Ok, time for an explaination.
Ldraw is a library of bricks. You can use it with programming, but you won't achieve anything good. This is why a software called mlcad was created. It uses the bricks database of ldraw but you have a screen on which you can drag and dop bricks, rotate them, move them and such. But the rendering is still not that great.
Therefor it was commonly accepted to use Povray in order to render the construction that you made into mlcad and saved as a cad file. Ldraw uses precise light calculations and calculate the reflection of those light emissions on the surface of the 3d model (lego bricks are codified under the plastic reflection).
And taadaaa, you got those models.
Still the limited number of polygons (and their orientation and geometry) makes it difficult to use the ldraw files in animation (easy when it's solid buildings like ships, ut hard when it comes to bend anything).