Getting angolare and round polygons together?

# 1 06-12-2010 , 02:05 PM

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Getting angolare and round polygons together?

Hi,
I'm trying to do some Lego animations but I have a really basic question befor I can start: How can i combine angular and round polygon objects?
If you know how a usual Lego brick looks like I think you already have an Idea of what I'm thinking about. Most of the Lego bricks are angular except of their top they all have round knobs on them. I know I could just simply make a cube and a cylinder and combine those but then the faces intersect(Is this usual or should I try to avoid this?). I also could use the booleans tool but that gives me stange results when I look at them in smoothed mode.
Is there any easy way to solve that problem?
Looking forward to hear from you.
red_roxxor

Last edited by Red_Roxxor; 06-12-2010 at 02:10 PM.

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# 2 06-12-2010 , 02:59 PM

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I think just having cylinders intersect the top of of your geometry is the quickest/easiest way.

However if you're going to be looking inside your lego bricks then it won't work. You won't have round holes inside at the top, you'll only see the inside face of the flat top you've jabbed cylinders into.

Just had a play and made a sub-d proxy of a cube with 8 8-sided poly cylinders booleaned into it. (Why oh why didnt I experiment with a lego cube?)

That is how I would do it if I had to.... Hope someone else helps you, circular holes/depressions into flat geometry seems to be a FAQ for many of us noobs.

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# 3 06-12-2010 , 03:04 PM

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Sorry wrong file.

As you can see I would still need to clean up around the inside edges to sharpen them...

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# 4 07-12-2010 , 04:43 PM

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Thanks for the quick reply.
I think I didn't really get what you did. You created a simply polygon cube and cylinders and booleaned them together and afterwards you connected the cylinder edges by hand with the split polygon tool?

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# 5 10-12-2010 , 02:28 PM

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I didn't and don't now have a good answer for creating nice smooth curved holes/depressions in geometry, curves sticking OUT is easy. The solution I use (when I think I HAVE to) is using 8 sided Cylinders or Spheres to boolean > Difference. As the 8 sides are 'easy' to sew into a quad, leaving you with topology that smooths well. Yes I do this by hand using the split poly tool!

Works ok as I can simply slide my division levels up and down depending how close I'm going to get to my model so my curves don't look faceted up close and I have low poly objects from a distance.

Thing is halfway through fiddling and after posting prematurely here, I only THEN decided to look at one of my sons lego bricks and realised once again my advice to a fellow greenie was full of crap (been doing that a bit lately), the inside/bottom of a lego brick doesn't look like I modelled it. You should just use pipes underneath and cylinders on top? Well thats what I thought and I didnt want to embarass myself again user added image

So I went on to something else.

What did you do in the end??

Learn from others mistakes, it takes too long to make them all yourself.

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# 6 11-12-2010 , 06:07 AM

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3DStudent you were on the correct path. Here is a link to a video capture of the way I would build that 2x4 lego. It is sped up to fit into 10 minutes. But I think it will give you an idea of how to do it.

This is a new annotated version and I removed the annoying TOC...

lego tut 4x notated hd - YouTube

Here is a render of the final lego...

Looks simple, but looks can be deceiving.

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Isaac Newton, 1675

Last edited by ctbram; 07-01-2012 at 06:00 AM.

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# 7 11-12-2010 , 11:27 AM

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Dude

nice modelling, Im always intrigued at the way other people model. Yours is quite similar to mine in areas - Good Man!! LOL

Ive never actually thought about how involved a piece of Lego actually is, as Ive not looked at any for years really. Its actually a serious bit of moulding there.

I think this golden nugget of a video should help Red_Roxxor quite nicely and anyone else to be honest.

Lastly, can you mail me that list of tunes on that vid, very cool, its the sort of thing I listen to on a daily basis while modeling away with the headphones on. Its a sight to see the modelling department in the zone with 'phones' on all day, everyone else really mocks us LOL

back to the thread
Jay

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# 8 11-12-2010 , 12:16 PM

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Umm Dude, to echo Jay.

Great modelling, I learn so much from watching other peoples process, but I found that Intimidating! Your process is similar to mine in that you use Maya too user added image

I completely underestimated the complexity of a lego brick as I mentioned, I spent between 5 and 10 minutes on that first attempt to describe my (ahem) 'process' before I looked at a brick. I know I could make one, but I wouldnt have posted my 'helpful' reply that night. I like to believe my topology at the end would have 'resembled' yours, and that makes me happy.. But watching how you achieved it, leaves a cold feeling in that part of me that hopes for a level of saleable skill.

Also like your taste in music. recognised the last track and one other I think but.. Going to go watch that again... and the other stuff you have there.

David! add a "-Bow- I'm not worthy" Smiley please.

Learn from others mistakes, it takes too long to make them all yourself.

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# 9 11-12-2010 , 12:42 PM

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Thanks guys. It was actually one straight through shot modeling. I was rushing and made a number of silly mistakes which probably added 15 minutes to the entire thing which is why I had to time lapse it. lol. But I just left em all in because I wanted to get the vid uploaded. As I watch it now I am cringing because I put the support edges in to soon and had to keep adding them and removing them and then put them back about a dozen times too many haha!

Jay: the music clips were - 1. voodoo baby by hypnogaja, 2. don't forget to breath by alexi murdoch, and 3. was voodoo child by rogue traders. I keep collecting stuff like that thinking one day I am going to get ambitious and make a demo reel and use some of these. Glad you liked them, they are my current favs!

I have an update I am going to post. I have been experimenting with bumps and displacements lately and I have a version with the lego logo as a displacement map on the top of the studs. I'll have it up soon. I am in juggling about 5 things atm. user added image

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Isaac Newton, 1675

Last edited by ctbram; 11-12-2010 at 12:49 PM.

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# 10 12-12-2010 , 04:51 AM

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The bit where you altered the offset on the Bridge input in the channel editor, with a flick of your mouse you did something thats always taken me ages.. When my bridges dont go the way I want them I have always deleted the faces or Undone.. Then appended to Poly 1 face at a time. Small thing really but Thank you.

Also watching how many times you used the 1,2,3 keys , I've known what those keys did but never realised thats the way they're meant to be utilised (smacks self in head) I nearly always use a Smooth and a Proxy side by side so I can check how my work is going to look smoothed...

Learn from others mistakes, it takes too long to make them all yourself.

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# 11 12-12-2010 , 06:11 AM

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Thanks 3dS. There are a couple spots I am going to go back and annotate.

At the point I apply the bridge between the inner and outer shell you notice the bridge covers the entire surface. Then I grabbed the bridges offset control and scrubbed it but could not get it to bridge. When that happens it's almost always a normals issue. So to show that I selected two opposing edges and bridged to show the "bow tie" non-manifold geometry you get when bridging surfaces with crossed normals. I model with two-sided lighting off so a quick glance you can also see the inner surface was black meaning it's normals where the wrong direction. So all I did was 1. seperate the geo, 2. reverse the inner surface direction, 3. combine, 4 select the two edge loops and bridge.

Here is a render of the final brick without any displacement....

I am not satisfied with the displacement results I am getting and will start a new thread to discuss this so I do not take this thread in a totally different direction.

Once again I am glad you are finding the video useful. I will reproduce it with annotations and replace that one soon.

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Isaac Newton, 1675

Last edited by ctbram; 12-12-2010 at 06:16 AM.

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# 12 12-12-2010 , 06:56 AM

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Ct...again you amaze with your skills and to annoy my learned friend Jay...bloody AWESOME.....bahahaha. Good model and VERY simple to follow really. Well done mate

cheers bullet

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# 13 12-12-2010 , 11:46 AM

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LOL Bullet....AWSOME

CTbram: Dude, its good to leave your mistakes in the video, it shows that we can all make mistakes no matter what level we are at. I believe in the Chef Ramsay tute I did, there are a couple, but it David always tells me its good to leave it in as it shows how the problems are solved. Also the video isn't clinical, unlike some sites. Ive heard a few over the years where the sound is edited as you can hear it on the track, theres alot of pausing.

cheers
Jay

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# 14 12-12-2010 , 12:08 PM

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I agree Jay...some of the vids I have seen are VERY clinical and too perfect. A few mistakes and error corrections I beleive is vital...not only does it show the master has flaws it also allows the student to catch on (hopefully). It also gives it a more human appearance as well IMO and seems a little more relaxing to a novice. I know the thing that scared the bejesus out of me was some practioner of dark arts doing a tut and you didnt know which way was up.

A good time lapse vid Ct...apart from the last track........eeeeeeeeeewwwwwwww

bullet1968

"A Darkness at Sethanon", a book I aspire to model some of the charcters and scenes

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