Animated Textures

I have been working with textures quite a bit and I have searched through this forum for specifics about laying out the frames for animated textures. I have all the information to do animated textures EXCEPT how to create the texture matrix in the graphics program (I am using GIMP but the question is more generic) Is there a specific distance between the frames in the matrix? are they on different layers? how does SL interpret the matrix panels so the sequential steps line up in the animation? -

I am guessing this is fairly simple, but have not been able to find a place that describes it so that I can implement it. If there is an existing link or Tutorial, please point me there.

Val

Imagine a moving graphic with just 4 image cells...something simple.
Here's my method <and twisted way of thinking of it>

Compared to what you are used to doing, an ANIMATED Graphic is a trick in SL.

OUT OF WORLD, you build it as a single image.
Think of a single flat piece of paper.
Scale Each Cell of the animation to be 1/4 the size of the paper.
Print out each of your cells. (in this case, four).
Now, Place the first cell in the upper left corner, the 2nd cell in upper right, the 3rd in lower left and the 4th in lower right.
__
[12]
[34]

Take a picture of the 4 cells arrayed on the paper.

YOu end up with a single picture. Obviously, the physical paper metaphor is just that...a way of explaining. YOu can do all of this in your graphics program. You can use Alpha Channels, etc. When you're done:

IN WORLD: Upload the single picture into SL as a single texture.

To 'Play' your anim, you're going to drop the texture into a prim, and also drop a SCRIPT into the same prim. You edit the script to describe the 4 cells. You run the 'script' to make each of the 4 quadrants appear in order and then cycles through again. The script flips through and uses the Texture size and offsets to make 1/4 of the total texture appear each time.

--That should get you started on HOW to make the picture to upload. Search on 'Texture' in the scripts library, and I believe you'll find a texture anim script that you can modify to fit the number of cells in your anim.

(There's also a thread or tool which will help calculate the texture offsets, but I can't find my link at the moment. I'll keep looking. YOu won't need it for a 4 cell anim, but a 2 hour movie would be a pain without it! )

This is very helpful, Sterling, thanks!

So the answer is that the grid is just defined by dividing up the entire graphical image into the same sized rectangles depending on how many frames you have for the entire animation.

Next question: Is there a limit to the overall size of the graphic such as 1024X1024 or 512X512 for uploading into SL as there is for typical static textures? for a 16 frame animation (4X4) would each of the individual panes be limted to 256X256?

Val

A texture is texture, whether it is used as a static texture or a animation texture the same constraints apply.