HAVE A RIG UI, BUT FOR 2D TEXTURES: texture switch node generation + controls in pose mode!

You're a 3D artist, but you need a rig with 2D textures? You're in the right place! Get rid of those pesky all-drivers setup where you have to remember how to move your bones just to change your image textures.

How does it Work?

Beantextures can help your workflow by generating native Blender node groups alongside the control for your image texture, essentially making something similar to image sequence nodes but with finer-grain control. However, not just that: ready to use rig UI builder is ready to integrate your generated textures to your rig. It works by exposing the node property directly into your animation workspace. Finally, you don't have to touch drivers at all* when making a rig with 2D animatable texture.

What Kind of Node Group Does it Make?

Beantextures provides image switching nodes with the mix method, i.e a bunch of mix nodes stacked together to provide control. This could be heavy and may have a limitation of number of images (in EEVEE), but so far, I have not found it to be a problem for my rigs.

Support for other methods (such as UV-based tiling) may come, but I don't really plan to use it at all—feel free to leave suggestions on that.

Will My Files Work Without the Add-on?

Yes, since Beantextures generates native setup and therefore isn't needed for the actual animations. This ensures that animation data will never be lost, even when the add-on is not around.

However, without the add-on, you will not be able to control the textures directly from pose mode. If you want to have a native control, then you can use only the node group generator to create switchable textures but provide the rig UI yourself (with drivers and all that tricks).

How to Open the Popup Menu in Pose Mode?

ctrl+g is the default keymap, but you can change it to anything you want. The operator is called "Display Beantextures Props" and you can change it from your user preferences, or through the operator finder.

Does it work with Auto Keying?

Yes, keyframes will be inserted automatically when auto keying is enabled—since you're animating a native Blender property.

Anything That can Break the Setup?

Probably don't rename node group instances after you're done with the setup, since a lot of Beantextures connector setup components rely on that. Node labels are okay to change, though. But honestly, I'd be surprised if you rename nodes you add at all.

Limitations

• You can't click i to insert keyframe from the menu pop-up, for some reason. This seems to be a bug from Blender; please use the insert button at the right.
• Property shows as a native material property (e.g in dope sheet) instead of a bone property.

Donate!

Enjoying Beantextures? You can buy me a bakmi to keep the beans rolling.

Read more and find documentations at Beantexture's GitHub page.

*Drivers are only required for dropdown/enum selection mode, as Blender's built-in enum (menu switcher) is not animatable and therefore needed a bit of workaround. This, however, is also fully automated in-app.