First release available !

The first release of MecaFig is available (https://www.mecabricks.com/en/shop/product/5).
Feel free to comment and/or ask your questions. And if you have any problem, feel free to report it too !

Thanks.

Release notes

• first release.

Release log

• first release.

A little quick update for those who just read the thread.
Most of my concern had been addressed, the scale issue was just me being blind and not seen the huge "SCALE" input, the materials will be revamped and the level of detail like the mold line is investigated.
I'm pretty happy with my purchase now, i really recommend the minifig for those wanting a little more flexibility. The rig in itself is really good and the the IK rig make posing the fig way easier.
It's a good purchase, especially since his coming from Mecabrick and, as such, the product will be updated regularly !

Original post :
So I bought it, because I found it's quite hard to make a good-looking pose with the rigidity of the minifig and, after two hours of playing with it I'm quite disappointed.

The rigging itself is fine, a lot of options to make great looking pose, like in most of the Lego animation. The real issue is the constant incompatibility with the other Mecabrick stuff. I get that this isn't a product made by Scrubs, but I bought it here, and to see that everything is different and will require a lot of work on my part to redo all the map I already did is not great.

But, the greatest incompatibility, the thing that need to get fix ASAP to be able to really use the product with the other Mecabrick export is the scale.
It's impossible to resize the Mecabrick item because it breaks the materials that make you minifig absolutely unusable in this state with any other mecabrick export or product.
That the biggest point that need to get fixed, but, I also have a lot of other suggestions who could make your product way easier to use with the other Mecabrick stuff.

-The plug in is quite good, for a stand-alone product, but I would have really preferred something more compatible with the several add-on that the site already sale. The support for the High Res minifig of the Blender Advanced script is a huge deal for me, I would have loved at least the possibility to do the same with your minifig.

-The UV map needs to be compatible with the HD minifig, yours are good, but I already have several characters made and ready to go for the HD minifig, I'm not really looking forward to redo all of the textures works for them.

-Speaking of textures and materials, again, yours are fine but not on the same level of the HD minifig, for the same price I was kinda looking for the same level of quality, you miss several options, like the materials map (metal, pearlescent, ect) which is a must have for making hero minifig

-You model is not bad, but again, you miss several awesome details that the HD minifig has, like the mold line and the part number, which again is a must have for characters who will be closing to the screen

-The instruction manual is nice to have, but you need to be more precise, something that natural for you is a complicated mess for others. Your custom map section for example, you explain witch map does what but you didn't explain how to do these maps or what color you need to use.

Anyway, it's a good first try and a pretty good stand-alone product, but for a Mecabrick product your add on miss a LOT of essential features to be really used here.
I like it, but I will not use it if it is in this state and I find it quite a bit expensive for what it is right now, hence my disappointment, I have the impression to have wasted quite a few bucks for something I cannot really use with the work I already did.
If you can fix most of this stuff, this product will be awesome, easily one of the best minifig out there, but right now I'm sorry to say that this is just a neat proof of concept for me.

Hello SaitoGray,

Thank you for your feedback! It is really appreciated.

So, about the scale. At first, this rig has been created for a personal project. That's why the scale is different from Mecabricks add-ons. But you can easily rescale the Fig by setting the 'Scale' option in the 'Armature Panel' to a value of 10. I can, for the next update, make this value to 10 by default if you prefer.

About the High-Res MiniFig, I can ask to Scrubs if he is agree to add an option in his 'Advanced' script for automatically adding the MecaFig for each MiniFigurine. I think it could be technically possible.

I never bought the High-Res MiniFig from Scrubs. I did not think that he had made special UV layouts for this one. I will add it for the next version.

Materials Map are on my todo list. Because this is a recent feature, I never really took the time to work on it. I'll try to make it for the next version too.

I totally forgot to make the normal maps for the little details. Sorry, my mistake.

Yeah, the instruction manual is more a technical manual for the moment. I planned to make some little video tutorial to show all the possibilities. I just need to have the time for this.
Decoration & Metalness Maps are exactly the same than you can find in Mecabricks. You can create your Maps for MecaFig in the same way you create your Maps for Mecabricks. Each part of the MecaFig has different UV Layouts that makes that almost all the Maps coming from Mecabricks are compatible with MecaFig.

I totally understand your disappointment. As I said at the beginning of this message, I made this minifigurine at first for a personal project. That's why I really need your feedback to make this add-on more like you would like it should be.

Please, feel free to continue to give me your feedback.

Thanks.

So, I've spent a little more time with it, now that I found the "scale" input, my biggest complaint and disappointment is void, that awesome.

I've tried to convert one of my custom characters from the HD minifig (which I really encourage you to buy, it's awesome, the materials are top notch and the added details make a word of difference up close), to your fig, I had a couple issues but I managed to make it work, the biggest problem I had is to understand the way bump map worked, they work like a mask, it's weird, but I managed to get the texture converted and the character to look good.

The thing I didn't manage to do on the other hand, is to find out how to attach the hair of the character on the head. I've tried to parents it to the head mesh or even to a few bones without result. I've only done a simple armature (with rigify) so your rig is way out of my league.
Could you point me in the right direction ? As of right now, I'm kinda lost and have no idea on how to do it...

That being said, your next version looks promising and I can't wait to try it. I know it's a lot of work, I wish you good luck !

Hello SaitoGray,

About the hair on the head, you can find in the Armature Panel (in Pose Mode) a button called 'Anchors' which allows you to hide/unhide some bones which are working like pivot point in Mecabricks. You can use it to place and parent your different accessories to the Fig.

About the bump map, It works like the bump map we use in Mecabricks. However, in Mecabricks, there are no bump maps used for the minifigs textures. So if you create your textures like in Mecabricks, you should not need it. The shader in MecaFig creates automatically a bump from the decoration map like in the 'Advanced add-on'.
But, if you use decoration map with alpha channel (the new way to create it in Mecabricks), I did not finish the support for it so it could result as in a strange look.

I hope it will be.

Thanks.

@SaitoGray Thank you very much for adding constructive feedback. It is always a bit hard to launch a new add-on and it takes a bit of time to have customer expectations match the product. I am sure that Helo will get there as the work that he did is already brilliant. The video tutorials when made will likely answer many of your questions.

I also want to add that the material system is being redesigned from the ground and will allow for more detailed and more accurate materials as well as easier to design custom decorations. This is still a bit further away but when the time comes, I'll make sure to work with Helo to make his add-on fully compatible.

To finish, it would be great if you could amend your first post if some of your concerns have been successfully addressed, for example by adding a line at the top recapping what has been solved by now.

Thanks guys.

Yeah, I wanted to make a quick post updating my progress with the mini fig but an edit will probably be better for those not wanting to read everything.

I can't wait to see the new material system and the harmonization of that system to all Mecabrick Product !

As for the minifig, following a quick exchange on Twitter, I managed to make what I wanted with it and I'm pretty happy with my purchase now, I will have to rewrite my brain for the textures, I still have the old habit from the HD mini fig, but that not a deal breaker.

I managed to use the Wear and Tear option, like Helo said, if I divise the values by 10 that work flawlessly, that's cool, I really like the "yellowing" option too, having control of the color and intensity is awesome that a feature I would love to see in the Advanced add-on !

Anyway, I would love to see some of the function I suggested, like the mold line, but even in this state, I don't regret my purchase anymore and I'm exited to see the next update !

Hey guys. Just bought the addon and your conversation helped a lot. Cheers.

Hi Alanix,

Thank you for having purchased it !
I am currently working on the next release. So if you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to ask.

And welcome on Mecabricks. 😉

First of all, thank you for your addon. I bought your addon and want to ask a few things. I am a self-learner using blender, is there any way to apply MecaRig addon to the model that I have exported from Mecabricks Workshop?

Hi tuanpeto,

Thank you for your purchase !
Unfortunately, for the moment, there is no function that allows to automatically set a MecaFig from a Mecabricks file like with the High Resolution MiniFigurine add-on. Sorry for that. But it has already been requested and I will add it as soon as possible.
The actual only way is to manually set the colors and the maps for each part.

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask. 😃

Did you mean that High Resolution MiniFigurine add-on has an Auto Rig mode when exporting from Mecabricks?

No, it has not.

I mean that someone requested me if it was possible to add a function in the "Mecabricks Advanced" add-on that allows to import a MecaFig for each MiniFigurine like you could already make it with the "High Resolution MiniFigurine" add-on (but without rig, only for the parts).
I need to see if it is feasible and if Scrubs would be agree to add it in his Advanced add-on.

I could, at first, add a function in MecaFig add-on that would allow to import automatically the colors and the maps of a MiniFigurine from a Mecabricks file. But it would involve that this Mecabricks file only contains one MiniFigurine with no extra parts.

Thank you for the reply, looking forward to your next update.

Hi Helo!

Thanks! Can't wait to see the next release.

Alan

The Addon looks great. Does it also have molding lines like the high resolution minifigure?

Hi. Thanks. Not at the moment. But it is ready and will be added to the next release.

Dear Helo.
It would be great if you could add or crate another animation extension based on your Mecafig. In that extension there are a few basic movements like walk cycle, run cycle, jump ... etc. It will be of great help to those who want to try animation like me. I firmly believe that I and a lot of people will buy it!

Hi tuanpeto,

Well, I already planned to make a thing like this. Not like an another extension but more like an extra file that all the people who have already bought MecaFig could download for free.
This file would be the animation file of a little short that I would like to make with MecaFig. But, before, I already need to finish the things on my ToDo list.
So it could take a little bit of time before it happens.

Hi,

I totally forgot to share my progress on the next release of MecaFig on this topic. So, for those who don't look at my Twitter, I'm gonna make a quick summary.

About the Shading, as requested, I added normal maps for extra details (mold lines, injection point, LEGO brand, etc...) for each part. I implemented the support for dual-molded parts for both legs & arms. And I also added the support for the new Color & Data maps. Decoration & Metalness maps will be of course still supported.

I finished to implement a first version of an Importer. It means that you could import colors & maps of your MiniFigs from a Mecabricks file.
The importer will allow you to import multiple files at the same time and will import all the MiniFigs stored in a same file. However, for the moment, it will not import extra parts (hairs, accessories, weapons, etc...). I plan to implement this possibility in the future. I will also probably work on a UI for the Importer that will allow you to control what you want to import and what you don't want to.

I reworked the Geometry Panel and added a feature that will allow to change the 3D Mesh for some parts (Legs, Body & Head). Each Mesh will have its own normal map and could be changed at any moment.

I finally made some bug fixes and improvements.

You can check on my Twitter for more details, pictures & videos.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Thanks.