UV Panning
Scrolling a texture over time
Also known as: Panner node · Scrolling texture · UV scroll · Texture offset animation · Tiling and Offset
Definition
UV panning moves a texture's coordinates over time, so the texture appears to scroll across the surface. It is one of the simplest and most used VFX techniques, giving motion to water, lava, energy beams, conveyor belts, clouds, waterfalls and force fields. In Unreal Engine, the Panner node does it, and in Unity Shader Graph, a Tiling and Offset node driven by Time. Combining several layers at different speeds creates depth and complexity.
In production
Use tileable textures so there is no visible seam, and pan two or more layers at different speeds and directions for natural movement. Distort the coordinates with a noise or a normal map to avoid a mechanical look. Use a parameter to control the speed from a material instance. For flowing water or lava, flow maps give a more controlled direction than a plain scroll.
Learn UV Panning in
Tools that use UV Panning
See also
Flow Map
Texture that tells a surface which way to flow
Tileable Texture
Repeats without visible seams
Distortion Effects
Bending the image behind a surface
Shader Graph
Visual shader authoring
Master Material
Parent material that spawns instances
Dissolve Effect
Surface that burns or fades away with a glowing edge