Installation

Limner is a C++ editor plugin for Unreal Engine 5.0 to 5.8 (Win64, Mac and Linux editor). It uses Unreal’s Level Sequence Editor plugin for the color script; that plugin is part of the engine and enabled by default.

Install from Fab

1. Open ta Limner on Fab, choose the license that applies to you (Personal or Professional) and add it to your library.

2. In the Epic Games Launcher, open Fab Library, find ta Limner and click Install to Engine for each engine version you use (5.0 to 5.8).

3. Open your project, go to Edit > Plugins, search for Limner and enable ta Limner. Restart the editor when prompted.

4. Open Tools > ta Limner (in the tridiART section of the Tools menu) and create your first board.

Installed this way, the plugin lives in the engine and is available to every project. To keep it with one project (for example so the whole team gets it from source control), install it manually instead.

Install manually

1. Close the Unreal Editor.

2. Copy the TALimner folder into your project’s Plugins folder. Create the Plugins folder next to your .uproject file if it doesn’t exist yet. The result should look like this:

   MyGame/
     MyGame.uproject
     Plugins/
       TALimner/
         TALimner.uplugin
         Source/
         Resources/

3. Open the project. If the plugin hasn’t been compiled for your engine version yet, see Build from source below.

4. Open Edit > Plugins, search for Limner and make sure ta Limner is enabled. If you had to enable it, restart the editor when prompted.

5. Open Tools > ta Limner (in the tridiART section of the Tools menu).

Build from source

The plugin ships with its full C++ source code. If the copy you installed doesn’t contain compiled binaries for your engine version, the plugin has to be built:

• C++ projects: build the project in your IDE (for example Visual Studio 2022 on Windows), or let the editor rebuild the missing modules when it asks on startup.

• Blueprint-only projects: the editor can’t compile plugin code for you. Either add a C++ class to the project (which turns it into a C++ project) and build it, or build the plugin once with Unreal Automation Tool and copy the packaged result into your Plugins folder:

  "C:\Program Files\Epic Games\UE_5.6\Engine\Build\BatchFiles\RunUAT.bat" BuildPlugin -Plugin="C:\Path\TALimner\TALimner.uplugin" -Package="C:\Build\TALimner" -TargetPlatforms=Win64

  Use the RunUAT script of the engine version you want to build for.

Your first board

1. Open the level you are working on and open Tools > ta Limner.

2. Click New board. Limner creates the board asset LB_<LevelName> in /Game/ArtDirection, saves it and links it to the open level. From now on it opens whenever you open this level.

3. Drag a few images from your file explorer onto the board, or textures from the Content Browser.

4. Double-click an image. It appears over the viewport, blended at 50 %. Move the Strength slider in the viewport bar, or try Difference, Onion skin and Wipe.

5. Click Values or Notan in the viewport bar to see the scene’s light and dark shapes. Click Color to go back.

6. Click Save to save the board.

From here you can:

• Read the Reference board guide for notes, groups and the canvas controls.
• Link references to cameras and bookmarks: see Viewport overlay.
• Extract a palette and compare the scene with a reference: see Values & palettes and Compare.
• Build a color script of your sequence.

Tip

Settings are saved to Config/DefaultEditor.ini in your project. Commit that file, and the board assets, so the whole team uses the same board folder and analysis settings.

Updating and removing

To update, close the editor and replace the TALimner folder with the new version. Your settings live in the project’s Config/DefaultEditor.ini and your boards are assets of your project, so they are kept.

To remove the plugin, disable it in Edit > Plugins or delete the TALimner folder while the editor is closed. Limner adds nothing to your levels; the only assets it creates are the boards, which can’t be opened without the plugin. Delete them (by default in /Game/ArtDirection) if you no longer need them. Color script exports are files in Saved/Limner. If you changed the settings, they stay in the [/Script/TALimner.TALimnerSettings] section of Config/DefaultEditor.ini, which you can delete.