# Texture State Animation

> Design and validate texture-state transitions for Blender animations without ugly whole-image crossfades, texture popping, misregistered morphs, or target-engine-incompatible Python-only swaps. Use when animating between multiple source textures, mascot/logo states, style states, lightmaps, decals, or UI skins.

- Skill: `roble3/texture-state-animation` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds add roble3/texture-state-animation`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/roble3/texture-state-animation/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Design & Media
- Author: roble3 (https://skillmd.com/u/roble3)
- Updated: 2026-09-09
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/roble3/texture-state-animation

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# Texture State Animation

This skill exists because “crossfade several full images” usually looks bad. Texture animation must be designed like motion graphics: registered states, constrained transition channels, and preview gates.

## Failure modes to avoid

- Whole-frame crossfades between unrelated crops/compositions.
- Python frame handlers as the only playback mechanism when export/runtime support is needed.
- Texture swaps that change silhouette, camera crop, or scale at the same time as decorative motion.
- Mixing aura/background/HUD pixels into the avatar surface texture unless that is the intent.
- Morph pulses that break accepted geometry constraints such as constant depth.

## Workflow

1. **Register states first**: crop, scale, align, and color-normalize all source states into one canvas and one semantic mask.
2. **Classify pixels/layers**:
   - avatar surface/base;
   - facial decal/features;
   - glow/emission accents;
   - background/aura/context;
   - HUD/circle elements.
3. **Choose transition type per layer**, not one global blend:
   - avatar surface: hold, shimmer, subtle value/roughness pulse, or masked dissolve;
   - face features: hold or short opacity fade;
   - glow accents: emission pulse / traveling highlight;
   - aura/HUD: independent orbit/dash/dot animation;
   - background: separate plane/compositor, never baked into avatar unless requested.
4. **Use export-compatible channels when needed**:
   - keyframed material values, opacity, UV transform, shape keys, object transforms;
   - image sequence only if target supports it;
   - avoid Blender Python handlers for final GLB unless the target runtime will recreate them.
5. Render a contact sheet and flicker report before calling the animation acceptable.

## Acceptance gates

- Each texture state is registered to the same bbox/landmarks.
- No full-canvas crossfade is used unless state registration and semantics match.
- Avatar silhouette remains stable unless the story explicitly calls for a morph.
- Context/aura elements are separate from the avatar material.
- The exported format can reproduce the animation, or limitations are documented.

## Scripts

- `scripts/texture_transition_plan.py` creates a transition plan from source states and flags risky whole-frame crossfades.