Cool LEGO® Site of the Week : Site #63

Site #63

= Models = Reference = Interactive


	October 5-11, 1997 Coby's Ray-Traced LEGO® Mania Coby Bassett	Reaching new heights in LEGO^® ray-tracing photorealism, Coby has modeled over a dozen official classic LEGO^® Space theme models, with more on the way. All of the images are excellent, but four that really stand out are the 6950 Mobile Rocket Transport image for the camera angle which puts you at minifig eye level and makes the transport seem 20 feet tall, the 6952 Solar Power Transport image for the menacing look and innovative lighting, the 462 Rocket Launcher image for its temporal fading to illustrate the rocket tilt mechanism (you may have to adjust the gamma of the image or brightness of your monitor to appreciate the subtlety), and the 493 Space Command Center images for their sheer beauty and feeling of being right there alongside the minifigs. Also don't miss the Tron page in which Tron's disc, based on the 2x2 radar dish element, lights up the image in a true-to-the-movie fashion. This particular page should definitely be very interesting to watch develop as new items are added. Although these images achieve an extreme level of realism at points, it should be noted that this occurs more on the holistic level than at the detailed level. That is, the constituent LEGO^® elements modeled are not as realistic as they could be -- for example, the sloped bricks are smooth rather than lightly textured, and the spaces between bricks are a bit larger than reality -- but Coby's lighting and camera skills easily make up for these shortcomings. A stereo pair, if added at some point, would certainly also increase the level of realism.