[WIP] Building a better Lego brick

[Rargh!]

After reading the forum topic on Bacca's new bub--and reminiscing a little on the really early Lego sets--I thought I might tackle an ISO pixel art piece. I dug through all my old Lego instructions and settled on this one:



Lego set 615, the forklift. Released in 1975. Classic!

Here's my start. Just the basics, really. Trying to work out what looks best. I did some with a 3 pixel edge, but read somewhere that cubes done like that are ugly when stacking. All these blocks are based on the two pixel edge. I think the circled blocks look best. But just wondering if anyone else here has attempted to recreate the magical blocks in pixel art and if there are any sage pieces of advice on working on a piece like this.



I had this wild idea of a collective of pixellers creating a whole library of pieces. Then you could just work up creations from them and add tiles to some giant, sprawling web page; something like this:

http://lenser.spb.ru/pict2/panoram/pixelart.htm

[rabidbaboy]

I say go for it, but use smaller bricks. I'd say half the size you have now, since those are really large, imagine what a house would look like.

Also, hell yes, lego bricks.

[AlienQuark]

My only thought is that lego bricks tend to fit more snugly than that, so you might want to consider how they would connect. Esentially, the really good lego blocks, when put together, are flush and can make a nearly smooth wall. In your example, it doesn't look like you've got it that way right now. Otherwise, these seem to be working out.

[baccaman21]

top fun... great idea.

I've had a go.

I've done them a tad smaller and tried to keep then boundary aligned (4x4 pixels grid [set up a snap grid in your app to 4x4, origin top left]) to keep things easy to pick up and place.

I've kept my pips small in height so as to not make it a nightmare when it comes to depth cueing/z-sorting... it's a snap to place in other words.

Great fun...

[robotacon]

Every time, the last couple of years, that I see something about Lego I've been putting the same sentence into Google and today FINALLY...

A search for "lego mmorpg" lead me to this result http://universe.lego.com/

It's not HOT news but it's still news to me and perhaps to some of you!

[ndchristie]

this has been done, though it will take me a while to find that old link.

[Stefano]

I'm not sure I should post this after Baccaman's posted but since it's already done, I guess there's no harm. Here it goes. 


Basically what I've changed was the lighting direction. Why all highlights were facing down along with all the darkest faces?
Did AA, a little bit of surface shading (not sure if it made it look too round) and reduced the gaps between bricks (as AlienQuark has pointed out).

Anyway. My small contribution.

[Rargh!]

Hmmm... dilemma's...

Bacca: yours seem to look really good stacked; but they look a little less like Lego and more like the material used to make those soft-plastic rip-offs, Mega Blocks.

Stefano: yours look much closer (including some pretty intensive aa and dithering), but a) the shading makes the blocks look a little sloped at the front, and b) you ran into the problem (which I was trying to avoid) of jaggies along the front face.

In answer to the Q on the lighting, I'm just learning so I was following/studying the example set by Gary Lucken's Computer Arts tutorial on ISO pixel art (with a bit of interpretation/reworking regarding the studs as his tutorial had nothing to do with Lego).

Adarias: I'm really interested in that old link...

 

[crab2selout.png]

Fixing the megablock look on Bacca's should be simple enough. Just mess with the height, width of the bumps until it looks like you want

Kind of funny that that's your main crit, because I was going to complain about the lack of hue-shift. Just the tiniest hue-shift would be lovely. A wild crazy hue-shift would probably work against the cartoony appeal.

While Stefano's version is more lego-ish, it is afflicted by the disease called selout. The only cure being amputation. Even Bacca's version has some selout, though far less painful to the eyes

[Rargh!]

Yeah, good point. I'm not that great at critique, particularly when it comes to pixelling techniques... I try, though, with the idea of learning more! 

Looking at what you've said, Bacca's are a better study... I'll try to get an edit done tonight (Aus time).

Thanks.

[robotacon]

I'm have the bricks overlap one more pixel so that you won't see the highlight on bricks with bricks stacked ontop of them.
I'd also desaturate the bricks at tad bit and remove all shading that makes them look round or too beveled.
Lego bricks are sharp as hell, haven't you ever stepped on one?

[baccaman21]

Yup... fair enuff.. the pallette the standard promotion pallette I didn't mess with it at all (apart from to get a decent yellow ramp)...

Like I said the "pips" (which is the correct lego term for the 'bumps') I made small to ease up placement.

I made these in about 10 mins with the only major thought being applied to the ease of positioning hence the 4x4 grid and snap thing...

I'd be interested to see this other thread on this...

[Rargh!]

So, this is where I realise Bacca's stacking genius. His blocks really want to be together. But I've had a go at analysing what Crab and Rabid said and Bacca's edit (including the making of the pips small enough not to cause z alignment nightmares) and have attempted to find the middle ground while retaining my 'style'/initial post. This is what I've ended up with.



For me, I like the blocks when they sit nicely on their own (particularly the thin 1 pip block), but you really notice the shortcomings when you put them together. That and the highlight down the front of the block. The pips need better shading, too, I think.

Suggestions??

[Edit: added a clear brick as well, which will be the front windscreen of the forklift. Is there a good way to increase the feeling of material here? I read in one of the other posts that plastic/glass = high shine. Not sure yet how to generate that with a block like this...]



Hmm... seeing it here, might need to do a better outline on the clear block.

[Edit 2: latest progress. Any c or c gladly taken...]



Does anyone remember if the front of the sloped blocks were textured back in 1975, or did that happen later?

[baccaman21]

I remember... yes they were textured...

...and usually had bits of plastecine/tin foil/polo/jolly rancher stuck in the bottom of a few blocks... rendering them useless.