Mesh-To-Lego

This was my first big project in Houdini. I wanted to create a program that could convert any 3D model into a legofied version, using primarily VEX functions. The program would convert the mesh into points, and fill in the lego pieces accordingly.

Loop to determine how many pieces could fit "behind" the current piece.

The hardest challenge came towards the beginning of the project's lifetime. I discovered that while iterating over the points, any changes made to them (groups, locations, etc) would not actually be set until after the iteration was complete. This lead to a complication with my method of marking points when they had a piece assigned to them to prevent overlap.

My solution was to determine how many pieces could fit in one line with a loop, and place the objects only when they would no longer overlap via the above function and a modulo expression. This is also how I made longer variants of pieces.

Gallery

Here are some of the meshes generated with my digital asset.