Cartoon of a sphere built from cubic elements with increasing resolution
Matlab code 

% Program to generate lego sphere with increasing resolution 

% Uses an adaptation of the function platonic_solid, see 

% https://ch.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/28213-platonic_solid 

% Courtesy Kevin Moerman 

 

clear; close all;

 

figure('units','pixels','position',[0 0 1920 1080],'ToolBar','none');

fileName = 'legoSphere.mp4'; % Name of file depends on type of crystal sample 

vid = VideoWriter(fileName,'MPEG-4');

vid.Quality = 100;

vid.FrameRate = 15;

open(vid);

set(0,'defaultfigurecolor',[1 1 1]);

set(gca,'linewidth',7);

set(gca, 'Projection','perspective');

lp = [-1 -1 0.1];

myBlue = [0.5 0.55 0.88]; 

LL = 1.34; 

for ii = 4:100 

    ii

    newplot

    hold off

    xlim([-LL LL]);

    ylim([-LL LL]);

    zlim([-LL LL]);

    

    axis equal

    axis off

    

    for jj = -ii:ii

        for kk = -ii:ii

            for ll = -ii:ii

                radNow = ((jj/ii)^2 + (kk/ii)^2 + (ll/ii)^2)^0.5;

                if (radNow <= 1) && (radNow > 1-1/ii)

                    [V,F] = platonic_solid(2,0.5/(0.57735*ii)); % Cube, size = (3^1/2)/2

                    V(:,1) = V(:,1)+jj/ii;

                    V(:,2) = V(:,2)+kk/ii;

                    V(:,3) = V(:,3)+ll/ii;

                    ps = patch('Faces',F,'Vertices',V,'FaceColor',myBlue,'FaceAlpha',1, ...

                        'EdgeColor','none','FaceLighting','flat','DiffuseStrength',1);

                    hold on                  

                end

            end

        end

    end

    %plot3([-LL LL],[-LL LL],[-LL -LL],'color','white', 'LineWidth', 0.1); % dummy line to keep FOV constant

    axis equal

    axis off

    set(gca, 'Projection','perspective');

    set(gca,'View',[30,32]);

    light('Position',lp,'Style','infinite');

    frame = getframe(gcf);

    writeVideo(vid,frame);

    hold off    

end

% Output the movie as an mpg file

close(vid);