Anyway to animate a vector?

[Macciavelo]

So, I'm trying to animate a model glow using $selfillumfresenelminmaxexp (Which needs to be a vector of 3 values). By trying to animate that command using this method: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=211768170

But, the problem is it seems that only $alpha values can be animated.

Does anyone know any way to animate vector values or some other way to animate a model glowing?

Thanks.

[Marco Skoll]

I've not actually yet tried to use the method for animating materials, but I believe this is a valid approach:

- Create a placeholder entity (as low memory as possible) and hide it.
- Set its position to 0 0 0.
- Open its animation set in the element viewer
- Open its root dag and copy the co-ordinates.
- Go to your material override in the element viewer
- "Paste as Reference" to your vector3.

Animating the position of the placeholder should then automatically transfer its coordinates to your vector3. (Because coordinates are a form of vector3, the data should transfer fine).

I may have the specifics wrong, but I know people have done this, and I believe that's the approach.

[Macciavelo]

@marcoskoll Not sure what your mean by using the root dag. What I want is to make a model glow using $selfillumfresnelminmaxexp (Which is a 3 value vector, like this: 0 0 0) and animating that value.

Not sure if I'm explaining myself correctly.

[Marco Skoll]

I understand fine.

I believe the standard workaround for animating any vector3 or color value is to tell SFM to use the coordinate data of a placeholder model as your values (e.g. moving the model to coordinates 1 2 3 will set your vector values to 1 2 3), and I think that what I described is the correct way to do that.

[Zappy]

Originally posted by Marco Skoll:

- I think that what I described is the correct way to do that.

I'm afraid what you said is both lacking a few of the details, and is the exact opposite way of what you're supposed to do, but don't worry about it, we all do make mistakes some times.

You should right-click the override material of the model that has the Vector3, and copy it.
Then right-click a placeholder model's animationset, choose "Show in Element Viewer" > "Animationset", navigate into one of its bones, and expand the "position" group thingie.
Then right-click the "toElement" and choose "Paste Special" > "Paste as Reference".
And lastly, change the "toAttribute" to the name of the variable to alter (which in this case would be "$selfillumfresenelminmaxexp" without quotes).

Then you should be able to select the bone in question, and then change it's X, Y, and Z co-ordinates to change the first, second and third values, respectively, of the Vector3.

[Macciavelo]

Originally posted by Marco Skoll:

I understand fine.

I believe the standard workaround for animating any vector3 or color value is to tell SFM to use the coordinate data of a placeholder model as your values (e.g. moving the model to coordinates 1 2 3 will set your vector values to 1 2 3), and I think that what I described is the correct way to do that.

Sorry, didn't mean to come out as rude in my comment. Thanks for your help.

Originally posted by Zappy:

I'm afraid what you said is both lacking a few of the details, and is the exact opposite way of what you're supposed to do, but don't worry about it, we all do make mistakes some times.

You should right-click the override material of the model that has the Vector3, and copy it.
Then right-click a placeholder model's animationset, choose "Show in Element Viewer" > "Model", navigate into one of its bones, and expand the "position" group thingie.
Then right-click the "toElement" and choose "Paste Special" > "Paste as Reference".
And lastly, change the "toAttribute" to the name of the variable to alter (which in this case would be "$selfillumfresenelminmaxexp" without quotes).

Then you should be able to select the bone in question, and then change it's X, Y, and Z co-ordinates to change the first, second and third values, respectively, of the Vector3.

That explains alot. I was kinda confused on why I had to use a model's bone just to animate a vector 3. Thanks for the help!

[Macciavelo]

Well, I just did what you said up until expanding the bone's position. But there's no option in the bone's position to add a "toElement".

Here are the option when I right-click on the bone's position: http://imgur.com/OkRY5A2

And here are the options when I right-click on directly on the bone: http://imgur.com/a/pjh8p

Any idea what to do now?

[Zappy]

...I failed too, then. Try clicking "Show in Element Viewer" > "Animationset" instead of "Model".

[Macciavelo]

Yep, it was animationset instead of model. I'll try again and let you know how it goes.

Again, thanks for the help!

[Macciavelo]

Just an update: It worked! Thanks again for all the help!

[Zappy]

I'm glad it works now... and annoyed I gave the wrong instructions immediately after saying "no, that's wrong, here's what to do"... Whoops. But I'm still glad it works now.