[Software] LDD2PovRay

[Nachapon Lego]

@ The Real Indiana Jones,

The chrome-red Iron Man below was rendered in chrome-gold, then change hue to red tone afterwards.

Yes, I increase contrast afterwards. No custom lighting/palette, just two lights: one 40% left or right light + 17% top light (without shadow).

lego chrome iron man by Nachapon S., on Flickr

[The Real Indiana Jones]

Hmmm, I can't see how to make trans-reddish-orange show up as transparent, so I just went ahead and re-mapped trans-orange to be trans-reddish-orange now...

Now all of my torches will come out just right!

Thanks!

Edited October 1, 2013 by The Real Indiana Jones

[The Real Indiana Jones]

Your models look really great great. Files having names starting with ldd_best_ do not exist in real life, they were just examples of files with custom settings. You can take ldd_finishes.inc, copy it to ldd_my_finishes.inc and try to make custom settings. Metallic materials are tricky to render, they need some nice surrounding environment to reflect, so finding realistic looking definition may require a lot of work. Pearl finishes are even more complex.

If you will improve them, please, share the definition with us.

OK, success! Let me write this up before I forget what I did...

To get all of the pearl-metallic colors to be as shiny as you want, first open the file named "ldd_finishes.inc" in a text editor. You can use the "find" function in the text editor to search for all instances of the word "reflection" throughout the file. As you go through, you will see that each style of finish has several defining variables, including:

"reflection" - the percentage of incoming light that will bounce off a surface, (where dull plastic is .01, and shiny steel is .60)

"metallic" - the default will be 1.0 for a full metallic sheen, (or it can be followed by a decimal like 0.5 for a partial sheen)

"brilliance" - a parameter that effects multi-layered reflections, (where dull plastic is 1.0 and a metallic is a 5.0 or 6.0)

It definitely seems like the original LDD file has a simple typo in it, since the variables listed for the "shiny pearl" finish are strangely much lower than the corresponding variables for the "dull pearl" finish. That must be a mistake, but it is easy to fix. One easy solution is to change the numbers for the "shiny pearl" finish, raising its "brilliance" to about 6.0 and increasing its "reflection" to about .25 or so.

That makes the pearl-bronze as shown on the right appear bright, but more subdued than the fully-chromed-gold and fully-chromed-silver on the left.

Edited October 2, 2013 by The Real Indiana Jones

[The Real Indiana Jones]

@ The Real Indiana Jones,

The chrome-red Iron Man below was rendered in chrome-gold, then change hue to red tone afterwards.

Yes, I increase contrast afterwards. No custom lighting/palette, just two lights: one 40% left or right light + 17% top light (without shadow).

Looks great! I am doing that with the lights now, and I am doing touch ups in PhotoShop or Google Picasa... Plus I am looking for a sky-sphere-image with maybe some greek columns in a rotunda, or maybe the dome of the Pantheon Temple in Rome. Do you know where I can get one that is visually warped in the correct way, so that it will look correct when it is rendered?

Thanks!

Edited October 1, 2013 by The Real Indiana Jones

[The Real Indiana Jones]

All right, here is a much more elegant and naturalistic solution... To do this, I simply copied the the definitions text from the "shiny metallic" finish, and pasted it over the definitions text for the "shiny pearl" finish. That instantly makes all of the pearl-metallic colors become automatically fully-chromed. The foreground of the image below shows gold, silver, and bronze. In the back are pearl-gold, pearl-silver, copper, and dark iron.

If you like, you can also adjust the definition text for the reflection variables however you like. I lowered the reflectiveness about 33% for the ones that were originally pearlescent, and the ones that were originally chromed are still perfectly unchanged in every way. If you want to take it to the next level of subtlety, then you can glance at the first few paragraphs about the Phong Reflection Model and related topics on Wikipedia.

As an added bonus, using this method gives you seven different shades of chrome to work with, and then if you want a complete rainbow of chrome-colors to play with, then you can easily remap some of their RGB hues in the LDD colors file to create a chrome-red or chrome-blue or chrome-purple... The colors will be correct as it renders, so you won't need to manipulate any colors in PhotoShop afterward.

Have fun! And post whatever you do for us all to see! =D

therealindy

Edited October 3, 2013 by The Real Indiana Jones

[The Real Indiana Jones]

Hi, everything is going wonderfully, and I am seeing my models in their true colors for the first time... I am just having a few issues... Can anyone help with these?

1) First and most important, is there any way to merge two LDD files together? I built the various models separately, and now I want to merge multiple models together into the same scene, in the same file. That way, I can set up a dynamic story-telling scene with multiple built models, and render that all in one shot.

2) The Egyptian scarab shield does not want to take a proper shiny finish, for some unknown reason. A few other parts are also acting the same silly way.

3) The Greek round convex shield is not taking a printed design. Is there any way at all to give it a print in the render?

4) The Roman rectangular curved shield is not taking a printed design, and it does not want to take a shiny finish either. So it is has both of the issues of points 2 and 3 above.

5) And the hanging 7x3 tapestry banners are not taking a printed design. Is there any way to give them their prints in the render? I guess I could possibly add that in PhotoShop afterward, since it's just a flat surface, but I'd much rather add it for real as it renders!

Thanks! =)

Edited October 3, 2013 by The Real Indiana Jones

[Calabar]

1) First and most important, is there any way to merge two LDD files together?

Yes, in LDD, File -> Import (CTRL + I)

[BEAVeR]

Hi, everything is going wonderfully, and I am seeing my models in their true colors for the first time... I am just having a few issues... Can anyone help with these?

Hi, you're doing some wonderful things with LDD and POV-Ray. Congratulations. I hope I can help.

1) Calabar has already mentioned a solution. If that wouldn't work however (for some very obscure reason), you can always use the simple Copy/Paste feature, found in the Edit-menu.

2) I'm sorry, I can't help you with this. You are now the expert on shiny things...

3,4,5) You should read bbqqq's topic (http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=86159&hl=) (additional video: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=83515&st=25). He has discovered a way to apply decals on several surfaces that normally wouldn't take any (I vaguely rember the banner was one of them), and render them in POV-Ray. For more information, I think you should get in touch with him.

I hope this was a helpful piece of information! I hope you can take your digital renders to a next level.

[Nachapon Lego]

Looks great! I am doing that with the lights now, and I am doing touch ups in PhotoShop or Google Picasa... Plus I am looking for a sky-sphere-image with maybe some greek columns in a rotunda, or maybe the dome of the Pantheon Temple in Rome. Do you know where I can get one that is visually warped in the correct way, so that it will look correct when it is rendered?

Thanks!

Maybe the Camera tab->spherical(panorama) can create lego-sky-sphere-image from your own MOC.

edit: add sample pic from hispabrick magazine #15.

From hispabrick magazine 15 by Nachapon S., on Flickr

Edited October 3, 2013 by bbqqq

[The Real Indiana Jones]

Maybe the Camera tab->spherical(panorama) can create lego-sky-sphere-image from your own MOC.

edit: add sample pic from hispabrick magazine #15.

From hispabrick magazine 15 by Nachapon S., on Flickr

OK, success... first, I found a nice standard sky-sphere just by searching on Google Images. The whole image is exactly twice as wide as tall, and it starts in the "east" and then wraps around clockwise for 360 degrees. Note that the subtle brightest highlight on the sand is on the center-left here, which will be due "south", indicating mid-day sun.

Then I composed a matching panoramic view of my Oracle of Delphi rotunda model from the center. Note that the real Oracle of Delphi was considered to be the true physical center of the earth in the Ancient Greek World! First, I built a temporary center-post made of a trans-green 2x2 jumper plate and a trans-green vertical pole, then pressed right-mouse-click on the pole to pin the camera to that piece, then I flew the camera into the scene from directly above, then aimed it perfectly horizontally facing due "west", then I used the color-selector-tool to automatically select all the temporary trans-green pieces to delete them out before I rendered the shot. Remember to choose the box for spherical panorama under the camera tab in LDD-to-POV-Ray.

M.C. Escher would approve! Then I just combined the two. I'm using basic graphics software so far, but it's good enough for a sky-sphere-image.

And I made it monochrome, so it won't impart any unwanted hues into the scene. It does darken the scene a fair amount, so adjust your lights.

And if you want to take these component layers to recompose it in a different way, or just experiment with it, feel free... It might look great to paste a nice image of Mediterranean mountains or the azure Aegean Sea over the horizon line in the sand, and then paste the columns on top of that.

I just used Google Picasa to do the image editing here... Should I buy PhotoShop, or subscribe to it monthly in the cloud? Or is there a nice simpler image editing program you like that does all of the professional things without taking so much system resources? Please let me know!

Thanks!

therealindy

Edited October 4, 2013 by The Real Indiana Jones

[The Real Indiana Jones]

Yes, in LDD, File -> Import (CTRL + I)

Hi, you're doing some wonderful things with LDD and POV-Ray. Congratulations. I hope I can help.

1) Calabar has already mentioned a solution. If that wouldn't work however (for some very obscure reason), you can always use the simple Copy/Paste feature, found in the Edit-menu.

2) I'm sorry, I can't help you with this. You are now the expert on shiny things...

3,4,5) You should read bbqqq's topic (http://www.eurobrick...topic=86159&hl=) (additional video: http://www.eurobrick...pic=83515&st=25). He has discovered a way to apply decals on several surfaces that normally wouldn't take any (I vaguely remember the banner was one of them), and render them in POV-Ray. For more information, I think you should get in touch with him.

I hope this was a helpful piece of information! I hope you can take your digital renders to a next level.

Excellent! Here is a brief update:

1) Yes, merging the files works perfectly, Thanks!

2) And yes, the Greek round convex shield and the Roman rectangular shield can both be printed using bbqqq's method... Plus, his tutorial got me almost all of the additional torso and leg prints I need ready to go in LDD. The rest of them I can swap out using the LDD-to-Pov-Ray menu... Just be aware that every time you use bbqqq's method, it may add some extra unneeded text strings for group-transformations to the bottom of the LXFML file that can confuse and stall the camera, but it is perfectly easy to delete that part and the file should be like new again... Thanks again!

3) It looks like the hanging banners can not be printed in LDD yet, even if you try to trick it by adding text to the LXFML file that would decorate every possible defined surface anywhere on it. This part has definitely been printed in the past, although nowadays it is usually just stickered, and so apparently it just has not yet been programmed to know where it's decoration surfaces could be or should be. Anyway, that is OK, because it is just a perfectly flat surface, and so I can just paste the decoration afterwards with a PhotoShop-type program, just by rotating and skewing the 2-D image.

So let me ask again, should I buy PhotoShop, or subscribe to it monthly in the cloud? Or is there a nice simpler image editing program you like that does all of the professional things without taking so much system resources?

If anyone has any favorite programs they like to use to manipulate graphics and images (similar to PhotoShop) please let me know!

Edited October 5, 2013 by The Real Indiana Jones

[Brawl]

So let me ask again, should I buy PhotoShop, or subscribe to it monthly in the cloud? Or is there a nice simpler image editing program you like that does all of the professional things without taking so much system resources?

I highly recommend you check out GIMP. It's not quite as nice as PhotoShop, but it certainly gets the job done.

Also, if you need a little editing done on some images I might be able to help some. I'm no pro, but I know my way around GIMP pretty well so I might be of some use. ^.^

Edited October 5, 2013 by Brawl

[The Real Indiana Jones]

OK, more success...

1) I finally figured out how to get all of those last few random errant parts to show up in metallic. I simply went into the "LDD_part materials" file and deleted all of the text that forces any specific parts to always be in "dull plastic". Now everything shines, right down to the minifig's hands!

2) While I was there in the "LDD_part materials" file, I also deleted all of the text that forces all the slopes to have that rough texture with "rough plastic" on their sloping surfaces. That is just a matter of preference, since I like slopes to be nice and smooth!

3) As one last thing, I also went back into the "LDD_default_finishes" file again and deleted all the text that tells it to "conserve energy" on certain surface finishes. I am not sure what that does, but I want maximum deluxe-ness here!

Here are four test examples, each using a different sky-sphere, which you can see pretty clearly in the polished hemispheric domes, and in the overall color cast...

therealindy

Edited October 6, 2013 by The Real Indiana Jones

[The Real Indiana Jones]

For chrome, you can try to use sky shere image as environment to reflect (in Radiosity tab).

cmf gold by Nachapon S., on Flickr

Lego Opera house gold, LDD file base on 10234 by pbat by Nachapon S., on Flickr

These are excellent... So can you show us what the original sky-sphere-images looked like? I can generally tell that one is an interior, and the other is a bit abstract with some spectral colors, but can you show us the original flattened-out images of the sky-sphere-images for these?

Thanks!

[Nachapon Lego]

@The Real Indiana Jones,

Your experiment and tutorial are very well done!

Both renderings above use same sky-sphere-images of a photography studio.

http://www.adeptstudios.com/images/adept-studio-studio-0003.jpg

Edited October 8, 2013 by bbqqq

[The Real Indiana Jones]

OK, here is one last thing I had barely even noticed before... Is there a way to get the minifigures heads to go all the way down when they are wearing a cape?

Apparently it senses that as a collision detection, so it leaves a small gap. Is there a way to push the heads downward a bit until they sit right?

Thanks!

[The Real Indiana Jones]

I highly recommend you check out GIMP. It's not quite as nice as PhotoShop, but it certainly gets the job done.

@The Real Indiana Jones,

Your experiment and tutorial are very well done!

Both renderings above use same sky-sphere-images of a photography studio.

http://www.adeptstud...studio-0003.jpg

GIMP looks great, but it's not installing all of its files, and I get an unexpected error. No problem, since every time they update PhotoShop, they let you have a new free trial again, or else you can just subscribe to all of their tools monthly in the cloud nowadays. They also have nice video tutorials at tv.adobe.com/products

So here are those sky-sphere-images all complete now. They look nice! It's startin' to look pretty Ancient up in herrrre! =D

Feel free to take them and use them, and show us the results.

The Oracle of Delphi. This is a dome and rotunda that wraps around a small square pool.

The Parthenon of Athena. A statue can go right on top of the raised part in front of the red.

The Forum of Trajan. It has half-domes on the outer sides, and a Column of Trajan out front.

And "The Temple to the Age of Enlightenment". A bit of Post-Renaissance fun I made up, based on various Neo-Classical styles. Note the statues with the curly 18th Century wigs in the background. They appear on the pediment too.

Also, as I said, there is one last thing I had barely even noticed before... Is there a way to get the minifigures heads to go all the way down while they are wearing a cape? Apparently it senses that as a collision detection, so it leaves a small gap. Is there a way to push the heads downward a bit until they sit right on the cape?

Then at that point, I am totally ready to go with renderings, so thanks to everyone! I will put the glossy new POV-Ray images up as quickly as I can compose the shots, and render them with deluxe radiosity, and then photoshop them... In the meantime, I updated all the text and did nice LDD screenshots to sketch everything out.

So please take a fresh look, and if you like them, or if you just think that they set a good standard for Lego to uphold in all it's work, or heck, even if you just think that they will make some nice profit for Lego, so they can fund everyone's favorite themes and dreams and projects in the future, then please come and click to support!

Thanks again to everyone!

Edited October 9, 2013 by The Real Indiana Jones

[Nachapon Lego]

OK, here is one last thing I had barely even noticed before... Is there a way to get the minifigures heads to go all the way down when they are wearing a cape?

Apparently it senses that as a collision detection, so it leaves a small gap. Is there a way to push the heads downward a bit until they sit right?

Thanks!

Your new sky-sphere-image renderings look great!

Both LDD precise move tricks #4 or #10 can solve the minifig head problem.

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=83515&st=0

From left: No trick / bush & axle trick / LDD precise move tricks #4 or #10

LEGO LDD head fix 2 by Nachapon S., on Flickr

Edited October 9, 2013 by bbqqq

[The Real Indiana Jones]

Your new sky-sphere-image renderings look great!

Both LDD precise move tricks #4 or #10 can solve the minifig head problem.

http://www.eurobrick...opic=83515&st=0

From left: No trick / bush & axle trick / LDD precise move tricks #4 or #10

LEGO LDD head fix 2 by Nachapon S., on Flickr

Yes, Perfect! The bush-and-axle trick (#4) works beautifully, and it's easy, and it keeps all of the heads exactly on the axis of the neck. To use bbqqq's trick, first assemble a bush-and-axle like you see in the background of the image he made here with the three wrestlers. Next, you can use the normal pointer, but you must hold down the control key so you can select both the popped-up head and the bush-ring at the same time. Then just use the normal pointer to nudge the bush ring downward a tiny bit on the axle, and you will see that the head will be nudged downward on the neck by the exact same amount. You can also select multiple heads at the same time. It will work best if the figs are all standing perfectly upright.

There will still be a miniscule gap, but you will never notice it if you tilt the camera upwards or downwards by just one or two degrees. In fact, the a quiver normally creates a tiny gap just like that too, but I never even noticed it at all. Plus, when it renders in POV-Ray, there will be shadows under the cape and head to camouflage things.

Also, I realized by accident that if you have minifigs with beards that attach around the neck, like Gandalf or Gimli or Sensei Wu, then you should always put the head on the figure first, so it goes all the way down, and then add the beard on ***afterwards***, and LDD should snap everything into its proper place on the first try, with no tricks needed.

Hope that's useful for everyone! Thanks again to bbqqq!

Edited October 9, 2013 by The Real Indiana Jones

[The Real Indiana Jones]

OK, looks great so far...!

I am very happy with just "normal" radiosity settings, because it only takes an hour or so, and you can always pick up the contrast and saturation in PhotoShop afterwards.

So next, is there a way to set up a "work-queue", so that the computer will do several renders overnight, one after another? I have at least 32 more of these to do! =D

You can see them all bigger on Flickr. As you can see, I am replacing all the older LDD images with POV-Ray renders as fast as my computer can spit 'em out...

Sparta...

Rome...

Egypt...

And the main UCS temple building set, which also builds a chess-board...

And you can vote for them on Cuusoo too, Thanks!

therealindy

Edited October 17, 2013 by The Real Indiana Jones

[fede.97]

Hey all, sorry if i'm going to bother here but i'd like to fix this.

I'm rendering a model in low quality for testing purposes (that's why image in spoiler isn't great) and i get a really dark base plane. I've tried increasing ambient light but it's still darker than most renders out there, i saw some beautiful renders with 100% white background and shadows. I tried removing plate but, as it shoud be, i got no more shadows and creating it without any background option selected but nothing changed.

Can anyone drive me to the right way?

Here is the example, as you can see even the lower part is not pure white but dark gray.

Edited October 20, 2013 by fede.97

[The Real Indiana Jones]

For starters, make sure to test it with the radiosity turned on, (if you haven't already!) That brings quite a lot more light onto the scene overall. If you just choose the "debug" or "fast" setting, you can get nice results with only about an hour or so of total rendering time. Also, within a minute or two, the preview pane will show you if you are getting the right colors and exposure overall.

Also, under the "scene" tab, make sure you've set the background color to pure white, if you haven't already. You do that by clicking on that rectangular box that is just a centimeter to the right of the words "set color to"... and then select pure white on the color box that pops up.

Hope that does it for you. If not, then you can also try clicking on "settings" and then "reset to initial" to reset the background to pure white. That would also reset all the other choices back to their defaults. But the default settings work beautifully for most purposes!

Edited October 21, 2013 by The Real Indiana Jones

[Lego Otaku]

Updated POV-Ray and now it won't run.

Possible Parse Error: Cannot find file 'ldd_colors_declarations.bin', even after trying to append file type extension.

-

"\\.\LDDIncludes\ldd_default_colors.inc" line 20: Parse Error: Cannot open include file ldd_colors_declarations.bin.

Render failed

I think the update deleted old INI or something else broke. Any idea how to fix it?

[fede.97]

For starters, make sure to test it with the radiosity turned on, (if you haven't already!) That brings quite a lot more light onto the scene overall. If you just choose the "debug" or "fast" setting, you can get nice results with only about an hour or so of total rendering time. Also, within a minute or two, the preview pane will show you if you are getting the right colors and exposure overall.

Also, under the "scene" tab, make sure you've set the background color to pure white, if you haven't already. You do that by clicking on that rectangular box that is just a centimeter to the right of the words "set color to"... and then select pure white on the color box that pops up.

Hope that does it for you. If not, then you can also try clicking on "settings" and then "reset to initial" to reset the background to pure white. That would also reset all the other choices back to their defaults. But the default settings work beautifully for most purposes!

Yep radiosity was on Custom, on final is perfect! Thanks a lot and sorry for my stupid question...

[The Real Indiana Jones]

Yep radiosity was on Custom, on final is perfect! Thanks a lot and sorry for my stupid question...

No worries, it took me *days* of trial and error to get it all perfect!

Edited October 21, 2013 by The Real Indiana Jones