Animated textures-n-Sprites Created 12 years ago2012-01-23 16:29:01 UTC by camplo

I understand the principle of how they work......frame by frame...I could animate my water texture using photoshop but that don't seem like the best option ever. What software are people using to create animated textures and sprites.

Where can I find some animated sprites and textures. I need some animated water and steam/waterspray for a waterfall. I rather make my own from scratch but there are no tutorials on either.

Are you mapping for Source or Gold? Because HL1 already has a scrolling water texture, you could use that or copy it and change its colour to suit your needs.

I'm thinking it's called !scrollwater but I'm not sure. Whatever its name is, though, it most definitely starts with "scroll"

As for Source... water is rendered differently and I don't know much about how to use it.

I'm mapping for goldsource and I need some rolling water not running. Like some wavy type shit.

Isn't the normal water effect enough then? Any water texture (that starts with a "!") will have it.

Make sure you're running it in OpenGL mode (water gets 3D-wavy) and not in software mode (everything looks bad and water is flat).

Paint is a pretty good program. I recommend it.

To create sprites there is a program called sprite explorer, it has a special wizard built in it allowing you to make sprites step by step, provided that you know how to create the images.
The hl sprites have a rule that their dimensions must be 2,4,8,16,32,64,128 etc, you get the idea, but they do not have to be square, you can make a sprite 64x32 for example if you wanted to.
Another thing you must keep in mind is that sprites need a black background, otherwise they won't get transparency.

To create an animated water texture there are two ways:
1; the scroll way, If you put SCROLL in front of the name of your texture and then place it within a .wad using wally (wally is the software for creating .wad files), it will have the scrolling effect in game (the scroll effect is when the texture slides in 1 direction). Ofc the texture would also have to be seemless.

2; the animated way. There is a way to make textures animated just like sprites frame by frame, to do this you have to name the textures like this before importing them into wally and compiling them:

+0texture1
+1texture1
+2texture1
+3texture1 etc, with maximum of +9.

When loaded into hl, the engine will automatically play the textures as a repeated sequence going from 0 to 1 to 2 to 3 back to 0 (unless you go higher on the frames). Maximum frame is +9. I hope you understand how I explained it. The texture name must be the same on each frame, but the +X you should change depending on which frame you want that particular texture to be. So if I wanted to make a waterfall texture for example and I created five consecutive images mimicing the movement of water, I would then get the engine to flick between them by naming the textures like so:

+0waterfall
+1waterfall
+2waterfall
+3waterfall
+4waterfall
Then it would constantly flick between them in that sequence of 0,1,2,3,4 on the surfaces you've applied one of these texture to in hammer. Again, you need Wally to create your .wad files.

If I didn't explain something clearly or you still don't understand, then say so, but explain exactly what it is that you want or are having problems with.

+0texture1
+1texture1
+2texture1
+3texture1 etc, with maximum of +9.

I vaguely remember reading somewhere that you can also do:

+Atexture1
+Btexture1
+Ctexture1
+Dtexture1 (...) to a maximum of +Z (26 frames instead of 10)

Never tried it myself, but it makes sense.

I don't want to make it a func_water because of the lag it creates since I am making a map for an online server. It is a terribly small amount of water but I am going for maximum optimization.

I would like to take the water texture I made and animate it. I know I can do it frame by frame with photoshop but that seems to be the hard way. Just seems there would be an easier way.

After some google, looks like working with photoshop is my best bet. My goal is too take my water texture and make it look choppy and and some type waterspray to where the waterfall hits the pool. Wish me luck

I just explained to you how to make animated textures.

Nothing in your post says anything but basic information on a animated texture.

I need to make realistic looking wavy water, without func_water.

So I need to change the texture frame by frame while keeping it seamless. If you've ever made a seamless texture then you would understand where I am coming from. I don't even how fast the frames are going to be played.

You can make animated looking water (even smoother I guess) without func_water or even without animated texture... There is a trick I invented not long ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyKahyg_uZI

It works great for water caustics but I'm sure it will work as great for water itself too.

You sir, are a genius.

Ok first....its a shallow pool of water. I used one of the optimization tricks to create the effect without the water so it sounds like water....if you land on it, it won't hurt, just like water......but its a func_illusionary. I'm going ot have to make the func_illusionary water "invisible" and then over lap it with two func_conveyors. I can dig it.

As cool as it is, Dragos didn't quite invent it. It's been done before.

I have the rolling water animated texture you're looking for here.

Honestly, Adobe After Effects can render particles and do fake caustics effects for film. That'd be my best guess from the tools standpoint. Plus there are kabillions of After Effects tutorials like www.videocopilot.net

I haven't noticed that water makes a lot of lag. Specially not if it's just a little pond with no waves. You don't even need to turn in it to a func_water I think. As long as the texture name starts with "!" it is going to be animated like water. With func_water you can edit rendertype, wave height, contents and so on.

Your main problem seems to be that you want an animated texture but you can't be arsed with making more than one frame, if so, your solution is the "!water01.bmp" kind of textures. Easy to use and there is already a lot to choose from in the different wad files out there.

That's some really cool water effect there Bruce.

Can you not just use a couple func_conveyors overlapping from different directions with the any scroll_water texture to make some fast and cheap water? I've seen it done but never done it. (I think this is how Bruce did his)

I must say though, this all seems like a lot of effort for a little water. maybe, if you showed us what you were doing we could give you more specific advice.

You didn't "invent" that trick, Brucey. It's a pretty simple concept.

I would like to take the water texture I made and animate it.

I just explained to you how to make animated textures.

Nothing in your post says anything but basic information on a animated texture.

Contradictions.

I pretty much took my water texture made it scroll and overlapped to func_conveyors like many suggested above. I turned out great. I'm wondering is it possible to have a scrolling texture with transparencies in it? You know, the (0,0,255) type.

Rendertype probably works just as well as with any other entity.

Is there really a noticeable gain from doing all that instead of a func_water?

Bruce could have invented it. The term 'independant invention' is used when somebody comes up with an idea that has been done before, but not to their knowledge.
As an example, a while ago I was interested in gauss guns and electomagnetic projectile propulsion, things like that. I also had a side project, a bet to design a plausible flying motorbike. For this design, I needed some type of electric motor that would operate on the rim of a wheel, rather than the axis. Using the information I had on gauss guns, I came up with a design of motor which did this. I told my uncle and he told me the same thing had been invented in the 80's or 90's by a man named John Bedini. Apparently it's more efficient than a regular motor. I'm still pretty pissed about that.

An off topic rant there, apologies.