Vertex Animation (Dolphin)

For my current project (Lowboat) I created some shaders with vertex animations. Since there is not much information on this subject, I thought posting the following shader might be helpful. Of course, any tipps on how to improve it are welcome.

Code (csharp):

1. Shader "Vertex Animations/Dolphin" {
2.     Properties {
3.         _MainTex ("Base (RGB)", 2D) = "white" {}
4.         _Shade ("Shade Cubemap(RGB)", CUBE) = "" { Texgen CubeNormal }
5.         _AnimationSpeed ("Animation Speed", Range(1, 50)) = 50
6.         _AnimationAmount ("Animation Amount", Range(0.01, 0.5)) = 0.5
7.         _AnimationLength ("Animation Length", Range(0.001, 10)) = 0.1
8.     }
9.  
10.  
11.     SubShader {
12.         Tags {"IgnoreProjector"="True"  }
13.         Pass {
14.             Name "BASE"
15.            
16.             CGPROGRAM
17.             #pragma vertex vert
18.             #pragma fragment frag
19.             #pragma fragmentoption ARB_precision_hint_fastest
20.             #pragma glsl_no_auto_normalization
21.             #include "UnityCG.cginc"
22.  
23.             sampler2D _MainTex;
24.             samplerCUBE _Shade;
25.             fixed4 _MainTex_ST;
26.             float _AnimationSpeed;
27.             float _AnimationAmount;
28.             float _AnimationLength;
29.  
30.             struct appdata {
31.                 fixed4 vertex : POSITION;
32.                 float2 texcoord : TEXCOORD0;
33.                 float3 normal : NORMAL;
34.             };
35.            
36.             struct v2f {
37.                 fixed4 pos : POSITION;
38.                 float2 texcoord : TEXCOORD0;
39.                 float3 cubenormal : TEXCOORD1;
40.             };
41.  
42.             v2f vert (appdata v)
43.             {
44.                 v2f o;         
45.                 float s = sin(_Time.y * _AnimationSpeed + (v.vertex.z + v.vertex.x * 0.6f)* _AnimationLength) * _AnimationAmount * v.vertex.z;
46.                 v.vertex.y += s;
47.                 o.pos = mul (UNITY_MATRIX_MVP, v.vertex);
48.                 o.texcoord = TRANSFORM_TEX(v.texcoord, _MainTex);
49.                 o.cubenormal = mul (UNITY_MATRIX_MV, float4(v.normal,0));
50.                 return o;
51.             }
52.  
53.             fixed4 frag (v2f i) : COLOR
54.             {
55.                 fixed4 col = tex2D(_MainTex, i.texcoord);
56.                 fixed4 cube = texCUBE(_Shade, i.cubenormal);
57.                 return fixed4( cube.rgb * col.rgb, col.a);
58.             }
59.             ENDCG          
60.         }
61.     }
62.    
63.     Fallback "VertexLit"
64. }

 

This is incredible, really I love it.
Someone knows how to make the animation axis selectable ?
I'm not used with shader and I don't think I can do it myself.

 

Now I uess, is it possible to make this kind of shader for birds
I mean if the bird is directed on 1 axis,we can move it wings vertex this way ?

 

Just play around with x, y and z. Since a bird flaps its wings simetrically you might also have to use abs(). Something like this:

Code (csharp):

1. float s = sin(_Time.y * _AnimationSpeed + abs(v.vertex.z)* _AnimationLength) * _AnimationAmount * v.vertex.z;
2. v.vertex.y += s;

(not tested)

However, a bird's wing flaps are a bit more complicated and not as fluid as a fish's movement. With this animation the bird will look quite boneless.

 

Thanks a lot, I'lll try it. I have to learn how shaders are working because it seems we can do more like I thougth with them.