Animatable Models Part 2 - From Start to Finish
In this tutorial, I'll show how to take an LDraw file, make it animatable, convert it to POV-Ray and create an animation from it.
I'll try to go over as much syntax and concepts as I think a newbie would need in order to understand everything. The things I wont discuss in depth include how to start a POV-Ray render or how to take an image sequence (the output of a POV-Ray render) and make a movie file out of them.
In this tutorial, we will examine a file that is already created. It will take you through the steps needed to easily animate it. Once you know how to convert a model so it can be animated, then you will know how to build a model so it can be animated. The principles here are applied to an LDraw file, but they are relevant to all animation, hobbyist to pro level and games to blockbuster movies.
Let's work with a car, this car. Go ahead and download the mpd file off of that webpage!
The steps we will follow to make this file animatable are:
- Structure the LDraw File
- Convert the LDraw File to POV-Ray Format
- Rig the Model (Add Puppet Strings)
- Create a Scene for the Model
- Render the Scene
Proceed to step 1: Make the LDraw File Animatable