Modded Minecraft Wiki

AzureLib

Animating Armor


How to animate Items

Creating your custom AzItemAnimator

For this, you will create a class which extends AzItemAnimator. This class will handle the registration of animation controllers and providing the animation file's location for the animations.

Example:

public class ExampleItemAnimator extends AzItemAnimator {

    private static final ResourceLocation ANIMATIONS = ResourceLocation.fromNamespaceAndPath(

        YOUR_MOD_ID,

        "animations/item/exampleitem.animation.json"

    );



    @Override

    public void registerControllers(AzAnimationControllerContainer<ItemStack> animationControllerContainer) {

        animationControllerContainer.add(

            AzAnimationController.builder(this, "base_controller")

                .build()

        );

    }



    @Override

    public @NotNull ResourceLocation getAnimationLocation(ItemStack animatable) {

        return ANIMATIONS;

    }

}

Some highlights of the above example.

  • ANIMATIONS: This stores the ResourceLocation reference to the animation JSON file. You need to replace YOUR_MOD_ID with your mod's ID and ensure the file path matches your JSON animation file.

  • registerControllers() Registers the animation controllers that will define the animation behavior and states for the item. You can multiple if needed.

Creating an Animation Dispatcher

This class isn't required but is highly suggested to help store your animation commands to call in other classes.

Example:

public class ExampleItemDispatcher {

    private static final AzCommand FIRING_COMMAND = AzCommand.create("base_controller", "firing", AzPlayBehaviors.PLAY_ONCE);



    public void firing(Entity entity, ItemStack itemStack) {

        FIRING_COMMAND.sendForItem(entity, itemStack);

    }

}

Accessing your Dispatcher to trigger animations

You will now define your ExampleItemDispatcher from above in your Item class.

public class ExampleItem extends Item {

    // This is your class where you will setup the AzCommands/Animations you wish to play

    public final ExampleItemDispatcher dispatcher;



    public ExampleItem(Properties properties) {

        super(properties);

        // Create the instance of the class here to use later.

        this.dispatcher = new ExampleItemDispatcher();

    }

}

Now to use the dispatcher, you would simply call it in any method where you want it trigger for, like if I want the firing to happing on use, I would do it like so:

    @Override

    public void onUseTick(Level level, LivingEntity livingEntity, ItemStack stack, int remainingUseDuration) {

        super.onUseTick(level, livingEntity, stack, remainingUseDuration);

        if (livingEntity instanceof Player player && !level.isClientSide()) {

            // This is where you now trigger an animation to play

            dispatcher.firing(player, stack);

        }

    }

Creating your Renderer

This renderer is responsible for how your custom item is displayed in the game.

It connects the item with the following:

  1. Geometry file (geo.json): Defines the 3D model of the item.
  2. Texture file (.png): The visual appearance of the item (applies over the geometry).
  3. Animator: Animations for the item, provided by ExampleItemAnimator.
public class ExampleItemRenderer extends AzItemRenderer {

    private static final ResourceLocation GEO = ResourceLocation.fromNamespaceAndPath(

        YOUR_MOD_ID,

        "geo/item/exampleitem.geo.json"

    );



    private static final ResourceLocation TEX = ResourceLocation.fromNamespaceAndPath(

        YOUR_MOD_ID,

        "textures/item/exampleitem.png"

    );



    public ExampleItemRenderer() {

        super(

            AzItemRendererConfig.builder(GEO, TEX)

                .setAnimatorProvider(ExampleItemAnimator::new).build()

        );

    }

}

Registering your Renderer

Now simply call the AzItemRendererRegistry#register() in your onInitializeClient for Fabric and FMLClientSetupEvent for Neoforge/Forge

AzItemRendererRegistry.register(ExampleItemRenderer::new, YourItemRegistry.YOUR_ITEM);

Registering your Armor for proper animation triggering

To ensure trigger animations work properly, you will need to also call AzIdentityRegistry#register() in your onInitialize for Fabric and FMLCommonSetupEvent for NeoForge/Forge like so:

AzIdentityRegistry.register(YourItemRegistry.YOUR_ITEM, ...);