Lego Team Project: Space (Part 1: Custom Lego Pieces)

This week's project for 3D is a team effort--a Lego version of a space scene. My team members are Diana Benocilla, Gabe Espinosa, Daniel Reyes Lopez, Noah Hunter, Fabiana DeLilla. and Shih-hsuan Chu. Our topic for the project is to create a virtual-reality space scene. For Part 1, each individual was tasked with creating one custom block for the project to add to the collective Lego Library. I was assigned to create custom domes that would fit our project a little better than the egg-shaped dome that was in the library already.

So first, I imported the FBX files for some Lego hinges and a Lego figure from UE4 and exported them to Maya. I used the Lego man for scale when beginning to model the domes.

The first shape I modeled was the smaller hinged dome with a pentagon base. I selected the faces and deleted one half until I had a hollow dome shape. Then I extruded the faces to make the entire dome wall thicker. I also beveled the edges. 

I attached the hinges by rotating them and later combining the meshes of the dome and the hinges to "weld" them into one piece. 

I used the Edge Loop and scaling tools to create the second "hexa-dome" out of the standard cylinder in Maya. Once both shapes were completed, I exported them as FBXs into UE4. Then I started customizing the Materials in the library to fit the look I wanted: a sheer green glass and a more opaque, metallic purple glass.

Once those were done, I applied them to the meshes I'd created and here are the final blocks I made for the space Lego project: glass domes for the control towers.