Spider, I See You Hiding in the Window
I was actually working on a different model when an idea struck me. Wanting the an object to look abandoned and old, I grabbed a spider web and threw a black spider in it for fun. But, the web was too large, so I left it off to the side…
Posted Aug 04 by Steven
3 min read
Enjoy This Cute Little Octopus That Floated By
I haven’t cranked out pictures as much lately. My intent was to work on my writing this month, but life and work intruded. Uninspired to write last night, I searched for something new to render. This cute little LEGO creature offered me a nice diversion.
40245 Octopus by Steven Reid, on Flickr…
Posted Jul 14 by Steven
3 min read
Trying Not to Be Sad Today with My Love of LEGO
July 4th is bitter sweet for me. I’ve always enjoyed the holiday with its fireworks and celebration. Food, fair and patriotism mix for a usually fun day. Yet, my wife’s mother died on the 4th, making it a day of remembrance and sadness. Time to find something to take my mind off it.
More sadness to…
Posted Jul 04 by Steven
4 min read
Enjoy This Simple and Elegant LEGO Dragonfly
Each month I check to see what the latest LEGO mini build is. Since I don’t have a local LEGO Store, I often build and render them using virtual bricks. This month, I only needed to render it as as mathieub already built it. Yet, I decided to give it a little character.
40244 Dragonfly by Steven Re…
Posted Jun 23 by Steven
2 min read
Ego the Living Planet and How to Make a Great Background
Last weeks, I ran across this build by changewing1 of the living planet. Mecabricks is a great community for such finds. Plus, I needed something to tax my old computer while trying out denoising feature in Blender. Stars aligned—pun intended, and I was off to render my next image…
Posted Jun 11 by Steven
5 min read
A Lonely Ostrich, Sometimes Simple Is Better
The lively colors in this Duplo ostrich caught my eye and inspired me to render it. My version of this lonely ostrich uses standard LEGO bricks, I was never a big fan of Duplo, nor do I have models of them. Yet, the simplicity of the model is quite effective. The render recreates that charm well.
O…
Posted Jun 04 by Steven
2 min read
Rub-A-Dub-Dub See My Little Boat in the Tub
I saw a great Pirate Ship render yesterday by saabfan. The water in it impressed me, and I had commented that I didn’t know how to model it in Blender. Scrubs informed that it was easy, providing me the how. Off I went to try for myself.
To my surprise, it was easy. Sort of…
Posted Jun 01 by Steven
4 min read
6600 Police Patrol, a Fun Render of Old Lego
I spent part of the memorial weekend getting Blender working on my office computer, a 2011 Mac mini. Although not as fast as my laptop, I’d set up dual monitors a few months ago and was itching to use them. The result of my effort is this render of 6600 Police Patrol.
6600 Police Patrol by Ste…
Posted May 31 by Steven
3 min read
10 Lego Renders to Enjoy Your Day By
Although it’s been a month since my last LEGO® post, I haven’t been idle. With my current workflow, it only takes about 15 minutes to kick off a render, but I often don’t have the time to blog them. Correcting that with a few spare minutes, here are my last ten Blender renders.
#1 – A droidMy first…
Posted May 07 by Steven
6 min read
What do ugly april showers bring? Why, pretty lego renders!
Okay, the weather hasn’t been that bad, but we did get a few showers. In either case, I found time to render a few more images: A remake, a new build, and someone else’s. Here are three pictures to round out your week.
Let’s start with the remake…
Posted Apr 09 by Steven
2 min read
After Years, These Are My Latest Lego Brick Parts
I haven’t built a new LEGO part for a number of years now. POV-Ray offered a very descriptive language, but the bricks were getting too complex. With the growth of the virtual LEGO community, I haven’t needed to render new parts. Until now.
Old is new—minifigs…
Posted Apr 05 by Steven
2 min read
Adventures in Lighting and Improving My Lego Waterfall
With my Advanced Blender script buy, I decided to revisit my Waterfall model. Created using various LEGO CAD software, it is a study in tools as much as rendering. As such, I thought it would be fun to compare its evolution to date, and review how it has improved over time.
Adventures in lighting—9…
Posted Mar 24 by Steven
3 min read
I love my LEGO images—how I made them better with Mecabricks
Yep, I did it. I purchased a template to render LEGO bricks. Given the many years spent developing my own, I never thought I’d say that. To be fair, it was about time. Mecabricks creator Nicolas Jarraud (aka Scrubs) developed a great product…
Posted Mar 19 by Steven
3 min read
How To Render Beautiful LEGO Pictures In 5 Easy Steps
Infographics are a popular, and fun, tool to share information. I thought I’d give it a try using Canva’s infographic template, but I needed to choose something to talk about. Sticking to my current passion, the topic I chose was rendering LEGO images using Mecabricks and Blender.
How to Render Bea…
Posted Feb 26 by Steven
1 min read
Progressive Change, How I Made My Snowspeeder Better
Although I enjoy seeing the finished product of my LEGO renders, it is the process that engergizes me. The acts of learning, refining, and failing each add to my body of knowledge. Let’s explore some of that using my 8029 Mini Snowspeeder.
Without continual growth and progress, such words as i…
Posted Feb 05 by Steven
3 min read
Start the Year with LEGO Emoji, How I Lost and Gained Motivation
It feels like 2017 is just kicking off, yet here we are at the end of January. Time sure seems to be getting away from me lately. I blame the the heater skelter of the holidays and uncomfortable weather. Well, and taking a not so great vacation didn’t improve my mood any…
Posted Jan 28 by Steven
5 min read
How To Make And Break Big Bricks Using Little Ones
At the end of November, during some time off from work, I dabbled rendering a series of LEGO models I call Big Bricks. Starting out as a “can I do this?” effort, led to me building variations on that theme…
Posted Dec 30, 2016 by Steven
6 min read
Lost on the Moon
Inspiration flows from various sources. For some time I’ve wanted to create a messy model, one with greebles and imperfections. A space article about a moon—I don’t remember which—provided the push I needed…
Posted Oct 30, 2016 by Steven
4 min read
Funny LEGO Faces using Brick-moji
When I ran across Iain Heath's Brick-moji, there was this instant need to build them myself. My wife thought they were cute, which was enough for me. Not long afterwards, I had my first render of the face with its tongue sticking out and tears of joy.
Brick-moji by Steven Reid, on Flickr
Seriously…
Posted Oct 13, 2016 by Steven
3 min read
Like My Milk Truck? 5 Quick Ways to Find Inspiration
Inspiration and Milk Trucks.It was sheer luck that I found my latest build. Searching for a LEGO sticker set, I happened across this Milk Truck. As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to render it. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a sucker for old LEGO sets, although I like modern ones too…
Posted Sep 06, 2016 by Steven
5 min read
Floating House in LEGO
Meandering around Flickr, I ran across a picture of Floating cube houses Havneby Rømø island Denmark by Arkitema Architects. With black walls and expansive glass windows, the design was striking. Inspired by the modern lines, I pictured how they might look in LEGO bricks…
Posted Aug 28, 2016 by Steven
4 min read
Rendering a Hidden Gem: Yavin IV Rebel Base
I continue to grow my skills in Mecabricks and, to a smaller extend, Blender. When I ran across What's missing? A New Hope on BrickSet, the Yavin IV model depicted intrigued me. Doing some research into the unreleased set, it ultimately led me to render my own version of it.
Yavin IV Rebel Base by …
Posted Aug 21, 2016 by Steven
6 min read
Can I get a LEGO Moo? – Cows and Barn
I follow a number of LEGO sites through RSS feeds, looking for inspiration on what to render next. A long time back, I booked marked this article, Build the Big E Cow. It was small, had instructions, and was kind of cute. Something my wife would like…
Posted Aug 10, 2016 by Steven
2 min read
Blast From the Past – 373 Offshore Rig
Hard to believe, but 20 years ago I started dabbling with POV-Ray to render models with virtual LEGO bricks. Set 373, my second rendered model, is over 20 years old now. Started in April of 1996, it’s seen many iterations over the years…
Posted Aug 09, 2016 by Steven
3 min read