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> Two questions:
>
> * What exactly is Anton Raves' library?
Anton's Library is similar to LDraw, but made for POV-Ray only. The
main differences:
- Anton's parts are objects with "insides" rather than polygons (LDraw
is exclusively polygons--and because of broke BFC winding, "inside" is
wrong on about half of the parts). Having an "inside" means that light
can be refracted when it passes through transparent parts. Having
hollow polygon parts means you can't have that.
- Anton's parts (like helmets and hair) are round, rather than the
jagged look you see in LDraw's parts.
- Anton's parts have tailored radiosity, surface textures, and colors
for Lego parts. I believe you are on your own otherwise (and I have
seen some nice stuff out there, but it doesn't come by default).
- Anton's parts are measured to the real size of Legos. So a 1x1 brick
is 8x8x9.6 units in POV-Ray (ldraw is 20x20x24 in POV-Ray).
Serious animation should be done with POV-Ray (or a pro app like Maya)
and not LDraw. You can use Anton's Library or L3P's output. LDraw is
made for modeling and instructions, not animation...
To get LDraw to do animation well, it would require changes to the dat
file format or a 2nd file with metadata for the parts. I doubt either
will ever get done. And it would require changes with L3P or a similar
LDraw to POV-Ray utility. I'm not saying LDraw can't do animation, I'm
saying I have done far more working with POV-Ray files than I was ever
able to do with LDraw files. I mean, to animate LDraw files, you first
have to write a program before you can do anything! And how long will
it take for that app to support all of the animation features POV-Ray
already has? I have produced several animations using POV-Ray, and I
haven't had to write any program code to do it. I am only limited by
how much POV-Ray I understand. And if you can understand the LDraw
format file, POV-Ray is just as easy, if not easier (you don't have to
deal with matrixes if you don't want to).
I would be MUCH more interested to see a Lego animation application
that is written for POV-Ray. Right off the bat you have so much more
done for you by exporting POV-Ray files. You don't have to define a
standard for linking parts, for defining rotation axis or points, you
don't have to define a standard for the camera, you don't have to do so
so so much, because it is already defined in POV-Ray. If I start
writing application code again (which I will soon), I will either help
with MBC (I still use LDraw for modeling), or I will write a Lego
animator that reads and saves POV-Ray files.
> * I have POV-Ray 3,1 and 3.5, ML-Cad, L3Lab, L3P, L3PAO, and of course
> the LDraw
> package on a PC with AMD1100, 256 Mb RAM and a very old video adapter.
> What more
> do I need to make animations like those?
I used a text editor, and the command line POV-Ray 3.1 (I have a 64 bit
version for my G5 and a 32 bit version for my G4). The final walking
minifig images were rendered w/ radiosity and antialiasing at 1920x1080
(they were scaled down for the movie file) on a dual G5 2.0 GHz
PowerMac w/ 1 GB RAM and a decent vid card. It took a few hours to
render (2-8, I can't remember--I did it over night). I did all the
development on a G4 1.25 GHz Mac laptop w/ either .5 or 1 GB RAM (I
can't remember) and a decent laptop vid card at a very small
resolution--under 200x200--with no radiosity or antialiasing.
James
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