![[July] Recap #32](https://5leaf.me/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/floatybricks.jpg?w=1024)
Everydays Project #1013-1043
Again this month, I used Mecabricks-based models (imported into Blender) to story-tell, build scenes and create 3D graphics and animations. With the release of Blender 4.2 on July 16, I had lots of new tools to try out, including my new favorite, the ray-portal node! I also learnt how to use the simulation nodes to create some interesting automated animations and even some cool math art and fractals!
Day 1013- Brick’d Waves
🧩 Blender 4.1 🧩 Cycles 🧩 Audio made with GarageBand
🧩 3D LEGO .obj’s from Mecabricks
Day 1014- Jelly-Brick’d
Now I want to eat them!
🧩 Blender 4.1 🧩 Cycles
🧩 3D LEGO .obj’s from Mecabricks
Day 1015- Rough Waters All Around
🧩 Blender 4.1 🧩 Cycles 🧩 Audio made with GarageBand
🧩 3D LEGO .obj’s & .zmbx’s from Mecabricks
Day 1016- Brick’d Fireworks
Some misfires but I rendered the scene three times and can’t figure out what I messed up with the last particle system lol. So I put them all together and did some opacity tricks to make it look intentional 😅 oh and Happy 100th Anniversary to the Caesar salad 🥬🍃
🧩 Blender 4.1 🧩 Cycles 🧩 Audio made with GarageBand
🧩 3D LEGO .obj’s & .zmbx’s from Mecabricks
Day 1017- Progress, Slowly
Today was the first day to try putting weight onto the foot without the aid of a boot/walking cast. Lasted about 45 seconds. Felt terrible. All part of the process, I guess. 🤷♂️
🧩 Blender 4.1 🧩 Cycles
🧩 3D LEGO .obj’s & .zmbx’s from Mecabricks
Day 1018- Brick’d Wasteland
🧩 Blender 4.1 🧩 Cycles
🧩 3D LEGO .obj’s & .zmbx’s from Mecabricks
Day 1019- Sketchy Neighborhood
… get it? lol 🤣
🧩 Blender 4.1 🧩 Cycles
🧩 3D LEGO .obj’s & .zmbx’s from Mecabricks
Day 1020- Wooden Brick’d Man
🧩 Blender 4.1 🧩 Cycles
🧩 3D LEGO .obj’s & .zmbx’s from Mecabricks
Day 1021- Kinds of Pain
Who woulda’ thunk that re-learning to stand on two feet would be so friggin’ painful? 😭
🧩 Blender 4.1 🧩 Cycles
🧩 3D LEGO .obj’s from Mecabricks
Day 1022- Brick’d Game of Life
First time playing with the simulation nodes so I made a version of Conway’s Game of Life out of LEGO bricks and added some extra details. The bricks that are about to expire due to overcrowding/too many neighbors are pink, the bricks about to expire due to loneliness/too few neighbors are blue, and the bricks with the optimal number of neighbors (2-3) are green and illuminated. I also did an semi-transparent overlay of each next successive frame in compilation so there are little ghosts of where a brick will be born (an empty space with exactly 3 neighbors) in the next frame. Initial conditions were a noise pattern with higher concentration in the middle. My logic at the edges is broken cuz its so much extra work to make it seamless lol
🧩 Blender 4.1 🧩 Cycles 🧩 Audio made with GarageBand
🧩 3D LEGO .obj’s from Mecabricks
Day 1023- Bent Bricks
🧩 Blender 4.1 🧩 Cycles
🧩 3D LEGO .obj’s from Mecabricks
Day 1024- Overcrowded Simulation
Working on another (more complicated) simulation with sprouting and aging plants but I’m still figuring out the right coefficients so it doesn’t overpopulate.
🧩 Blender 4.1 🧩 Cycles
🧩 3D LEGO .obj’s from Mecabricks
Day 1025- Brick’d Propagation
Each plant ages a random value between 0 & .25 per frame and each has 5 age states. Empty spots have a chance of growing if their neighbors are in the 5th (seeding) state. The chance lessens with each living pre-seeding-stage neighbor.
🧩 Blender 4.1 🧩 Cycles 🧩 Audio made with GarageBand
🧩 3D LEGO .obj’s from Mecabricks
Day 1026- Brick’d Strange Attractors
Learnt how to use simulation nodes to create 3D shapes with strange attractor equations from a tutorial by @mtr_animation and then tried it out with the Sprott B Attractor (Beware! There are many incorrect equations online, including the top Google search result!) Then I used 3D 1×1 LEGO bricks to build the structure’s path to create this snake-like animation.
🧩 Blender 4.1 🧩 Cycles 🧩 Audio made with GarageBand
🧩 3D LEGO .obj’s from Mecabricks
Day 1027- Brick’d Variable Variables
Tried the same trick creating shapes with strange attractor equations using the Rössler system and tried varying the coefficients to see a few different curves.
🧩 Blender 4.1 🧩 Cycles 🧩 Audio made with GarageBand
🧩 3D LEGO .obj’s from Mecabricks
Day 1028- Brick’d Spherical Attractors
Aizawa strange attractor equations used for this one. Yet another instance where the top search result includes the wrong equations (wtf?), so be careful if you try to look this one up.
x’=(z−b)*x−d*y
y’=d*x+(z−b)*y
z’=c+a*z−(z^3)/3−(x^2+y^2)*(1+e*z)+f*z*x^3
^^^are what I used
I varied my values of a, b, c, d, e & f in order to get the different shaped curves, and then animated them spinning in different directions.
🧩 Blender 4.1 🧩 Cycles 🧩 Audio made with GarageBand
🧩 3D LEGO .obj’s from Mecabricks
Day 1029- Big Screen Dogue Star!
I was so excited to try out the new ray portal node in Blender 4.2 and it did not disappoint! I even figured out how to use drivers to pair the location and rotation input values to the phone so I can move the figures around and the portal image will update accordingly.
🧩 Blender 4.2 (yay!!!) 🧩 Cycles
🧩 3D LEGO .obj’s &.zmbx’s from Mecabricks
Day 1030- Webcam Ray Portal
More fun with the new ray portal node to create a laptop webcam view.
🧩 Blender 4.2 🧩 Cycles
🧩 3D LEGO .obj’s &.zmbx’s from Mecabricks
Day 1031- Brick’d Portal Box
Figured out the magic box trick with the new ray portal node !!!
🧩 Blender 4.2 🧩 Cycles 🧩 Audio made with GarageBand
🧩 3D LEGO .obj’s & .zmbx’s from Mecabricks
Day 1032- Brick’d Wormholes
All images made using only one brick and a slightly concave plane for the geometry. Then I used drivers to connect the ray portal node “input” information to the camera itself for more iterative fun than I know what to do with!
🧩 Blender 4.2 🧩 Cycles
🧩 3D LEGO .obj’s from Mecabricks
Day 1033- Brick’d News Reporting
Used the ray portal node to make some iterative picture-in-picture action. And that’s what’s happening today!
🧩 Blender 4.2 🧩 Cycles
🧩 3D LEGO .obj’s & .zmbx’s from Mecabricks
Day 1034- Brick’d Portal Doorways
Can you tell that the ray portal node is my favorite part of the Blender 4.2 update?
🧩 Blender 4.2 🧩 Cycles 🧩 Audio made with GarageBand
🧩 3D LEGO .obj’s from Mecabricks
Day 1035- Brick’d Sierpiński
Fractal-crafting with the ray-portal node !!!
🧩 Blender 4.2 🧩 Cycles 🧩 3D LEGO .obj’s from Mecabricks
Day 1036- Brick’d Portal Funhouse
One brick inside of a cube made of ray-portal node planes using the camera data to drive its position and location. Fractals!
🧩 Blender 4.2 🧩 Cycles 🧩 3D LEGO .obj from Mecabricks
Day 1037- Brick’d Glassy Filmy
Very subtle but first try at using the new “thin film” parameters in the principled bsdf (plus a wave texture to amplify the effect) for the ground plane
🧩 Blender 4.2 🧩 Cycles 🧩 3D LEGO .obj from Mecabricks
Day 1038- Brick’d Games Rings
Went a little crazy with the grease pencil 😂
🧩 Blender 4.2 🧩 Cycles 🧩 3D LEGO .obj’s from Mecabricks
Day 1039- Floaty Bricks
🧩 Blender 4.2 🧩 Cycles 🧩 3D LEGO .obj’s from Mecabricks
Day 1040- Möbius Bricks
🧩 Blender 4.2 🧩 Cycles 🧩 3D LEGO .obj’s from Mecabricks
Day 1041- ‘Look Ma, No Hands!’
Graduating out of my crutches (for most activities anyways) but still need the walking cast.
🧩 Blender 4.2 🧩 Cycles
🧩 3D LEGO .obj’s & .zmbx’s from Mecabricks
Day 1042- This is not for you.
Real world’s gettin’ scary and difficult; time to disassociate into a good book. 🍃
🧩 Blender 4.2 🧩 Cycles
🧩 3D LEGO .obj’s & .zmbx’s from Mecabricks
Day 1043- Anywhere Else
Imaginary portal to paradise…
🧩 Blender 4.2 🧩 Cycles
🧩 3D LEGO .obj’s & .zmbx’s from Mecabricks
Factotum5leaf 
Leave a comment