New update is available. The script has been entirely re-written and now supports bump maps when available. Only a limited number of slopes currently have this map but I will slowly complete the others.

Forgive me as I am a complete noob to blender. I've managed to render one image a while back using the tutorial scrubs provides at the beginning of this thread.. I was happy with the outcome, especially the surface textures and colours were spot on.

Now I am getting back to do some rendering, but it seems that at some point something goes wrong. I followed all steps precisely and tried like 5 renders, but I have issues with the colours, the surfaces and most important transparency does not show at all.
I have no clue at which part of the import, configuration and actually the rendering process I took the wrong path?

The opened template has the necessary info and the example bricks look exactly as they should, only when I import the .dae model the mentioned features like colours, etc are dull...

Does anybody have some advice?

Hello Cole_Blaq!
Did you run the script that updates the materials? And this script can only be run once, so I you have to open a fresh instance of the template every time you want to render a model

Hello Cole_Blaq!
Did you run the script that updates the materials? And this script can only be run once, so I you have to open a fresh instance of the template every time you want to render a model

Thanks for the quick response 😄

Not sure what you mean.
I opened the template. Then I selected all objects via shift and G and deleted them. Afterwards I imported the model, scaled it to the right size and position. Then I opened the shader, one of zvgs files and pressed the render button at the camera view and additionally run script at the bottom line to get a preview - everything the video tutorial mentioned.
I tried the run script button at several points of the process, everytime with a newly opened blender and fresh opened mecabricks template, but still no changes.
Can you tell me how to run the script to update the materials?

Hello,
Did you download the latest version of the script? I made some changes recently to both the export code on Mecabricks and the Blender script to make it work together. Older versions shall not work anymore.
Like mathieub said, it looks like the materials have not been replaced. If you have the latest version, make sure you put the parts in the "Model" object and click "Run Script".

Edit: Script version shall be 1.8.4 to work.

Ah, got it!

I was using the template from the tutorial video. Now I managed to get 1.8.4 and the model already looks much better in the preview.

Merci beaucoup Scrubs et mathieub!

Keep up the great work.

No worries. Happy to help 😃

Shall I use the "Roudn Edges" script before or after running the color relacement script?
Because I receive an python error every time I try to run it. Or isn´t it required to run the script at all?

Sorry for my ignorance...! 😕

I think you need to do the "replace" script. One of them does them all. 😉 I'll check later for you unless someone else answers. 😃

As @Masman8675 has already mentioned, you only need to run the replace.py Python script after import and parenting.
It replaces colors (based on a table in colors.py) and applies decals and bump maps by calling functions in functions.py.

The Round Edges script is a so-called OSL script applied automatically during render time, if you render on CPU.
It doesn't add geometry, but complements the material by an edge shader to fake light-catching soft edges.

The new Subdivision.py script coming with template version 1.85 can be run optionally after the replace.py script.
It's purpose is to smoothen out low-poly edges visible especially at round parts if the camera is close to the model.
A subdivision surface modifier (SDS) devides polygonal faces into smaller faces to approximate smoothness.

Thanks for the quick response, "Masman8675", and thanks for the detailed instructions, "wlange"!
Did I understand that correctly, Round Edges script ONLY on CPU?! 😮
Not on GPU...? 😕

No problem. I think that's what wlange is saying. Scrubs released template 1.8.5 a few days ago, so you can go ahead and download it NGCHunter. 😃

Eh... don´t understand you right... 😕
I´m using 1.8.5, but does the Round Edge function run on GPU?

Eh... don´t understand you right... 😕
I´m using 1.8.5, but does the Round Edge function run on GPU?

@NGCHunter2 :
No. It's CPU only.
It's a limitation of Blender Cycles and at this point it's really not about to change.
But it's really not that bad, the GPU is quick but will be limited pretty quickly by the amount of VRAM available.

Oh, okay. 😢
Because I´m using Group Instances very often, VRAM never was a problem... but thanks for the answer!

Hello,
i'm verry interested in rendering LEGO models. I've watched the video-tutorial by Scrubs and tried to do it step by step.
But i've a problem to get the "Blender Template by Mecabricks" file.
Please watch all the screenshots there:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/4yrhqe0gc0uyyy2/AACMtYGvIpcvwhyxbH9f49Vya?dl😮
As seen in the video (Screenshot-1), actually it looks like this (Screenshot-2). Clicking on "Blender Script by Mecabricks", i get this info (screenshot-3).
So there is no Blender Template to download. Also the link to the "zgyp Pack" leeds me to the following Screenshot "HDRi Pack 1" and i can't download anything.
What do i wrong?
Thanks for any help!

@legoradioenrique

I had similar issues. I was also using the prior template. The actual template 1.8.4 helped solve the problem: http://www.mecabricks.com/en/shop/product/2

Regarding the HDRi from zbgy, look in the upper right corner at Deviant Art and you'll find the download button.

The latest template version is 1.8.5. Once you added it to the cart from the link given above, it's available under your purchases. To get there, click your user name in the upper right, then on the Purchases button. Here you should now see a Mecabricks to Blender Lite entry with a download option.