Making Animated Sprays

C

cyb3rspy

Guest
I've noticed that a lot of people want to make Custom Sprays for CS:S but have no idea how to, So I'll try to explain how to make an animated spray in the easiest way for all, yes including the N00bs that you may hate can do it by following these steps.

  1. Find a .gif animated picture (or better still make one(I'm not gonna tell you how, I think you can figure that out if not sell your computer))
  2. Convert the gif to individual frames. The way i did this with a .gif is to get Adobe ImageReady (comes with photoshop cs) and open the .gif in there, then go file > export > animation frames as files...

    I saved them to jpgs, then went to photoshop, and converted them one by one to the following:
    • Re-Size to 128x128 (this is for a max of 5 frames)
    • Save As .tga
    • 32 Bit
    • Compressed
  3. Put all your .tga files in the hl2/materialsrc/animated folder and rename them to spray001.tga spray002.tga spray003.tga etc
  4. Edit the spray.txt file in notepad and replace the endframe value to the amount of frames you have. (eg. "Startframe" "1" "endframe" "4")
  5. Run convert.bat - your .vtf will appear at hl2/materials/animated/
    (if your .vtf file is over 120kb, you will have to go back and edit the amount of frames you have of the size of your frames until they are under 120kb, otherwise you will not be able to use the spray.)
  6. put your .vtf & .vmt files into counter-strike source\cstrike\materials\VGUI\logos folder
    (if it didn't make a .vmt file make one by opening in notepad make a new file and put in this text:
    Code:
    "LightmappedGeneric"
    {
        "$basetexture" "vgui\logos\gabedance"
        "$decal" "1"
        "$decalscale" "1"
    
    }
    Save as same name as your .vtf file and put in same folder.
    Note: You can change the name of both files but must be the same for example: superman.vtf & superman.vmt
  7. Load up CS:S and select your spray with in options or if you don't want it to mess up your crosshair settings open your config.cfg (& userconfig.cfg) and search for this line:
    cl_logofile "materials/vgui/logos/
    edit this line by putting the name of your sprasy here like so:
    cl_logofile "materials/vgui/logos/superman.vtf
  8. Save & close all files and folders
  9. Run Game and Spray (hit the "T" key in-game)
:flame:So you went to convert and got this error::flame:

Code:
D:\STEAM\animatedsprays\SPRAY MAKER>vtex.exe -mkdir -shader LightmappedGeneric h
l2\materialsrc\animated\spray.txt
input file: hl2/materialsrc/animated/spray
Problem figuring out outputdir for hl2/materialsrc/animated/spray
Hit a key to continue

I had the same problem then I did this:



Copy the hl2 folder and the tga2vtf.bat from the vtex folder to
Steam\SteamApps\username\sourcesdk\bin
place the targas (pictures you made (128x128 32bit compressed spray00#.tga)) in
Steam\SteamApps\username\sourcesdk\bin\hl2\materialsrc\sprays
run bat file and your vtfs will be in
Steam\SteamApps\username\half-life 2\hl2\materials\sprays

If you don't have the proggie go to my site and hit the Connact Me link and I'll email it to you, put "Making Animated Sprays for CSS Proggie" as subject .
Don't ask me why, but it works. Have fun makin 'n' sprayin :cheers:

Cyb3rspy
 
i get an error saying that the spray.tga file is bogus!?!?!?

any info on what to do?
 
Animated sprays suck. They ruin any immersion in the game and create a hugggggggeeeeeeeeeeee distrction.

Sprays can be justified with spray paint cans. Especially terrorists, you know, marking their territory.

But moving sprays? What are they, magic>?
 
MysticalMrBob said:
Animated sprays suck. They ruin any immersion in the game and create a hugggggggeeeeeeeeeeee distrction.

Sprays can be justified with spray paint cans. Especially terrorists, you know, marking their territory.

But moving sprays? What are they, magic>?
Crosshairs suck. They ruin any immesion in the game and create a hugggggggeeeeeeeeeeee distrction.

Crosshairs can be justified with iron-sights and reflex sights. Especia....

You get the picture. The game isn't about realism. It's about having fun.
 
dekstar said:
You get the picture. The game isn't about realism. It's about having fun.

if THAT were true, you would be able to play as mario. :-P
 
MysticalMrBob said:
Animated sprays suck. They ruin any immersion in the game and create a hugggggggeeeeeeeeeeee distrction.

Sprays can be justified with spray paint cans. Especially terrorists, you know, marking their territory.

But moving sprays? What are they, magic>?

My dancing banana spray disagrees with you.
 
damn this is an ancient thread but yea i need some help cause my thing doesnt come with imageready comes with some other weird shit so whats ur website and how do i contact u?
 
The game is about having fun, although many people like myself and many others take it seriously.
 
These days there is something easier that I have put together. This post http://www.clarkee.co.uk/?p=65 has details of a web-based spray maker that I created as an interface to this tool. Give it a whirl and let me know if you have any luck :)

fyi - it's written in java/jsf running on tomcat
 
Hmmm, can't wait to see what people say about this file, although a little worrysome. Posts: 1, Join Date: Feb 2009...."DOWNLOAD THIS FILE IT WILL HELP MAKE SPRAYS!"

Not saying you're untrustable, just this is a little shaky, what with people losing their Steam Accounts daily and all.

Someone brave enough to try it, though, please let us know how it works...this could be a great idea.
 
Yeah, good point. I do look a little suspicious etc.

Your best bet would be to actually visit the link and read the comments posted by the other users?

But then again, I get 100 uses a day atm, so I don't mind not having to provide a free service for 1 more :smoking:
 
That's nice, but you could have easily 'faked' those comments too. Again, not saying you're not valid, I'm just waiting for a source I trust before giving it a go myself.
 
I could have done, but I didn't.

Anyway, what harm do you expect a pair of textures to do?
 
I've noticed that a lot of people want to make Custom Sprays for CS:S but have no idea how to, So I'll try to explain how to make an animated spray in the easiest way for all, yes including the N00bs that you may hate can do it by following these steps.

  1. Find a .gif animated picture (or better still make one(I'm not gonna tell you how, I think you can figure that out if not sell your computer))
  2. Convert the gif to individual frames. The way i did this with a .gif is to get Adobe ImageReady (comes with photoshop cs) and open the .gif in there, then go file > export > animation frames as files...

    I saved them to jpgs, then went to photoshop, and converted them one by one to the following:
    • Re-Size to 128x128 (this is for a max of 5 frames)
    • Save As .tga
    • 32 Bit
    • Compressed
  3. Put all your .tga files in the hl2/materialsrc/animated folder and rename them to spray001.tga spray002.tga spray003.tga etc
  4. Edit the spray.txt file in notepad and replace the endframe value to the amount of frames you have. (eg. "Startframe" "1" "endframe" "4")
  5. Run convert.bat - your .vtf will appear at hl2/materials/animated/
    (if your .vtf file is over 120kb, you will have to go back and edit the amount of frames you have of the size of your frames until they are under 120kb, otherwise you will not be able to use the spray.)
  6. put your .vtf & .vmt files into counter-strike source\cstrike\materials\VGUI\logos folder
    (if it didn't make a .vmt file make one by opening in notepad make a new file and put in this text:
    Code:
    "LightmappedGeneric"
    {
        "$basetexture" "vgui\logos\gabedance"
        "$decal" "1"
        "$decalscale" "1"
    
    }
    Save as same name as your .vtf file and put in same folder.
    Note: You can change the name of both files but must be the same for example: superman.vtf & superman.vmt
  7. Load up CS:S and select your spray with in options or if you don't want it to mess up your crosshair settings open your config.cfg (& userconfig.cfg) and search for this line:
    cl_logofile "materials/vgui/logos/
    edit this line by putting the name of your sprasy here like so:
    cl_logofile "materials/vgui/logos/superman.vtf
  8. Save & close all files and folders
  9. Run Game and Spray (hit the "T" key in-game)
:flame:So you went to convert and got this error::flame:

Code:
D:\STEAM\animatedsprays\SPRAY MAKER>vtex.exe -mkdir -shader LightmappedGeneric h
l2\materialsrc\animated\spray.txt
input file: hl2/materialsrc/animated/spray
Problem figuring out outputdir for hl2/materialsrc/animated/spray
Hit a key to continue

I had the same problem then I did this:



Copy the hl2 folder and the tga2vtf.bat from the vtex folder to
Steam\SteamApps\username\sourcesdk\bin
place the targas (pictures you made (128x128 32bit compressed spray00#.tga)) in
Steam\SteamApps\username\sourcesdk\bin\hl2\materialsrc\sprays
run bat file and your vtfs will be in
Steam\SteamApps\username\half-life 2\hl2\materials\sprays

If you don't have the proggie go to my site and hit the Connact Me link and I'll email it to you, put "Making Animated Sprays for CSS Proggie" as subject .
Don't ask me why, but it works. Have fun makin 'n' sprayin :cheers:

Cyb3rspy




well hi...
i am googling this topic for ages, i have done most of the work , i have .tga frames from single .gif and i converted them to .vtf and i also created .vmt files using "vtfedit" with the same name and put them to counter-strike source\cstrike\materials\VGUI\logos folder...
but here's the thing i dont know how to get them animated, cause i didn't use "vtex converter, and i dont have "animated folder" in my css directory there for i can't find spray.txt so i can't change "Startframe" and "endframe"
so i have 5 logos in my ingame optio,
plzzz tell me how to get them animated as a 1 file in the game...
sorry for my bad english it's not my 1st language...
 
Looks like you have to make the folders and files described on your own. There's a really useful tool that does it all for you, even depositing the output in your CStrike folder, and all you have to do is feed in the individual frame files in sequence to make an animation. It's called sprayR, I believe. I used it prolifically back in the day to fill the servers I visited with porn sprays ;o
 
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