Subject:
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Making instruction images
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.publish
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Date:
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Sun, 13 Feb 2000 13:33:35 GMT
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Viewed:
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1209 times
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Hi,
Larry Pieniazek asked me if I could write a bit about how I composed
the instructions at this page:
http://www.math.uio.no/~fredrigl/technic/monkey-bike/
(also at Brickshelf). Sure I can!
The short version is this: I used Emacs, LDLITE and Gimp and it was an
awful lot of work!
The longer version:
First I wanted to match the LEGO Company's Technic instructions by
having a box on the top of each step with the new parts needed. So I
needed to make an image of each and every part/colour combination used
in the model. To do this, I collected all the DAT files (subparts) in
one buffer and used Emacs's query-replace-regexp command to extract
out the part name and colour. Next, I sorted this list and removed
duplicates. The part names and colours then got transformed back to
ordinary part-line format and I put a "0 STEP" and a "0 CLEAR" between
every part, much like this:
1 7 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 32039 .DAT
0 STEP
0 CLEAR
1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 3707 .DAT
0 STEP
0 CLEAR
1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 3737 .DAT
(This code was cluttered a bit to allow the LUGNET NNTP server to
accept it!)
This file then got passed through LDLITE with the command line option
which causes LDLITE to render and save each step to individual files.
And the result: A lot of files with all the parts used in the model!
Next, I needed an image of each step in each subpart of the model,
which was fairly easy to do using LDLITE's "save step images"
function.
Then came actually composing the instruction images, which was the
hard part which needed much manual labour.
I used the layers concept in Gimp a lot. I'm sure similar concepts
exist in other major drawing programs too. The idea is this. An
image consists of several layers, and only the bottom one is
completely opaque (typically the background). Every time you add a
new "concepts" to the drawing, you add it on independent transparent
layers, much like slides. That way, you can edit them independently,
so that you don't need to worry about removing the background if you
remove something you drew higher up. When you have finished the
drawing, you "flatten" all the layers, composing one separate image
which can be JPEG-compressed, say. (You should make a habit of
keeping the layers too, in case you want to make more changes. You
don't delete the source once your program has compiled, do you? :-)
As a background, I simply used a yellow gradient, but this was in fact
added last.
I quickly found that I needed some numbers to indicate the length of
Technic axles, and I needed some texts to indicate quantities of parts
("2x", "3x", ...), so I composed all of them in a separate window so
that I could just copy and paste what I needed.
Then came a long process of copying and pasting individual parts
images and subpart images into the instructions. I made sure to have
different backgrounds on the subassembly (blueish) and part "windows"
(white), so that the user can easily see which is what. To make the
sub assembly windows, say, I first used one of Gimp's built in
patterns (the blue one) and put that one in one layer. I put the
actual sub assembly images (LDLITE output) in the layer above, so that
I could move them around without worrying about cluttering the blue
background. (As you can probably imagine by now, I actually did this
in the opposite order: I first copied in the LDLITE images, then fit a
box with blue background around them.)
I'm not totally happy about these instructions. They are probably too
verbose for most users. I'm sure an adult don't need these thorough
steps.
Also, I regret using the blue pattern from Gimp, as it catches the eye
too much. I should have used a more low-key pattern.
I have two more examples of similar instructions as well, which are
less verbose:
http://www.math.uio.no/~fredrigl/technic/articulated-rig/
http://www.math.uio.no/~fredrigl/technic/micro-bike/
If someone has more questions, please feel free to ask!
Fredrik
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