Use material nodes to make a material that seems to be alive. To create this effect, you’ll configure your material nodes and plug them into the World Position Offset input of the Main Material node.
Follow the instructions below to create a dynamic material.
Create a new material in the mesh’s Material folder and name it Moving_Mesh.
Change the sphere to a flat surface in the preview window.
Add the following nodes:
3 X Multiply node
Sine node
VertexNormalWS node
Add node
Time node
TextureSample node
Use a TextureSample node and add a badge texture to the sample in the Details panel.
Drag off the RGB input on the Texture Sample node and plug into the Base Color input on the Main Material Node.
Drag off the VertexNormalWS node and plug it into the first Multiply node A input.
Drag off the first Multiply node and plug it into the second Multiply node’s A input.
Drag off the second Multiply node and plug it into the Main Material Node World Position Offset input.
Drag off the Texture Sample node and plug it into the first Multiply node B input from the R input (red UV channel input).
You can drag off any of the color channels (R, G, B) to focus the movement on a certain color in the material.
Drag off the Time node and plug it into the Sine node.
Drag off the Sine node and plug it into the Add node A input.
Drag off the Add node and plug it into third Multiply node A input.
Change the value on the Add node to 1.0.
Change the value of the Multiply node to 10.0.
Expand the Sine node and change the Period value to 10.0.
Drag off the third Multiply node and plug it into the B input of the second Multiply node.
By multiplying all vertices along the red channel, colors that have red in them move, except for those that are completely red or that lack any color. The VertexNormals are then multiplied by the Time and Sine nodes, moving the red channel in time to the Sine wave.
The length of the Sine wave along the red channel is determined by the Add node numerical value between -1.0 and +1.0, then multiplied by 10 in the third Multiply node, which defines how much movement is taking place in the direction of the vertex.
The higher the numerical value of the third Multiply node, the more movement there is in the material along the red channel.
When using light to make colors, red, green and blue combine to make white light. That is why the white parts of the mesh move as well.
The amount of movement on the mesh depends upon the amount of vertices on the mesh. Therefore, a low-poly mesh will only move a few vertices, but a more complicated mesh will move more vertices, creating a greater effect on the mesh.