I posted this a couple of days back on Flickr, but hadn’t made it around to posting here. Happy belated Valentine’s day to all!
LEGO Parts and Colors Catalog
It is a strange time for me. For years, I have run my web site locally as a way to test out new designs and programs. I have used that site as the home for my catalog of LEGO parts and colors. Unfortunately, the computer that housed that catalog failed and I still haven’t gone through the trouble of reinstalling Apache. While working on a recent project, that decision is becoming a problem. Today I decided to do something to correct that. I uploaded my L-Bricks catalog to my hosted web site. Now I can find the names I need to put parts and colors into my POV-Ray renderings.
40036 Cobra
Short and sweet. Monthly mini-build for Jan 2012 rendered with POV-ray. Interesting that these in-store promotions are now numbered. 40036 Cobra by SafePit, on Flickr
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
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
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
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.
Bird
It's a rainy Saturday afternoon which provides a perfect opportunity to render LEGO's monthly mini build with POV-Ray. Bird by SafePit, on Flickr
Panda Puzzle from 1975
I was reading this article from Brickset about a scanned Bricks and Pieces No. 2 from Spring '75. It was an interesting read and a fun look into LEGO's past. I especially liked the "What is it?" article, a puzzle of instructions laid out in layers. I was pretty sure I knew what it was, but I just had to give it a go in LDD to verify. I was right, it was a Panda! Not content with just a simple screenshot, I exported it into POV-Ray. I think it came out very nicely.
Polar Bears
A more interesting scene using the Polar Bear from January 2011 Monthly Mini Build.
Polar Bear
![olar Bear by Steven Reid[/url], on Flickr](https://live.staticflickr.com/5006/5341984354_603c3391f0_n.jpg)
Polar Bear is the January Mini Build. This is celebrated monthly at LEGO(R) Stores. First new render for 2011. Rendered with POV-Ray 3.7 R2.
8029 Mini Snow Speeder
Thought this unreleased LEGO mini snow speeder would be fun to render. Not sure why this wan’t released. It was probably due to the cockpit. Oddly, LEGO released the instructions, apparently in 2008.
6803 Space Patrol
Ran across this 1983 Class Space set while perusing Peeron. It is a pretty simple model so it was nice quick project to build and render. Unfortunately, I didn’t have part 4360 (Black Minifig Accessory Camera with Side Sight) already. Fortunately, the piece had been modeled as part of the LGEO library so I used it. Some days I think I should just give up modeling my own.
Halloween LEGO Fun
Ran across these great seasonal models perusing Brickset. They are simple yet effective, really showing how LEGO models can shine with such few bricks. The Jack’o’lantern is just perfect and I love the use of the cheese slopes as teeth. I liked the yellow eyes of the bat. I didn’t bother modeling the ghost. It is a good model, but not enough to model.
Sea Swallow
I was having fun again with LDD and POV-Ray and thought this would make an interesting render after my first attempt. I also uploaded a slightly different version to LEGO’s gallery with different eyes stalks.
Waterfall v2 (Updated)
Okay, I went a bit overboard creating an updated version of my Waterfall with more accurate bricks and logo. I even randomly rotated the bricks to break up the monotony of the the logos. The first version with the LEGO logo was a bit too uniform.
Waterfall
This is the second version of my simple waterfall experiment. I limited myself to a 4x4 plate and the bricks and colors available in LDD. I added a bit more foliage and color variation to the cliff.
Adventures in Lighting
Okay, I admit that lighting isn’t my strong suit. I’m good with geometry and scripting. But I struggle making the images look as good as they should. These photos are my attempts to try to get better colors and realistic lighting from POV-Ray.
Cube Dudes and Seagull
I’ve been having a lot of fun lately creating LEGO POV-Ray models and I thought I’d share! Brink Link was nice enough to post instructions for the SDCC 2010 Cube Dudes which I had to model! I’ve finished R2-D2 and C-3PO and they look great!
Watermelon
Here is my take on LEGO Stores Watermelon Monthly Mini Model Build for July. This model screams Summer and one just didn’t seem enough. Playing around with better lighting, fog to soften light and JPEG artifacts, and a bit of focal blur thrown in for good measure.
New and Old Models
I uploaded a couple of LEGO renders today, a new one and an old one.
21006 White House
This is the wonderful 21006 White House. I love the look and did my best to recreate it, but I’m sure things aren’t quite the same. I didn’t finish the back yet, so don’t turn it around.
344 Bungalow
I found a number of old models from 1969 and rendered many last year, including this one. I finally got around to rendering larger a larger version with a better background (originally it has a seam in the back). If you search for this, you'll find that I fudged the trees and used something newer.
357 Fire Station
I rendered this a couple of weeks ago and thought I’d share. This is LEGO(R) Model 357 Fire Station with Vehicles from 1973. I’d like to create a more “action oriented” version in the future, but it is pretty nice to begin with. I personally like the middle engine with the two yellow rounds. It was the reason I rendered the model to begin with.
Flickr LEGO Fun
Flickr has become my new favorite place to share my LEGO creations. I tend to use Facebook for family and friends, mainly because that is what my family and friends use. But I digress. It is pretty easy now to use available tools, mine being Windows Live Photo Gallary, that allow easy publishing. That means more time building and less time cropping and uploading. In all, a good use of technology.