this on Flickr awhile back, I’m getting around to sharing on my blog. I was looking for something quick to render and had this Moai of Rapa Nui from custombrick in my Pinterest. Not thinking twice, I was off to Mecabricks to build the scene.


February Fun with a Sleeping Lego Caterpillar and More

40322 Caterpillar by Steven Reid

As February closes, I thought it fitting to recap my renders this month. Four in total, although not quite one a week. Added to last month’s render, I’ve almost shared as many as last year. Hopefully this means a lot more LEGO fun is in store for the rest of year. Let’s walk back through them and see what I’ve been up to.