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A Flash to the Past, Here Is the Latest Render of My 588 Police Station

588 Police Headquarters - POV-Ray - Front by Steven Reid

Following my Blender renders for 588, I started work on rendering the POV-Ray versions. Not quite the original versions, these renders use radiosity with an updated environment. Besides being a larger render, I turned on some of the features I usually don’t. The images came out pretty good, even if I’m always looking to improve them.


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.


Featured Lego of the Day: 590 Engine Company No. 9

590 Engine Company No. 9 by Steven Reid, on Flickr

When I saw that the featured set of the day on Brickset was Engine Company No. 9, I was excited. LEGO set 590 is one of two large city sets I owned as a child, the other being the 588 Police Headquarters. Even better, I had built the set in POV-Ray some years back. Realizing I’d never published it, I decided it was time to right that wrong.


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!


Adventures in Lighting and Improving My Lego Waterfall

LEGO Waterfall 2017, by Steven Reid

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.



Blast From the Past – 373 Offshore Rig

377 Offshore Rig with Fuel Tanker

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. This month I decided to build it once more—this time using Mecabricks and Blender.


Rendering The Enterprise D Only In Basic Bricks

Enterprise D

I’ve been a long time Star Trek fan, predating Star Wars by a few years. I have fond memories of watching the original series in re-runs, but it was TNG that rekindled my fandom. I even went to a convention while living in Indy. So, it should be no surprise that I built a version of the Enterprise D using only basic LEGO bricks. This is the story of my attempts at rendering it.


Something New: Rendering LEGO’s With Mecabricks & Blender

8029 Mini Snowspeeder

Since 1995, I’ve been rendering LEGO models using POV-Ray. For most of that time, I’ve used scripting to place and build those models. It’s been fun and I’ve learned a lot over the years, each model looking a bit better than the first. That said, I’m never quite happy and always looking for new ways to render my models and, below, are my recent attempts using Blender.


Experimenting with Mecabricks’ Online LEGO Modeling

Experimenting  with Mecabricks’ Online LEGO Modeling

I’ve been trying to get back into my LEGO ray tracing the last few weeks, but find myself distracted. Not with other activities, but with research and all the cool things others are doing. My journey led me to Mecabricks, where it provided the image you see to the right. Not yet at my destination, I thought I’d share this stop along the way.


POV-Ray Render of LEGO Model 353 Terrace House

353 Terrace House

Trying to get back into my LEGO ray tracing yesterday, I begin looking for old instructions on the internet again. It’s been awhile since I’d done that. Like coming home after being gone awhile, I enjoyed browsing through the old and new scans that are out there. I remembered liking the old house sets and, when I landed on 353 Terrace House, I thought it would be nice to render it. Yet, something made me think I’d already done that.




693 Fire Engine

693 Fire Engine by Steven Reid, on Flickr

LEGO released this set in 1975 in Europe, and in 1976 as 485 Fire Truck in the US. Having grown up with these old sets, I have a special place in my heart for these short-lived LEGO mini-figs. Although I enjoy the great designs of today, I miss how simple these models are.




MMMB016 Fireworks

MMMB016 Fireworks

Goofing around again with some simple LEGO fireworks. Still waiting on the larger render to finish. Fireworks was the LEGO Club Monthly Mini Model Build for November 2009. Flame part courtesy of LDRAW and LeoCAD. A simple, yet effective model. Rendered with POV-Ray 3.7RC6. MMMB016 Fireworks by Safe





21011 Brandenburg Gate

21011 Brandenburg Gate

Another great build from the architecture series rendered with POV-Ray. I was trying to add some back light, but I'm not sure I'm happy with the results. It took 3 days to render and it still has anti-alias artifacts. Overall, it looks pretty good though. Besides the title brick, I only had to model a few new pieces: the fence pieces and the 4 stud brick on top. The tap on top is actually from the LGEO library since I was too lazy to build it myself.


Lighthouse

Lighthouse

LEGO Store’s Lighthouse is the Monthly Mini Model Build for July ’11. I thought this would be a nice quick and dirty build, but I ran into a minor problem. I didn’t have the wheel element in the build modeled.


21009 Farnsworth House

21009 Farnsworth House

I actually started 21009 Farnsworth House before my last model, but made the mistake of rendering it on my older desktop. It took over a week to render due to the glass and higher anti-alias requirements. I should try this on my daughter’s iMAC to see if how fast it renders with a newer computer.


21008 Burj Khalifa

21008 Burj Khalifa by Steven Reid

Ran across this model from a YouTube stop motion video and thought it’d be a fun build. You can see more pictures of the real model on BrickSet. I think my render came out well, even if I had to do a little color correction first.