allyourpixel

SIGGRAPH's conference this year in Boston is going to include a Teapot Exhibit, celebrating the Utah Teapot. That got me thinking, "I wonder if I could build a teapot out of Legos?" Round objects aren't exactly Lego's forte of course, but I figured a computer program that translated the model into a voxel lattice would go a long way towards getting me started. I wrote that in C++, and then wrote another program in Python for turning the lattice into an arrangement of Lego bricks.

In the process of pursuing this project, I'm learning just how serious some people take their Legos. There are several CAD programs to choose from, and I ended up using Bricksmith because it has a nice Mac OpenGL implementation. (Thanks Allen!)

Then there's the question of how to buy Lego bricks to actually build the teapot with in real life. BrickLink provides a huge online market for Lego pieces. Wow! You can search for exactly what part you need, and you get a list of people across the country who will sell it to you. So I bought a pile of all kinds of white bricks, plates, and slopes, and started trying to put my masterpiece together. It's harder than I thought... I'm definitely not a "master builder" as they call it. But I'm getting there. I may have to go back to Python for some more help from the computer. :-)