How to get high quality renders on a Mac?

[NathanR]

Hi, I don't know if there's a specific thread for this but I couldn't find one, so I hope it's ok me starting a new one.

I do a lot of Lego in computer using both LDD and LDraw (Bricksmith editor), but what I'd like to try and do is create some higher quality images than the ones I manage to get out of LDView.

I only have a Mac laptop.

Could you give me any advice on the software/tools I need to get hold of?

(Tried looking for Pov-ray but that doesn't seem to have a current mac release? Also, a lot of the tools seem geared exclusively for Windows which I can't run)

Cheers

NathanR

[Renderbricks]

www.blender.org

BLENDER is free and great. But you have to find a way to get LDD or LDraw models into BLENDER.

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=95004&st=100#entry1908053

Edited March 2, 2015 by virtualrepublic

[NathanR]

Ah, do you mean this script:

http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Extensions:2.6/Py/Scripts/Import-Export/LDRAW_Importer

Is Blender "safe"? I remember trying to use it many years ago on a Windows pc, but after I uninstalled I was forever finding folders, associated file extensions, etc. and I was never able to completely get rid of it.

[Scrubs]

No all good. I use blender on a mac. Easy to install and easy to uninstall. I definitely recommend!

[lego2lego]

Povray for mac here http://megapov.inetart.net/povrayunofficial_mac/

What I found is that you need a lot of work polishing the model after importing the files into blender, but that could have changed.

Very good tutorial on rendering with povray here http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=65876&st=0

Cheers!

[NathanR]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I tried Blender, but the import script can't load models made in Bricksmith (the only Mac LDraw editor I've got). I need to experiment with the settings a fair bit I think, I'm struggling to get the lighting right or the camera in a good position, and my test renders came out very grainy in places that were in shadow.

@lego2lego

Thanks for the povray link, I didn't know about that, I was only checking the main povray site. I was able to use LDView to get a scenes set up really easily, but there are two issues:

1) the final image has some very pale and washed out colours

2) one thing the tutorial refers to is the LGeo parts library - an enhanced LDraw for povray. Where can I get it?

The site everyone links to seems to have disappeared, and the core library only seems available now in the LDraw windows installer, which I can't use...

[lego2lego]

I've put a link to my dropbox with the LGEO library as I have it and the LGEO.XML file (needed for LDView). User C3POwen updates the library on a regular basis so keep checking these boards.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wdkogsikumhjz5l/AADEPUXbTxFFqR305lff6RHja?dl=0

The washed out renders can have a score of reasons. e.g. too many or too bright lights, your fog settings may be off etc. I'd recommend to follow the guide step by step in order to see what the effects are of each action (some may be a bit different because of macpovray, but you'll figure it out). That's how I did it....

[NathanR]

Thank you so much for this!!

I managed to get it all set up, and even straight out of the box the results were amazing:

I worked through the tutorial, and I love the radiosity render mode, I think it gives a much more natural and realistic look to the bricks (the regular lighting struck me as a little too cgi-ish, a bot too much sheen). I only have one problem though - how do you control the lighting effects?

Is there an easy way of working out where the radiosity area light should be positioned?

Just working with raw numbers in the pov-ray file leaves things a bit too much trial-and-error, for example:

I'd like to try and get slightly longer shadows, and maybe it's just me (or the model) but sometimes they just don't look like they're sitting on the floor.

Any suggestions?

Edited March 7, 2015 by NathanR

[nvjiesle]

User C3POwen updates the library on a regular basis so keep checking these boards.

Edited March 8, 2015 by nvjiesle