question about animated texures

i would like to start using them in builds but having searched the forums and any other SL related site i can find i still know virtually nothing about them

in particular i want texture that can be used in Sci-fi themed builds (energy fields, display screens that sort of thing) but as i said i am looking for animated ones and i can not find them for sale nor find out how to make my own.

anyone?

As far as I know, the only way to animate textures is via scripting using the llSetTextureAnim() function. I've been trying to learn how to use it as well and it's not easy, at least not to get the results I would like.

Animated textures are kinda a mixture between scripting and textures, so maybe this will help: http://lslwiki.net/lslwiki/wakka.php?wakka=llSetTextureAnim . There are several ways to animate textures described there. You might want to use smooth scrolling, for example, for display screens. (This is also often used in water... you probably have a rudimentary sample script in your Library folder called "anim SMOOTH" or something like that, originally made for animating water textures.) "Step" animation is similar to the sort of frame-by-frame animation of animated gifs, for example.

Thinking of the "force fields" example, the other meeting place of scripting and textures is particles, which might be appropriate for that kinda thing. (See, e.g., the Texture Laboratory in-world.)

Here is a nice simple tutorial:
http://www.wakatech.com/articles/lsl-scripting-basics/bringing-an-animated-gif-into-second-life/

That particular program saves them as a long narrow graphic, but the panels could be saved 2 across and 2 down also, and can be done by hand in a graphics program using snap to grid. The gest of llSetTextureAnim is that it reads a small section of the full graphic one at a time in sequence with params setting rows and columns more or less.

most excellent responses, thank you! i will give these ideas a try.

If you wish to make your own...

Make a texture that is 4 times wider than it it tall for a 4 frame animation.

Draw the 4 frames of the energy effect and upload it to SL at like 512x128 pixels.

Apply the texture to the face of a cube (or whatever)

Then yo need to create a script in a prim to animate the texture.

Either use the lLSetTextureAnim described here:

http://www.lslwiki.net/lslwiki/wakka.php?wakka=llSetTextureAnim

for a constantly looping animation of the texture, or use the llScaleTexture and llOffsetTexture to manually anumate the texture in a non looping pattern.

You can make a 4x4 grid for 16 frames of animation or any number of other ways of doing it. You may get more help with that in the scripting tips forum...

But that's basically how it's done.

Heh, oops, got 3 replies while writing mine

Ask this over in Texturing Tips, where it belongs, and you'll get much better answers.

I would not recommend using that GIF converter mentioned above for several reasons, the main one being it depends upon starting with a GIF, which is just about the worst possible choice of format for texturing imaginable.

For more in depth, step-by-step help on this, and any other topic that has to do with texturing, ask in Texturing Tips. That's what it's there for. Keeping the forums organized is of paramount importance, which is why I won't answer in more detail here.

pfft, there is always one.
i needed an answer but was not certain if it was a texturing, scripting, building or all of the above question so i asked it in a forum with a broad ranging title such as "resident answers" several people came forward right away with very helpful "resident answers" and then a self important forum police told me i was a bad girl.
go away

wow

you just told the one person that knows EVERYTHING about sl textures to go away

~and~

went on a totally uncalled for rant, chosen was just telling you where to actually look if you want to know about texture stuff (deeurh animated textures, maby in textures and design)

listen im not the forum police, im just the resident asshole, and your not a bad girl, your just a random dumbass (with possible anger issues)

Osgeld, I'd say your response was just as uncalled for as hers. It is not obvious that animated textures belongs solely in the texturing forum, the fact that it requires texturing and scripting to achieve the effect should make that apparent. Being told that animated textures are solely the domain of one subforum when in fact it could be argued that it's just as easily the domain of the other subforum involved seems a bit presumptious to me. Unless people are somehow insinuating that scripters don't know how to animate textures...

I agree is it not the best, but it is very good for explaining the process for someone who is so new to it all.

You know, it would serve right for Chosen to ignore this thread should it ever hit Texturing Tips.

Yes, that would be quite fitting indeed, tell someone to go to a specific subforum to have their questions answered in detail, then not answer them out of petty spite. Always nice to see the way people truly do think here.

I like to think of it as don't bite the hand that feeds you. And she bit after it was offered. She said "go away." Okay, then!

Right, she did. That doesn't mean there aren't other people that wouldn't benefit from learning how to do it. Should the actions of 1 person cause others to be denied that knowledge?

I agree, it shouldn't. But it wouldn't preclude anyone from getting that knowledge later on, especially since many people don't use search and ask the same thing over and over again. Which is understandable to some degree, since search is anemic, but still - it would be a well deserved lesson.

I noticed that the question has not yet been posed in Texturing Tips, on the off chance that someone else might know, like Chip or Robin. Whatever.

FWIW, before posting my rudimentary answer here, I looked over in Texturing Tips to see if there was a sticky that looked promising as a pointer. Not finding one, it occurred to me that indeed this was as much about scripting as about texturing, so I thought, what the hell, why not just give a "starter" answer here? In retrospect, I should have also given a pointer to Texturing Tips right from the beginning: I don't recall many questions on Scripting Tips about llSetTextureAnim(), so Texturing must have been the correct forum. Sorry 'bout that.

On the other hand, there was also mention of "force fields"--which sure sounds like particles to me, and while having a texture component, is a frequent scripting topic, so... I dunno. I actually don't think the OP was posted in the "wrong" place, but the invitation to repost in Texture Tips was appropriate, too.

Maybe we've gotten a little hypersensitive about redirecting posts to the technical fora, following some meta-topic threads on this forum. Can't please all the people all the time, I guess.

a) no one knows everything although they feel that they do
a) my response was not uncalled for nor was it a rant (rants are much longer and often involve long-winded run-on sentences WITH EXCESSIVE USE OF CAPITALS)
c) i am not a "dumbass" nor do i have anger issues.

simply put i had a question but was not sure what forum it would be best put under so i used the one with the most generic topics regarding questions. having had some good answers i could quickly see that i could learn more if i continued this in scripting, but then some one had to lecture me and that i find irritating, don't like it? too damn bad.

please feel free to IM me in SL Perhaps you could elaborate as I'm not quite sure about your opinion on this matter and I'm keeping a journal titled 'What Osgeld Barmy thinks about me' so I need to make an accurate entry under the heading "Very Important People".