The Wonderful World of Special effect Modifications!

[Devalut]

My Intention with this tutorial is to inform users of the many useful ways they can modify special effects to their advantage, we will be exploring what, why, and whatever these modifications may pose to our merit.

Something of note:
@ThisPOT made a rough draft of a projectile system that uses only special effects & both my spell resources Bone Armor & Teeth use strictly special effects, if this long worded tutorial isn't your thing I would suggest taking a look at the triggers and fiddling with it yourself!

Special Effects - Creation

Creating A Special Effect at Point

• Special Effect - Create a special effect at Point, using units\undead\Acolyte\Acolyte.mdl

1. The start of any special effect created by triggers is going to be "Create Special Effect"; however, only one will be able to be modified, that is "Special Effect - Create Special Effect at Point".

Creating A Special Effect at Attachment Point of a Unit

• Special Effect - Create Special Effect Attached to the (string) of (X unit)

1. Creating a special effect on a unit does not (for some strange reason) seem to be modifiable, that is not to say it is completely useless... an example would be to use it in a "Hit" effect from various abilities or outside sources:
   

   • Special Effect - Create a special effect attached to the origin of (Point) using Abilities\Spells\Other\Monsoon\MonsoonBoltTarget.mdl

   
   
2. Note that it is attached to a point on the unit not near or somewhere related to the unit, but on a specific model based "Attachment" point, the names of these points vary from things like "hand, left" or "Weapon" majority of Key Attachment points I use and should be lodged in your noggin should be:
   

   "origin" - Touch the space between the soles of your feet, that's your "origin" useful for, effects like the Paladin's Holy light spell or the Above mentioned Monsoon bolt use this, as other points may seem weird
   
   "overhead" - self explanatory
   
   "chest"
   
   "origin and overhead usually do not move with the unit during animations, unlike chest and all the other body parts" - Mythic

   
   
3. Do note these are "generic" names that have been standardized by Blizzard, models will sometimes have some, or in the cases of missiles and special effect models, none at all.
   
   
4. Lastly on this subject, the spell bloodlust adds effects the the hands of the enchanted unit, if you go to the buff page on bloodlust you can see the attachment point names, refer to them if ever a special effect you create sits inappropriately, otherwise... experiment!

TRIGGERS
And what you will find in the trigger editor

• Destroy
  

  • Special Effect - Destroy (Last Created Special Effect)

  Leaks, read about them and why they can harm your map, every effect you create, you must also destroy at some point.
  
  Memory Leaks

  
  
  
• Set Color (Player)
  

  • Special Effect - Set Color of (Last created special effect) to color of Player 1 (Red)

  This Varies on certain models, units & specific projectiles (Hero Priestess Arrow Missile for one), essentially you can change the color of a model depending it has team colours built in.

  
  
• Set Color RGB
  

  • Special Effect - Set Color of (Last created special effect) to r: 255, g: 255, b: 255

  Change the "Hue" of a special effect, note particle effects will not be affected by this, but there are a few particular models that can be changed to great effect.

  
  
• Alpha
  Here's what 10 of the Hero Lich Basic Attacks look like with Alpha set to zero:
  
  

  • Special Effect - Set Alpha of (Last created special effect) to 255

  Changes the transparency, make an effect dimmer by setting this lower
  
  I've used this to change a shield effect to correlate to the health of the shield by using this:
  ShieldDim = ShieldHP(50) / (ShieldMAX(100) / 255) = 127.5
  By using the Shields current value "50" and the maximum health "100" we can get 255 levels of dimness!

  
  
• Scale
  gif example
  Spoiler

  

  • Special Effect - Set Scale of (Last created special effect) to 1.00

  Simply makes the model bigger or smaller, with 1.00 being the default.

  
  
• Set Position (Coordinates)
  

  • Special Effect - Set Position of (Last created special effect) to x: 0.00, y: 0.00, z: 0.00
  • Special Effect - Set Position - X of (Last created special effect) to 0.00
  • Special Effect - Set Position - Y of (Last created special effect) to 0.00
  • Special Effect - Set Position - Z of (Last created special effect) to 0.00

  This allows you to move the special effect based on coordinates, find the value "X of Point" or it's sister "Y of Point" Otherwise you can scroll down further and find "X of Special effect" & it's dear cousin "Y of Special Effect" and their rather dim brother "Z of Special Effect"

  
  
• Set Position (Point)
  

  • Special Effect - Set Position of (Last created special effect) to (Center of (Playable map area))

  Much like the previous trigger, this simply allows you to set by variables or basic points

  
  
• Sub-Animation
  

  • Special Effect - Clear All Sub-Animation from Special Effect: (Last created special effect)
  • Special Effect - For Special Effect: (Last created special effect), Remove Sub-Animation: Victory]
  • Special Effect - For Special Effect: (Last created special effect), Add Sub-Animation: Victory

  l'm not entirely sure what these do, if a kind fellow explains it I will add it here
  
  New Explanation by _Guhun_ 2020/02/10!

• Play Special Effect ___ Animation
  

  • Special Effect - Play Special Effect: (Last created special effect), Animation: Birth

  Units and majority of projectiles will have "Animations Names", much like attachment points, this points to an action the effect will play, ex. creating a skeleton and using this trigger to give it a birth animation, or causing a projectile to play it's "death" animation. NOTE: models have varying animation names, an easy way to see these would be to open world editor and select a model or unit:
  Screenshot
  

  Spoiler

  

• Height
  

  • Special Effect - Set Height of (Last created special effect) to: 0.00

  I've had mixed Success with this one, probably best to keep to the aforementioned "Set Position Z"
  but do experiment all the same.

• ORIENTATIONS (YAW, PITCH, & ROLL)
  Gif Example
  Spoiler

  (the green flare is the default spirit touch with it's pitch & RGB hue altered)

  

  • Special Effect - Set Orientation of (Last created special effect) to yaw: 0.00, pitch: 0.00, roll: 0.00[/B]
  • Special Effect - Set Yaw of (Last created special effect) to: 0.00
  • Special Effect - Set Pitch of (Last created special effect) to: 0.00
  • Special Effect - Set Roll of (Last created special effect) to: 0.00

  **WARNING**
  Orientations do not use default 360.00 degrees, they instead use radians which can be used by selecting the real on the Special Effect - Set Orientation of (Last created special effect) to yaw: 0.00, pitch: 0.00, roll: 0.00 Use the function "Convert Degrees to Radians" and simply put your angle there.
  
  Pic of the Function's location
  

  Spoiler

  

  
  With this you can change how the orientation or "facing" of a special effect will point, this is very helpful for a number of reasons but one in particular is taking a long column effect like "Resurrection target" and making it into a laser by changing the pitch 90 degrees.
  
  Image example of the orientations
  

  Spoiler

  

  **SEE THE ATTACHED MAP FOR A CONFIGURABLE EXAMPLE**

  
  
• Time Scale
  

  • Special Effect - Set Time Scale of (Last created special effect) to 1.00

  This Affects the "speed" of the special effect, 1.00 is the default for 100% normal speed.
  Do note that some models will not show if they are either too fast or too slow, so... experiment!

  
  
• Time
  

  • Special Effect - Set Time of (Last created special effect) to 0.00

  This, despite it's name is very different from the above modification, imagine a video, this is the timer of the video, you can control how the model will appear, be it half way through it's animation or reverse it all together with some periodic timers and some elbow grease.
  
  A good use for this Example would be taking This HPBar model and setting it's time to 0.00 - 1.00 in representation of a value. Credit - @Tasyen

 

[FeelsGoodMan]

For the sub animations I believe it refers to the tiny animations attached to a main effect. Not sure how to better explain it. Look at flame strike to better understand what I am talking about. It consists of the actual flame strike, then 4 (I think it's 4) sub animations that appears around the center.

Spoiler

This is why in some special effects like the blue and black flame strike the sub animations hasn't been edited properly so they still appear in their original colors.

I might be wrong about all this though

 

[Devalut]

Interesting, always wondered about those little pillars!

 

[Vinz]

Helpful and informative.

I'd like to note that origin and overhead usually do not move with the unit during animations, unlike chest and all the other body parts.

 

[deepstrasz]

I'd like to note that origin and overhead usually do not move with the unit during animations, unlike chest and all the other body parts.

Hmm, does that work for floating text as well?

 

[FeelsGoodMan]

Hmm, does that work for floating text as well?

Floating text will be created at a point, then you can change its velocity and angle at which it should move. If you want floating text to follow a unit you have to move it with a periodic trigger.

 

[deepstrasz]

Floating text will be created at a point, then you can change its velocity and angle at which it should move. If you want floating text to follow a unit you have to move it with a periodic trigger.

I know that. I was asking if it moves automatically via creating it on a unit's chest.

 

[Vinz]

@deepstrasz I'm not aware of any action that attaches text to a unit's reference points. FeelsGoodMan's method is the only way.

 

[deepstrasz]

@deepstrasz I'm not aware of any action that attaches text to a unit's reference points. FeelsGoodMan's method is the only way.

Ah crap, you're right. It can only be created above units. What lamery. It's basically as creating it on a point.

 

[_Guhun_]

Sub-animations are the same thing as animation tags for units, the flame strike smaller flames have nothing to do with it. For example, if you created an SFX with the Illidan model, you could turn it into his demon form by adding the Root/Alternate subanimation (not sure what it is called in GUI).

 

[Devalut]

Excellent, lovely to have that mystery explained!
Thank you @_Guhun_!

I've updated it to include your post, as well as a little more on Time since I've been using it thanks to @Tasyen

 

[Chaosy]

Simple and clean.
My only two nitpicks are that there should be a title at the top like "Introduction" or something like that.
And that sub titles should be indented for easier readability

Approved and sent to general mapping as I feel like this is overall useful even if it involves triggers.
You can poke me if you feel otherwise @Devalut