Mecabricks is an online tool to build, render and animate Lego in your browser using Three.js. In 2012, Nicolas Jarraud (online alias "scrubs") released the first version of Mecabricks throughout it's lifetime but especially in 2020 it received several updates bringing about new features such as a tool to animate or the mosaic tool. Mecabricks is particularly popular for it's ability to export models directly to blender for realistic rendering and it's large library of models.
Tools on Mecabricks
Workshop
In the Mecabricks workshop, you can build any model with the Lego bricks the part library has to offer. Some tools the workshop has are: The mosaic tool will create pixel art from any image Flex tool to manipulate flexible objects such as string The snap tool can snap any parts into place Grouping parts together Toggling the visibility Selecting by color and/or piece type Box & multi-select to select large amounts of parts at once Duplicating parts
You can change the color of the pieces using a color palette which corresponds to the official Lego colors. Workshop can export and import these file formats:
Rendering
The Mecabricks render farm was custom built by Scrubs himself and allows rendering models in the browser by sending the model to the renderfarm. After rendering is complete, the image will be sent to Mecabricks where it can be downloaded. The render farm can be used for free, but users are only allowed 10 free renders a day under 0.7 million pixels With rendering comes a few objects that can be of help, such as lamps, cameras and the volumetric box. Multiple frames can be rendered for rendering animations and other features such as scratches, fingerprints and dents can make the render(s) look even more realistic. Post-rendering composition is also available. After rendering, you can then upload these to individual models and they will stay as long as they follow the rendering rules set up by scrubs.
Animating
Animation can be done in nodes, which is a separate area from the workshop view that can be toggled on or off. In nodes, you can create different node trees which will all be executed when the animation plays. The node trees themselves contain nodes which can determine a piece's position, material (color) and visibility over a timespan. It is also possible to instance large amounts of pieces. Other settings such as frame rate and animation length can also be determined in nodes.
Prints
In Mecabricks, you have the option to add your own textures to parts, which you can upload using your limited free storage for these prints. These prints are then available to you and can be exported to blender using the blender addon. Other people can then save this print as their own if you allow your model to be public and open to workshop.