Lego Men At Work

IronicallyMaiden

Hi all, this is my 1st post, be gentle. This is a scene of 2 lego characters building a wall, rendered with a mental ray sun in max. I tried it 1st with radiosity but liked how they looked more plastic in mental ray. Comment and criticism welcome. Also if anyone has suggestions for other lego scenes they'd like to see please tell me. There's so much cool stuff you can do with lego

Harry

The proportions are frankly quite off overall on the lego dudes. If you want an authentic look you should follow a reference more carefully - If you have a minifig on you you could scan him, or I could do so for you, pretty sure my lego bucket is still in this house somewhere. I'd also chamfer a lot of those hard edges - Lego men aren't sharp

On second thought, no need to scan any brick men.

IronicallyMaiden

I know what you mean about the chamfering, I think a sharp lego man adds a level of danger, probably not wise for a childs toy I was referncing some of my own lego minifigs as I modelled them. I think the difference in scale is negligable and it works for the project. Wish I had that scan when I was making them though :P

Frump

There's a big difference in the texture resolution between the lego dudes and the wall. Unless you intended the pixel jaggies to look like it was built from lego blocks... It looks weird, and you shouldn't really have such a low res texture on there.

I also agree with what Harry has said, in regards to the lego guy proportions. I think it's definitely worth improving them. At least the heads. Right now the heads are very obviously out of proportion. And a lego head is like a 2 minute model. Make a profile curve and then bam, done.

IronicallyMaiden

The lego wall is just different blocks on top of each other, I was initially thinking of showing them building it in an animation but never did it. Guess I only spent 1 minute on the head I'll take the advice for use in other potential lego projects, thanks guys. Also anyone got any advice on how to put a good 3D portfolio together?

Mark Dygert

Those guys remind me of EBagg.

Everything is just a little off here and there. The holes on the backs of their legs, the single buttons in the wheel barrow, the walls of the wheel barrow. All just a little off.

As for portfolios, wordpress or other insta-blog sites work pretty well so long as you use them to host a gallery not a actual "my dog pooped in the park today" twitter-esk blog.

IronicallyMaiden

Whats EBagg? "walls of the wheel barrow"? I meant advice on the type of content or way of presenting it, I have a domain for my portfolio website that I'm working on.

IronicallyMaiden

I went back and fixed up some elements of the piece. I fixed the problem with the holes in the legs, there were some extra polygons stretching across the hole. The body is chamfered more, it may not look it in this render but it can be seen up close so the body isn't right angled. I replaced the fragmented wall with a single box and put a much higher resolution image of the lego logo on it. I also repositioned the cameras and characters for new shots. Oh I also added a cloudy sky in the background. I'm also happy with the proportions the way they are for the character.

MattBradley

I know you say you're happy with the proportions, but to me the head just seems too tall.

Justin Meisse

echoing the "fix the heads" statement. As far as I can see it's just a matter of lowering the eyes on the texture. The first thing people say when they see this is "what's up with their heads?"

pairorat

Consider chamfering the edges on the body, you'll get a pin-line light reflection on it, and it will help the plastic feel. and I second what justin said about the eye texture.

IronicallyMaiden

Small and doable changes

Frump

Not just the texture, but I notice that the bevel on the heads isn't round enough. Right now the edges are almost sharp and should be a lot rounder. If you look at the blueprint that Harry posted maybe you will see what I mean. Also I think his head might be a bit too large radius wise. I shrunk it a bit here, beveled the edges, and moved down the eyes. To me this looks a lot more like a Lego dude.


(lol never thought I would do a paintover of a lego man)

IronicallyMaiden

I'm getting the feeling the heads not quite right...

He looks lego enough. I know its not perfect, nothing ever is. The problem with modelling something based off a real object is that people aren't happy unless its an exact replica. The body is chamfered its just too subtle to be seen by the camera at the distance it is positioned. I fixed the head until I was happy with it. Time to move onto another project before this one drives me crazy(er). Also between everyone pointing out the faults, some important and thank you for the advice, others picky, does anyone actually like the thing? Just curious



Final Render

Harry

the heads look suspisciously non circular to me. It might sound picky, but most people will see it and think something looks "off" without being able to tell you specifically what it is. The good thing about art forums is they're full of people who can spot this kind of stuff.

IronicallyMaiden

Thanks Harry, hopefully the more I images I show the less people will have to say something looks off about them :P

d00kie

is that the Lego version of Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen?
oh god, please say yes.

CastratedWeasel

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Frump

IronicallyMaiden wrote: »

Also between everyone pointing out the faults, some important and thank you for the advice, others picky, does anyone actually like the thing? Just curious

Don't get discouraged. The fact that you've gotten a lot of comments picking things out means that we do like it or see some potential in it so we're taking our time to help. It could be worse, you could have no one commenting or trying to help you out.

IronicallyMaiden

d00kie wrote: »

is that the Lego version of Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen?
oh god, please say yes.

Only now do I see that and how I wish I could say yes.

Thanks to everyone who's given me advice. I'm gonna go back to the drawing board with the head for when I make any new Lego projects.

JohnnySix

Just a little bigger, then he looks in proportion - like so.