Intro

LMM is a combination of a GUI for L3P-POV + automatic POVray editor + a POVray include file all geared towards making Ldraw minifig animation easy and simple even for those relatively new to the LDraw system. In fact, the project started over a year and a half ago in the form of a POVray include file, which eventually got so complex that a) it became highly unruly and b) nobody would EVER want to use it. Which is precisely the opposite of what I was looking for. It took over a year to find the right tool to allow me to develop what I had envisioned in the first place.

Click here to see the remote beginnings of this project.

That tool turned out to be Autohotkey, a Windows automation tool with a programming language simple enough to allow to build hacks relatively quickly and at the same time powerful enough to offer features such as a user-defined GUI and the possibility to compile the scripts into EXE files. Take a look at 1 Hour Software by Skrommel to see the kind of Windows utilities you can build with it. Autohotkey is also Open Source. Just like LMM.

Anyway, if you're bascially interested in making animations and not on how the program works, head directly to the next section. Be aware, though, that this is the initial sketch of what I hope will eventually become a much more complex system. But things are at a very simple stage at this point.

For those of you interested in what is under the hood, here it goes. Once the user has loaded a file into the program and hit the "render" button, the program will:

1. Run L3P to create a POV file according to the parameters set by the user.

2. Edit the "Right" POV parameter of a copy of the L3P-generated file to be able to render non-standard resolutions at the right aspect ratio

3. Read the colors and part names of the minifig from the original Ldraw model file

4. Edit out the POVray lines which render the figure in the copy of the L3p-generated POV file

5. Add the LMM parameters as specified in the LMM GUI in the copy of the L3p-generated POV file

6. Render the modified copy of the L3p-generated POV file in POVray and/or genrate a POVray ini file.

(More to come)

Instalation

Download the file above (LMM00.00.zip) and open it. You will see that it contains ony 1 file called LMM00.00.exe. Extract this executable to a (preferrably empty) directory of your choice (it is very important that you EXTRACT the contents - do not attempt to run the file from within the zip program or things will go very wrong!) Next, run the executable by double-clicking on it.

The first time LMM is run, it will create 3 subdirectories called "source", with the source code; "povini", with the POV include file; and "icons", which contains the graphics used by the application. It will also crete an LMM.ini file which will eventually hold its operating parameters.

Once that is done, you will hopefully will be facing the LMM interface, with the following dialog in front of it:



Hit ok.

LMM *needs* to know where it can find L3P and POVray. You will not be able to do anything with it until you set the paths to those programs.

There are 2 ways of going about it. You can either select the "Settings" option of the top menu or use the buttons right next to the path boxes in the "Fiel Management" tab of the GUI.



Both of these actions will open a standard Windows "File Open" dialog with which you can navigate to the location of the L3P.EXE file. Select it and hit "Open"

Once this is done, you must follow the same procedure to set the path for POVray.

Both of these paths are written to the LMM.ini file and you will not be asked for them again as long as you use the same LMM.ini file. Once both paths have been set, the program will enable the "Load File" controls and will be ready to run normally. Installation is finished.

Running the Program

(For the time being, I will only show the main features of the program, which leaves you to figure out some small details on your own)

As you saw in the installation, LMM "helps" you by enabling its components on an as-needed basis. This means that once the program is installed, it will display most of its controls disabled until you load a model into the program.

To do this, you can once again choose between the top menu and the button by the side of the "Model:" box For best results, use a minifig model created with the MLCad Minifig Generator. Keep the name short and without spaces or_low_dashes (however, long names and spaces are OK in paths)



Once the model has been loaded, you will have access to the rest of the controls in the program. The most interesting ones are located in the L3P Parameters, Renderer Parameters and Animation Parameters. The Log tab provides a record of the actions of the program.



To find out about the L3P Parameters, it is best if you read the explanations from the author himself by clicking Here. (LGEO support is not yet implemented) The Renderer Parameters are only a few (for the time being) and quite self explanatory. The novelty here is that LMM will allow you to easily set standard TV and Cinema aspect ratios for your renderings. Be warned that (again:for now) using some of these resolutions might result in a rendering that "cuts" off the top and bottom of your model. In due time there will be ways to deal with this from within LMM.

The Animation Parameters tab is unique to LMM and thus requires a bit more of explanation. it contains 3 group boxes named Loop, Wholle Figure Parameters and Limb Parameters. Let's see what controls each of them hold.



Loop: features 3 controls. Loop length: sets the total number of frames that POVray will render. While movies run at 24 frames per second and TV standards close to 30 frames per second, you can get away with up to 12 frames per second. Steps: sets the number of "animation cycles" that will be rendered across those frames. The currrent version of LMM does not have keyframes, but rather movements that are repeated in cycles. Cyclic: is actually a POVray feature that, when checked, renders animations that are inteded to be "looped'. This means that they re-start once they reach the end; "looping" endlesssly. In non-cyclic animation, the first and last frames are the same. This does not produce a fluid loop, but rather one with a "stop-and go" effect. If the animation is cyclic, the last frame is not the same as the first frame and thus the loop appears fluid.



Wholle Figure Parameters features 2 controls. Step length: sets the length that the figure will advance forward in 1 aniamtion cycle. If you set it to 0, the figure will stay in place (but might still be moving its limbs - think: dancing, talking, etc.). "Fall forward": is the degree which the *whole* figure will appear to fall foward in the first part of an animation cycle, only to straighten up again on the second part.



Last but not least, Limb Parameters offers a cartload of controls, which are in fact of two different types. The Initial setting sets the initial angle of rotation for the body part. For instance, a figure with a initial head setting of 0 would be looking forward, while one with an initial setting of -90 will be looking left.

Amplitude sets the angle which the body part will travel during one animation cycle. Half of it will be forward and half ot it will be backwards (legs do not bend backwards to create a more realistic-looking motion).

At the bottom of the screen, you will find the Processing Options and the Render button.



The Processing Options allow you to directly render the file or create a ini file to use later in POVray (along with the LMM-modified POV file for the model). The Overwrite Options on the right are not implemented. The Render button will launch the process. You can set the location of the output files in the File Managemente tab. That is pretty much it. The program has a couple of known fairly big bugs but in general behaves like a noble beast. Worse comes to worse, restart and it will likely be fine. I do realize how simple it is as of yet but please bear with me as I implement fetures such as:

- Full accessory support
- Stage and props (with animation)
- Multifig support
- Keyframing
-Facial animation

And a long etc.