Smear Tools

Add smears to your props and ragdolls

Table of Contents

• Description
  • Features
  • Rational
  • Remarks
• Disclaimer
• Pull Requests
• Credits

Description

This adds multiple tools which allows you to equip any prop or ragdoll with different smear effects.

Features

• Smear Tool
  • Simple smears: This adds a smear entity which follows your entity and produces a smear effect
    • This smear effect is simple
  • Customizable smears: Customize smear noise scale, noise height, lag, and color!
  • Controllable smears: Smear can be bound and controlled by a key
  • Save/dupe support: If enabled, smears can be saved or transferred by dupes
• Smear Trails
  • Custom trails: This adds a smear trail entity, which leaves behind a trail
  • Trail placement: Trails points can be attached to different entities for unique effects
  • Material support: Prescribe materials to customize the look of the trail
    • This also comes with custom smear materials, based on Pybun's Smear materials. You can use these as a basis to author new smear materials
  • Customizable trails: Set the lag and number of segments of the trail
  • Controllable trails: Trails can be bound and controlled by a key
  • Save/dupe support: Trails are automatically saved or transferred by dupes

Rational

Smears are an alternative to effects such as motion blur. Particularly for animation, smears help improve the dynamics of a subject's motion.

For GMod animations (using Stop Motion Helper), smears can only be achieved manually by using smear props (example). While these props have served animators, these smears can only be placed at the conclusion of an animation: typically a post-processing step. A situation may call for multiple smears props, which must be keyframed to appear and disappear for specific motions.

This tool makes a smear entity that automatically creates a smear whenever there is motion. This may reduce additional work in making smears for general translational motions.

Remarks

This shader is adapted from the following implementation:

• https://github.com/cjacobwade/HelpfulScripts/blob/master/SmearEffect/Smear.shader

The entity's translational movement makes smears. Rotation does not generate any smears.

Disclaimer

Pull Requests

When making a pull request, make sure to confine to the style seen throughout. Try to add types for new functions or data structures. I used the default StyLua formatting style.

Credits

• The following websites for the smear shader
  • cjacobwade's HelpfulScripts repo, which contains the smear shader
• Smear effects: Pybun's SFM workshop addon and E7ajamy's GMod port