Whenever you put 3D and Blocks together, a lot of things come to mind. And one of these is Minecraft. But today this review aims at driving your attention to something other than the usual ìbuild everything you wantî construction kit. In this article we are going to talk about an app for prototyping cool pixelated stuff.
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IntroducingÖ LeBlox!
LeBlox is a French App that has been created by the company White Monkeys. This App was rolled out to the market in early 2014. It lets you design any kind of object ìBloxî by deleting or adding colored cubes. Although it has been around for a long time, thereís still no version of LeBlox available for desktop downloads. You can therefore only get it for free from iTunes and Android Store.
What you can do with LeBlox
With LeBlox mobile App, you can design pixeted objects from a user-friendly interface right on your phone or tablet. If you are wildly imaginative, you can simply let your imagination run wild and create your designs from scratch. But if you would rather your imagination is triggered, you can begin your creations from a pre-defined set of ìBloxî (animals, characters, vehicles and others).
For instance you could do these intriguing miniaturesÖ
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Or be more development minded and create an architectural piece like this oneÖ.
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Or maybe you would like something like this pixelated Karl Lagerfeld.
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How does it work?
This App features an editor with a reasonable set of features. Although the features are not so many, they are enough to let you design a pixelated version of anything, say your face.
All you are required to do is to log in with your email address and password so have access to the editor. This will also automatically register you to the integrated social network.
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LeBlox as a social network
LeBlox can also work as some sort of social network. On opening the app, youíll see a list of things that were built by other users. You can study and admire these and can even select some to use as your starting platform for your creations.
The social media part comes in where you are able to share your blocky creations on any social networks that your phone has been connected to. You also have the option of exporting an image through mail and sending it as text.
Printing your ìBloxî
The coolest feature of this App is the export feature. This one allows you to place your creation into any regular photo on your smartphone and to even export anything youíve built to a photo.
After exporting your creation, you can have it printed by a professional 3D printing service Fabzat, based in France
The only issue that might hold you back is if your object does not meet the standards for printing. For instance, cubes must be related by a face and not an edge, since the sections break if thereís no junction point. Long, thin details are also too fragile to 3D print. And adding a base to an object that you want in a standing pose makes it print better.
One drawback to this App is that you need to have some basic knowledge of 3D printing even though you will be given some information.
Conclusion
LeBlox is an excellent App for someone who wants to build great pixelated retro-style designs like a cute cat for your desktop or a pixelated Monkey Island pirate.
We find this software to be pretty decent. The editor in this App definitely got nothing on its major competitor; 3D Slash. In 3D Slash, you can scale and modify your bricks to attain more accurate results, although the appís menu and user interaction is confusing. (Check out our detailed review o 3D Slash here)
On the part of the price for the physical 3D printed objects, this is not very different from that of its competitors. LeBlox is a fun app to experiment with for hours while knowing that in the end you will have your creations printed.
