Lego and Poliigon

[Master_Data]

I'm in the middle of learning Blender, but I stumbled upon Poliigon and was blown away. I'd really like something to aspire to once I've got a grasp on the basics, so has anyone tried applying a Poliigon texture to a Lego render of any sort?

[NathanR]

Interesting... I'm completely clueless about all this stuff, though it still fascinates me.  The mecabricks advanced blender script recently added in new texture details like thumbprints, scratches, and some kind of roughness texture.  Is this the same kind of thing?

[Master_Data]

19 hours ago, NathanR said:

Interesting... I'm completely clueless about all this stuff, though it still fascinates me.  The mecabricks advanced blender script recently added in new texture details like thumbprints, scratches, and some kind of roughness texture.  Is this the same kind of thing?

Somewhat, although I haven't used Mecabricks yet. I'm just trying to get the hang of Blender first. Poliigon has the reputation for looking really, really polished. Does Mecabricks' look good?

I'm mostly asking for when I start rendering and animating in Blender. I want to make it as realistic as possible.

[NathanR]

Mecabricks do a free blender plugin, and a more advanced paid-for plugin.  Basically you build in mecabricks (or upload from LDD), then export the lego model as a .dae file.  Import into blender, run the script, and you get all the materials and effects set up for you.  All you need to do is tweak the background and lighting to suit, and load an environment map (the mecabricks site links to some free HDR files).

This was produced with an old version of the free mecabricks script:

 

Check the mecabricks site for more details, what can be achieved with the advanced script is simply amazing (I just don't really have the computer processing power to do it unfortunately)

Edited August 6, 2017 by NathanR

[Scrubs]

Poliigon textures can be used mainly to create the scene around your LEGO models. No doubt about it. Andrew Price and his team do a really good job. I used a free pack from them to make a quick test on this particular render. For the LEGO parts, I used Mecabricks and the Advanced Add-on of course ;-)

Jungle Buggy by Nicolas Jarraud, on Flickr

 

You can check my flickr to see what can be done with Mecabricks and Blender https://www.flickr.com/photos/mecabricks/

Or the gallery from Zanna https://www.flickr.com/photos/137478436@N07

Edited August 6, 2017 by Scrubs

[Master_Data]

Everything I've seen so far looks great, but slightly CG. The models are missing inconsistencies such as scratches. Does Mecabricks have the capability to produce a higher quality, more photo-realistic render?

[Scrubs]

I think you didn't look into it enough... The Mecabricks Advanced add-on for Blender includes all those things - Scratches, Dirt, Fingerprints, etc. that can be adjusted.

2 examples I made where it is really visible:

Faraday Future FF91 by Nicolas Jarraud, on Flickr

 

Mecabricks Minifig by Nicolas Jarraud, on Flickr

 

Edited August 6, 2017 by Scrubs

[Master_Data]

Wow, I didn't know Mecabricks could do this! Where can I find out more?

One last question - does Mecabricks have Bionicle G1 parts in stock? I'd like to move on to that at some point.

[Scrubs]

Mecabricks is an online 3D builder (It works in any browsers) that uses its own part library (different from LDD and from LDraw). You can find it here: www.mecabricks.com

You can export to multiple formats (or sketchfab) that can be opened in most 3D software. However integration is the most advanced with Blender as I provide add-ons.

For Bionicle parts, you won't really find too many. Hopefully they can be added in the future but I don't really own any other than the odd ones found in System/Technic sets and therefore I cannot model them.

Edited August 7, 2017 by Scrubs

[legolijntje]

4 hours ago, Scrubs said:

For Bionicle parts, you won't really find too many. Hopefully they can be added in the future but I don't really own any other than the odd ones found in System/Technic sets and therefore I cannot model them.

I have a bunch of those parts. If you ever want some pictures or measurements or anything, feel free to shoot a PM 

[Master_Data]

On 8/7/2017 at 0:09 AM, legolijntje said:

I have a bunch of those parts. If you ever want some pictures or measurements or anything, feel free to shoot a PM 

Same here. I'd love to animate them and give them a photo-realistic metallic texture, but at the rate I'm learning Blender, it will probably be a while until I have the skill to model them.

If anyone has applied Poliigon textures to parts not accessible in Mecabricks, please let me know!