Animated Materials

Genesis ships 17+ vertex animation presets and a UV animation stack. Together they cover wind, pulse, flag wave, water surface, energy crackle, and the entire stop-motion / hand-drawn look in two foldouts. This recipe walks through the common patterns.

What you’ll build

Four animated materials in one scene: a flag waving on a pole, a magic crystal pulsing, a water plane with a scrolling normal, and an energy shield with hand-drawn jitter.

Video

Four animated Genesis materials playing together: a flag waving on its pole, a crystal pulsing, a water plane with cross-scrolling normals, and an energy shield with hand-drawn jitter.

how-to/animated-materials/result.mp4

The four animated materials this recipe builds.

Requirements

A Genesis material per asset.
A noise or detail normal map for water / energy.
Mesh with reasonable vertex density (flags need at least 16x16 quads).

Steps

1. Flag with vertex wave

Flag mesh, Genesis Toon, Animation → Vertex Animation → Wave. Direction (1, 0, 0), Amplitude 0.08, Speed 2.

2. Mask by vertex color

The pole side of the flag should stay still. Paint vertex color R at the attachment, then Vertex Animation → Mask Channel → R. The mask weights animation by vertex color.


material.SetFloat("_VertexAnimMaskChannel", 0); // R
material.SetFloat("_VertexAnimMaskInvert", 0);

3. Pulsing crystal

Crystal mesh, Animation → Vertex Animation → Pulse. Amplitude 0.04, Frequency 1.2. The whole mesh breathes uniformly.

4. Water surface with UV scroll

Water plane, Genesis Lit with normal map. Animation → UV Animation → Scroll. Two layers: primary normal at speed (0.05, 0.02), detail normal at (-0.07, 0.03) — two-axis cross-scroll defeats tiling.

5. Energy shield with jitter

Shield dome, Genesis Toon, Animation → Hand-Drawn Jitter. Strength 0.6, Frequency 12. The shield’s UVs jitter every 12 frames for a wobbling drawn read.

6. Stutter for stop-motion props

For Aardman-style stop motion, Animation → Stutter. Frames Per Second = 12. The whole material updates only at 12 FPS instead of every frame.


material.SetFloat("_StutterFPS", 12f);
material.EnableKeyword("_STUTTER_ON");

Stutter snaps both vertex animation and UV animation. Combine it with hand-drawn jitter for a coherent stop-motion look across a whole scene.

Vertex animation runs in the vertex shader. Low-poly meshes (under 200 verts) show stepping on Wave / Pulse — subdivide the mesh or switch to UV distortion if subdivision is not an option.

Variations

Leaves on a tree: Wind type, mask by vertex color G so trunk stays still.
Lava surface: UV Scroll + Distortion + emission HSV hue shift on a loop.
Glitch banner: Hand-Drawn Jitter at high Strength + Stutter at 8 FPS.