Okay, so basically I am making an intro to Blappeture on the projector screen, I know what entities i need and I have the program to create a vgui, but making the VIDEO to cram into hammer is where I need to start.

What video and animation programs do you people use to make your super cool home-made custom content?

I use Vegas but Movie Maker is okay. If you want custom Animation, Blender is the way to go, as it's free, if not a little tricky to use. But here's the thing: if you want this video to go into a workshop map, it will not, repeat WILL NOT make it to the Workshop, leaving players staring at a blank screen.

Actually, if you want animations, Milkshape 3d is MUCH easier than Blender. It should have a 30 day trial unless you buy it (or edit your registry), but that is enough time to make something good. It also has an interface much like hammer, and the controls are easier than blender.

Also, if you are going to be making a .BIK video, remember to put "Read the description" in the map title, with a link to the files in the description.

CamBen wrote:
Also, if you are going to be making a .BIK video, remember to put "Read the description" in the map title, with a link to the files in the description.

You gotta remember though, there's people who might arrive via QuickPlay, and then there's people that'll not want to bother with downloading additional, external content. There's nothing that annoys me more than having to install a bunch of stuff for one map.

okay, weird, I actually played workshop maps with custom projector screens. So I am thinking maybe they were animated textures?

Probably so, unless they used the unused coop screens from the disk parts. In many cases this isn't possible. For example, my scene of Cave Johnson talking has to be a downloadable bink video because I have over 100 frames and I'd rather not save every texture individually and then put them into vtfedit.

o_o sorry what was that last bit there??!

Cave Johnson talking or the frame count?

I'm assuming cave Johnson, so....

in a map I've partially finished but have yet to publish, cave Johnson on a sceen guides you to the multiverse device, where it malfunctions and sends you to a hostile earth with dark cave and glados as the baddies, along with some other robots.

you mentioned a plethora of numerous textures for one animated texture or something. Is that seriously how animated textures work? I thought it was like converting a gif

Nope. I've got a 70 frame gif and an over 100 frame gif, all those would have to be saved separately and mass imported to one vtf edit window to form an animated texture.

that sounds agonizing, but I have made flash animations so I have experiance with mind-numbing patience

I've made gmod videos (not released tho), so I know the feel too. Luckily, I think as a bik video it will work because it won't be hard to install, and they are only recommended, not required, because I still have the voice lines as .WAVs.

if a bik cannot be pak'd into a .BSP then I may go for an animated textures. I waited this long, a couple more days to make an animated texture shouldn't be too bad. Speaking of which, HOW!?

Just record it, then use an online converter to turn it into a gif, then save every layer of it as a new image and then mass import them into vtfedit as one file.

okay i did a testrun of that with a bunch of random pics and it didn't animate. Pretty sure i misinterpreted what you meant by mass importing them or I had some settings all wrong

You might need to add parameters to your vmt. Looks like you want AnimatedTexture.

[Disregard, see above post]

@Fracture: Once you have imported all the images into a single VTF with VTFEdit (then each image will become a 'frame' of this VTF), you'll need to set up your VMT, where you will actually make it animated.

You have 2 options here depending on how you will animate those frames, but I recommend the following one (not the AnimatedTexture suggested before, because this one allows you full control):

1. In your VMT add the following proxy (as you can check it's exactly the same one as the one used in the indicator lights):

Proxies
{
ToggleTexture
{
toggleTextureVar $baseTexture
toggleTextureFrameNumVar $frame
toggleTextureShouldWrap 0
}
}

(Just copy that code and paste it right before the last '}' in your VMT)

1. Now, in hammer, use a logic_timer, an env_texturetoggle, a logic_relay to store all your outputs, and a func_brush with your texture.

2. In the logic_timer, you'll only need to set the time you want your frames to change (rate), that's done by setting the "refire interval" parameter. Use for example "0.02" in order to make the frames go quick and give the sense that you're watching a movie. In its outputs, use:

- OnTimer > [env_texturetoggle_name_here] > IncrementTextureIndex

1. I'll assume you know how to set up your env_texturetoggle and the rest entities...

NOTE: I'd recommend you to make the func_brush start disabled, then activate it only when you are going to show your frames running, and then disable afterwards (when you know all the frames have beeen shown up ).

josepezdj wrote:

1. In the logic_timer, you'll only need to set the time you want your frames to change (rate), that's done by setting the "refire interval" parameter. Use for example "0.02" in order to make the frames go quick and give the sense that you're watching a movie. In its outputs, use:

- OnTimer > [env_texturetoggle_name_here] > IncrementTextureIndex

I doubt anyone read the post above before I redacted it, but wow, I didn't think using I/O was actually the way to do it. But IncrementTextureIndex is a far quicker way than SetTextureIndex (the method I'd proposed). This is actually quite useful info jose (the whole post, not just the quoted bit).

I found what i was looking for and it is entire NOT what anyone here was even talking about. I was trying to make a video, not a damn light switch

"LightmappedGeneric"
{
"$basetexture" "folder/filename"
"startframe" "1"
"endframe" "whateve number your last frame is"

"Proxies" 
{ 
"AnimatedTexture" 
{ 
"animatedTextureVar" "$basetexture" 
"animatedTextureFrameNumVar" "$frame" 
"animatedTextureFrameRate" "24"
} 
}