Hi there, I’m an intermediate blender animator. I have done a bit of modelling but not advanced in it. I’m currently working on a short film with CGI LEGO.
This however takes a lot of time to do manually. I was considering a script might be able to do this but I’m not that experienced in script capabilities. I know you can use dupliverts to create geometry at veticies and therefore create a 1x1 brick and assign it to certified at spaced intervals. What I really want to know is if random sized bricks can be used like this instead of identical 1x1 bricks? This would mean one large brick for multiple verticies. Like In the image above. As I want it to look realistic with a variety of brick sizes.
I hope this makes sense. Any advice would be extremely appreciated. Thanks in advance.
I’ve thought about this in the past and came up with:
You could try to use a remesh modifier to make the mesh “blocky”
Add a texture that uses normal mapping to only map to upward facing faces, and map the Lego nubs (Little cylinders that hold the bricks together - What the heck are those things called?) with a bump-map.
If you want to “assemble it in animation,” then you might be able to create some kind of Python script to do it, but I daresay that you’re probably just going to have a busy afternoon’s work.
Its easy enough to use a build modifier and make square bricks appear (are in mind that Lego bricks are not actually square - they’re either 5x5x6 or 5x5x2 mil) by using a remesh mod (bricks) followed by build mod… and dupliverts, but including 1x2 bricks and 1x4 bricks and what have you gets far more complex.
