How to make a part of a Spine animation turn white?

Martian

I have a monster model, and I need to programmatically change the color of just one of its limbs, like a hand or a leg, to white. What's the best way to do this?

Spinebot

To change the color of a specific part of a Spine animation, such as a limb, to white, you can use the following approach:

Separate the Asset: First, ensure that the limb you want to change is a separate attachment or slot in your Spine project. This allows you to manipulate its color independently from the rest of the model.

Use the Spine API: In your code, access the specific slot or attachment you want to change. You can then set its color to white using the Spine API. For example, if you are using Unity, you can do something like this:

   SkeletonAnimation skeletonAnimation = this.GetComponent<SkeletonAnimation>();
   Slot slot = skeletonAnimation.Skeleton.FindSlot("hand"); // Replace "hand" with the name of your slot
   slot.SetColor(new Color(1, 1, 1, 1)); // Set the color to white

Shader Approach: If you are using a custom shader, ensure that it supports color changes and apply the color change through the shader parameters.

By following these steps, you can programmatically change the color of a specific limb to white in your Spine animation.

Martian

const targetSlot = this.skeletonComponent.findSlot('raptor-body'); targetSlot.color.set(1.0, 0, 0, 1.0);

I used this code, and it can turn a part of the Spine animation red, but the parameters (1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0) don't make the Spine white; they just keep the original color.

Harald

Martian I used this code, and it can turn a part of the Spine animation red, but the parameters (1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0) don't make the Spine white; they just keep the original color.

Colors are multipled, so multiplying with red makes things lose blue and green portions and looks as expected. Multiplying with white (1.0 at each channel), which is also the default color, does not change anything.

What you can do instead is use the tint black dark color of a Slot.
See the documentation here:
https://esotericsoftware.com/spine-slots#Tint-black
Please note that you then have to enable Advanced - Tint Black at the skeleton component in the Inspector, and also use a Tint Black shader like Spine/Skeleton Tint Black or enable Tint Black at URP shaders.

There are other solutions as well to turn a limb white and avoid using tint black (secondary colors) if that is a problem for some reason. If this white color is the only color used at your skeleton, you could also write your own modified version of a Spine shader which gets by without requiring additional color per vertex. That requires that you know about writing shaders and is for more advanced users.

Martian

Setting it to (1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0) has no effect; it remains the same as the original.