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Animated Textures Tutorial


Introduction

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Hello, and welcome to my short tutorial, about how to add animated textures easily by yourself!
There is already a tutorial, but only with notepad, and I found it a bit complicated.
So I thought that I make another one, where you only need some tools, and a bit work.
This is not a very hard tutorial, but you should have some basic knowledge of textures/models.
(It’s also not needed, but recommended!)
You only need free tools for this tutorial.

I hope you learn something from it, and have fun while learning :D .

Tools needed

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These are the tools, which are needed to make animated textures:
(Tools marked with an *, are not needed, but you can make the custom models/textures with them.)


Textures

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So, we will practice with a water texture. And which model do we know, has an animated
water texture? Yes, the ‘Water Elemental’ :p .
Now open Magos Model Editor, and open the attached model file.
The model already has the texture ‘Textures\Lords0000.blp’, but it needs more, to create an animated texture.
So click the toolbar button ‘Windows -> MPQ Browser’.
bio3dw.jpg

Now a new window pops up. There you click on ‘File -> War3.mpq’, to open the wc3 mpq.
There are all files for warcraft 3 saved.
Now search the folder ‘Textures’ and open it.
In that folder are many *.blp files. But we are searching the water texture. So press ‘L’, and the
Marker should jump to the ‘LavaLump.blp’. Now scroll a bit down, until you can see
‘Lords0000.blp’ and the other ones.
It should look now like that:
24fbjig.jpg

The model already uses the ‘Lords0000.blp’ texture, so we don’t have to add it.
Now add the other 7 textures (‘Lords0001.blp’‘Lords0007.blp’).
You can easily do that with right click on the texture, and then ‘Use as texture’.
Our model uses now all 8 water textures!

Animated Texture

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Now we will make the animated texture.
Open Magos Model Editor, if you closed it, or minimized it, and click at the toolbar
on ‘Windows -> Material Manager’. A new window pops up:
2mphidl.jpg

255thfa.jpg

For this model, there is only one Material. It’s something called like ‘Material 04474770’.
(The numbers after the material are always random, so it might be, that it's not exact this number)
Double click this material to open a new window. There double click again on the MaterialLayer.
Another window should open:
rtdnpd.jpg

You see, that it uses one texture at the moment: ‘Textures\Lords0000’.
To ‘animate’ it, check the box ‘Animated’ and click on the button ‘Texture ID’.
Now this window should open:
s27ehu.jpg

This looks a bit confusing at the beginning, but it’s easier than it looks like.
The ‘0’ before the ‘:’ shows the keyframe, where something happens.
The ‘0’ after the ‘:’ shows the texture ID.
To understand the keyframes better, go back to the main window of magos, and click
on ‘Windows -> Sequence Manager’. There should be an animation called ‘Stand’.
This is the normal stand animation.
Double click on it, and a new window opens. We need only the ‘Interval’ for this tutorial.
2iau6ww.jpg

You see, the interval starts at 0, and goes to 1050. That means that the animation finishes,
when the interval reaches 1050.
Back to the texture animations.
You have 8 textures, and it should look fluently, so we make 8 parts. We have 1050 keyframes, and
we have to add 8 textures, so one texture every 150 keyframes.
It should look like this:
Code:
0: 0
150: 1
300: 2
450: 3
600: 4
750: 5
900: 6
1050: 7
Now, you are done!
Now go to the Animation Controller (‘Windows -> Animation Controller’), and play the stand animation.
It should look like this:
35m14ro.gif

Voilà!

Moving Textures

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After we learned how to make an animated texture with more than one texture, you will learn now,
how to make a moving texture, with only 1 texture, which saves space.
At first, download the attached ‘Stone.mdx’ model, and open it with
Magos Model Editor. Now click the Window button at the toolbar, and then on MPQ Browser, to
search our texture. In this example, we will use the ‘Textures\grad2b.blp’.
Open the ‘War3.mpq’, open the ‘Textures’ folder,
and search the ‘grad2b.blp’. When you found it, right click on it, and click on
‘Use as texture’.
znk4qv.jpg


Now we have to attach the texture to the model.
Click the window button in the toolbar, and click on Material ‘Manager’, and
double click on the Material. Now a new window should pop up, and there you right click on the
white background, and click ‘Create New’.
1qix04.jpg


Now another window appears, and there, you check the ‘Unshaded’,
make the Filter Mode to ‘Additive’, and give it your texture.
It should look like that:
wivzit.jpg


If you look at your model preview screen, you can see now, that the stone has a white thing
at its top. Well, let’s continue the work.
Again, click the window button in the toolbar, and select the ‘Texture Animation Manager’
and right click at the white background, and select ‘Create New’.
2uyhlhv.jpg


A new window pops up, with 3 different options:
Translation, Rotation and Scaling.
We need the Translation one, so check the ‘Animated’ box, under the
Translation category. Now we can click the Translation button.
A new window pops up.
At first, you can see at the bottom, a small field with the name ‘Interpolation Type’.
Set this to ‘Linear’, so the animation looks flowing.
Now to the second part of the translation window.
Code:
0: { 0, 0, 0 }
Looks strange, and I’m also not 100% sure what these numbers in the brackets do.
But I can tell you: the first number is for the keyframe.
So our model’s animation goes from 100 to 500.
Change the first 0 to 100.
Code:
100: { 0, 0, 0 }
Now copy this whole thing 3 times, so it looks like this:
Code:
100: { 0, 0, 0 }
100: { 0, 0, 0 }
100: { 0, 0, 0 }
100: { 0, 0, 0 }
After this change the second 100 to 250, and the third 100 to 251, so the animation looks nice.
It should look like that:
Code:
100: { 0, 0, 0 }
250: { 0, 0, 0 }
251: { 0, 0, 0 }
500: { 0, 0, 0 }
But we’re not finished. Now we change the second 0 in the brackets of the second keyframe to
0.8, and the second 0 of the third keyframe to -0.8, so it looks nice, later on.
That’s how it should look like:
Code:
100: { 0, 0, 0 }
250: { 0, 0.8, 0 }
251: { 0, -0.8, 0 }
500: { 0, 0, 0 }
You can try a bit with the 0.8, to find the perfect animation.

Now to the next step:
Open the Material Manager again, and double click on the material.
Now open the second material, with the animated texture.
There should be a small box, with the header: ‘Animated Texture ID’.
There, select the animated texture, we made.
Now click okay, and return to the preview screen.
Open the ‘Animation Manager’, and play the stand animation:
2uj400g.gif

(Sorry about the quality, but it's a fast animation, and hard to record.

Now there is a problem with magos: It can't save the animated texture
(That's an odd magos bug, but there is a way to fix it).
Open now MdlxConverter, and convert the rock.mdx to rock.mdl.
Now open the rock.mdl file with notepad. Scroll down, until you reach the
the Materials.
Here a screenshot, how it should be changed:
75716d1266515578-animated-textures-tutorial-howtomakeanimatedtextureswork.jpg

If you haven't understand this, just look at this:
Code:
Materials 1 {
    Material {
        Layer {
            FilterMode None,
            static TextureID 0,
        }
        Layer {
            FilterMode Additive,
            Unshaded,
        }
    }
}
That's how it looks like. Our animated texture is the second one, so we
have to change the second layer.
Code:
        Layer {
            FilterMode Additive,
            Unshaded,
        }

Only add this:
Code:
            static TextureID 1,
            TVertexAnimId 0,
so it looks like this:
Code:
        Layer {
            FilterMode Additive,
            Unshaded,
            static TextureID 1,
            TVertexAnimId 0,
        }
and you finished the notepad work! Just save it, use the MdlxConverter
to convert it back to rock.mdx, and watch it in Magos!
(Thanks to DonDustin, for the explanation how to fix the magos bug!)
Voilà!

Examples

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Now I want to list some example models, which use animated/moving
textures. If you search in the model section under DC (Directors Cut),
you will find those well-done models.


Addendum

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If the model shows up correctly in the model editor, but not in game (e.g. the rest of the texture is animated when yo don't want it to be), try following this guide to get the animated portion onto a separate material:
Putting what you learned about Animated Textures into action
 

Attachments

  • TutorialWaterSphere.mdx
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  • TutorialWaterSphereFINISHED.mdx
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  • Stone.mdx
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  • LKExample.gif
    LKExample.gif
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  • PMExample.gif
    PMExample.gif
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  • LEExample.gif
    LEExample.gif
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  • StoneFINISHED.mdx
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  • HowToMakeAnimatedTexturesWork.jpg
    HowToMakeAnimatedTexturesWork.jpg
    65.4 KB · Views: 9,492
Last edited by a moderator:
welcome at my short tutorial
at = to
-----------------------------------------------------
You only need free tools for this tutorial.
Then why are you saying that Milkshape isn't free xD
-----------------------------------------------------
So click at the toolbar on Windows.....
Should be:
So click the toolbar button Windows....
click at the toolbar
on ‘Windows
Same thing.
-----------------------------------------------------
Double click on it
Should be :
Double click it
-----------------------------------------------------
So, you are done!
Should be :
Now, you are done!
-----------------------------------------------------
Should be :
-----------------------------------------------------
Overall a very nice tutorial, good job:)
 
Level 26
Joined
Jun 15, 2006
Messages
2,651
nice tutorial. it is good to know that we have another one now which is up-to-date. Animated textures/animated materials are pretty confusing at the beginning, but once you understand how they work and how to create them, they get actually easy and fast to make and always give your model some catchy effect.

The only small suggestion I could give you is that you provide some examples how awesome they could be :)
 
Last edited:
nice tutorial. it is good to know that we have another one know which is up-to-date. Animated textures/animated materials are pretty confusing at the beginning, but once you understand how they work and how to create them, they get actually easy and fast to make and always give your model some catchy effect.

The only small suggestion I could give you is that you provide some examples how awesome they could be :)

thanks, I'm glad to hear, that also someone, who models a long time, says
that this is useful :)

Well, you mean, I should make a better example, than the rock?
 
maybe some links like l0w_kwaliti's LichKing model (the sword) or GF's Fire Dragon - Fire Blade(gems and sword) so people actually see how to use it in practice

okay, I will search some good examples, and post them here.
thanks, neat idea ;)

[EDIT]
updated! added now 3 examples of models, which uses animated/moving textures!
thanks to DonDustin for the great idea!
 
Last edited:
Level 23
Joined
Dec 20, 2009
Messages
1,907
Ok, I promised you a little review and so I go now:grin:

Overview: The Tutorial is designed for not so experienced or totally unexperienced persons and this is really what it aims for. It's well documented with images that show what the text describes. The chapters are easy to follow and even total newbies will get the result they are looking for.

Type of Writing: The writing style is full of life and that's what makes it interesting, also it's very detailed, which helps the reader to follow the explanations! Some smaller descriptions aren't on the level of the overall text but this doesn't really matter:
"Now, you are done!
Now go to the Animation Controller (‘Windows -> Animation Controller’), and play the stand animation."
This "now,...now" for example is a little annoying.
Another example is: "You have 8 textures, and it should look fluently, so we make 8 parts.". Maybe use "divide" instead of "make"!

Overall it's well written, and nice to read: 9/10

Visual Makeup:
This is a big plus point of the Tutorial: The colours that show the paths in Magos are very good underlined by colour. (Tip: It would be great if you would give every button in your tutorial a colour). Also the chapters are well done and the text passages are not to short and not to long. The hidden images help making the tutorial easy to handle!

Overall it's easy and compact organized, which helps the tutorial a lot: 9.5/10

Topic: Another big adventage of this tutorial, it's really EASY to follow, even a total beginner with Magos and Modelling as able to follow it, maybe even if he uses a computer for the first time. I did everything like it's said in the tutorial and it worked fine for me, all small mistakes are already fixed and everything is mentioned.
One or two things I've to mention though: 1. It's very easy to follow the tutorial but at some points it isn't clear what you're really doing there if you're a beginner. Sentences like: "This is for changing ....." or "This changes the value of...." would give a better imagination of what the reader does in that moment and how he can individualize his work!
2. I already mentioned that and you seem to get first ideas of how to change it, is that the reader doesn't really know what he's aming for if he doesn't zoom through the whole tutorium which is a little annoying! Maybe add a pic of a model that uses those effects or something like that.

By the way, this is another great idea of the tutorial: To show pictures of Models which include the explained technique!

Overall the content of the tutorial is very well done, but some minor changes would be nice: 8.5/10


Overall: 27/30
 
a BIG thanks to you for taking your time to review my tutorial :)
This "now,...now" for example is a little annoying.
I know, english isn't my first language, so I'm not very good in reshaping some words.

Tip: It would be great if you would give every button in your tutorial a colour
hmm, I don't get this part. do you mean for every button in magos, that I mentioned?
By the way, this is another great idea of the tutorial: To show pictures of Models which include the explained technique!
yes, DonDustin gave me the idea, and I found it great.
 
Level 42
Joined
Oct 20, 2010
Messages
2,935
thank you, this tutorial let me make lava elemental and poison elemental.. i wan upload to hiveworkshop but i dont know how to import......(the texture is lava crack that i edit and cut it into 1 and 1)(sorry for my broken english)

and it is work in wc3 model editor but i dont know how to import to warcraft 3 world editor(model i made)
 
Useful tutorial, but I think Animated Textures in WC3 is kinda broken. If I have a material with 2 layers and the first layer uses animated texture but the 2nd layer is static, in-game both layers will animate. I can't do something like a Dota 2 Chaos Knight where his armor suit is static but his body is animated flowing lava.
 
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