[GT]

Personally, I have AutoSave enabled, every 3 minutes. Especially when I used Vista, Zmod would often bug out, so I needed it. Also, I gave up with Vista this week.

I don't like spectacular highlight either, but I like the reflections.

[HummersRock]

I don't like autosave, it saved my mistakes too much, so I disabled it long ago.

You mean your finally being smart and giving up on Vista for good and going with XP?
_________________
My MM2 Creations | My DeviantArt

[GT]

Looks like it doesn't it

[Silent1Unknown]

The Tutorial Package is released! It contains the PDF manual, a folder containf all the pictures used in the PDF in their original form and the Z3D and the AR files of the Jeep.

So far, Franch88 has uploaded it -------> DOWNLOAD.

I also give permission to 3DAutos, MM2Tracks, MMArchive and MM2Br to host it if they want to.
_________________
2010 MM2C AWARDS
Most Helpful to the Community Award
Mr. Nice Guy Award
Helping Hand Award

[alexsim2004]

This is great and all in one place to download and read offline at leisure - fantastic - Definetely should be sticky'd
_________________

[thenthornthing]

Whey, great stuff silent!
_________________
So it's "Goodnight" from me. And it's "Goodnight" from him. Goodnight!

[Franch88]

[GT]

If I had a working site, I would put it on there.


I'll put it on the new version.

[Silent1Unknown]

How to Make Animated Textures:

Suppose you have some faces on your car that you want to appear animated in game.

First, you'll need a sequence of images or "frames" for the intended animated scene. Here is an example:



Notice the names of the frames (I randomly chose the 'hype' part).

hype.tga is the original texture we will use as a guide for texture-mapping in ZM.

hype-0001.tga will be the first frame of the animation.
hype-0002.tga will be the second frame of the animation.
hype-0003.tga will be the third.
hype-0004.tga will be the fourth.

.... etc. These frames are not needed texture the faces in ZM. Just keep them in the TEXTURE folder.

In order for animations to continue forever, there is a jump from the last frame to the first frame. Think "circle". SO, its important that the sequence of images have a nice flow in the circle. Notice that there are only 4 unique (different) frames above (00001, 0002, 0003 and 0004). 0005 is just a copy of 0003 and 0006 is a copy of 0002. This maintains the flow in the animation. Think of it as filling in the gap in the circle (between 0004 and 0001 that would otherwise cause abrupt motions in the dancing man animation).

Also notice that the original texture, hype.tga, is a copy of one of the frames. It doesn't matter which one. Its just used to guide in the texturing part and ensures that the animation fits in the desired faces. Otherwise, it is doesn't have anything to do with the animation.


Ok, so we have our frames. Now open up ZM and make some faces to put the animation on. I just put 2 faces on top of the Cherokee.



Then, texture those two faces with the original texture, namely, hype.tga.



Remember to copy a <default material> and load the hype.tga as Primary Texture in Material Editor first. Also, since we're dealing with transparent parts, set the material type to Glowing.

Save and Export as you normally would. Quit ZM.

Now go into the TEXTURE folder and take out the original texture, hype.tga. You can delete it or move it anywhere else. Just keep it out of the 6 main folders.

Finally, open up NotePad and type a number (I typed in '2'). This number will represent the framerate (frames per second, I think) of the animation. Then save the file and name it as hype.movie and put this in the TUNE folder. This name is just like the original texture name hype.tga, but the .tga is replaced by .movie.



All set? Make the AR file and put it in game. You should see the animation on top of the car.


Sorry, my pc's a bit slow when it comes to multi-tasking. But the animation works fine if I'm not recording it. If you need to adjust the pace of the animation, edit the .movie file in the TUNE folder.



Summary
The original texture used to map faces in ZM will have the general name name.tga

The frames will have names of the format:
name-0001.tga
name-0002.tga
name-0003.tga
... and so on.

Remove the original texture, name.tga, from the TEXTURE folder.

Make the name.movie file using MS NotePad and save it in the TUNE folder. This file should only contain a number (such as 1, 20, 5, 100, 0.5 ......etc).

Don't forget that the textures should be square in dimensions (32x32, 64x64, 128x128 ...). If transparencies are involved, use .tga format and set type to glowing.


Thats all there is to it. Pretty straight-forward stuff. Just don't use this technique to make dancing men. Rather, this can help make sliding doors, windshield wipers, GPS....anything of that sort. Keep it simple.


And if you're confused about anything, check out the following threads:

1. http://forum.mm2c.com/viewtopic.php?t=12048&highlight=how++animate+textures
2. http://forum.mm2c.com/viewtopic.php?t=3365&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=
3. http://forum.mm2c.com/viewtopic.php?t=11269&highlight=how++animate+textures


JUMP TO ANOTHER LESSON:
LESSON 1: SOFTWARE & BLUEPRINTS - PAGE 1
LESSON 2 PART 1: MODELING THE SIDE - PAGE 2
LESSON 2 PART 2: MODELING THE REST OF THE BODY - PAGE 3
LESSON 3: TEXTURING - PAGE 3
LESSON 4 PART 1: FINISHING TOUCHES - PAGE 4
LESSON 4 PART 2: THE OBJECT LIST - PAGE 4
LESSON 5: PACKAGING TO .AR - PAGE 5
LESSON 6: THE EXTRAS - PAGE 6
LESSON 7: MODELING REFINED - PAGE 6
TUNING AND AUDIO FILES EXPLAINED - PAGE 7
HOW TO MAKE ANIMATED TEXTURES - PAGE 8
HOW TO MAKE A COP CAR & SIRENS - PAGE 11

DOWNLOADS:
PDF VERSION (LESSONS 1 - 7 ONLY) + JEEP.Z3D + JEEP.AR - MMARCHIVE - MM2X
LESSON 1 - VIDEO
LESSON 2 - VIDEO

_________________
2010 MM2C AWARDS
Most Helpful to the Community Award
Mr. Nice Guy Award
Helping Hand Award

[GN08_CGU]

Brilliant ideas there
_________________
http://christophersbuses.fotodock.co.uk

[thenthornthing]

You're getting good at this lol.
Great stuff
_________________
So it's "Goodnight" from me. And it's "Goodnight" from him. Goodnight!

[alexsim2004]

Looks good - very easy to understand
_________________

[Riva]

Just think now the animation made by Hummfred about the speed shifting on the BMW M3 Concept

Nice update on your excellent tutorial Silent.
_________________

[Jason]

This is great coverage Silent, here you get a cookie .....(::)
This is probably the most complete tutorial ever for MM2, you've done a good job. Did you go over Aud tuning in Excel yet?
_________________

[Silent1Unknown]