Animated Texture Plugin for Unreal Engine 5

A plugin that lets you import animated GIF and WebP images into Unreal Engine 5 as a new AnimatedTexture asset type.

Engine Compatibility

UE Version	Status
5.3	✅ Supported
5.4	✅ Supported
5.5	✅ Supported
5.6	✅ Supported
5.7	✅ Supported

Features

• Import animated GIF / WebP files as Texture assets, with full support for animation, transparency, interlacing, and more
• Editable through the built-in Texture Editor
• Works with UMG Image widgets, Materials, and Material Instances
• Blueprint-accessible playback API — Play, Stop, SetPlayRate, SetLooping, etc.
• Runtime Load — create UAnimatedTexture2D at runtime from a local file or an HTTP(S) URL, usable directly in UMG / Materials.

Platforms

This plugin should work on all platforms supported by Unreal Engine 5. It has been tested on:

• Windows (64-bit)
• macOS

Installation

1. Download the plugin package for your engine version from the Releases page.
2. Extract and copy the AnimatedTexturePlugin folder into your project's Plugins directory.
3. Restart the Unreal Editor. Enable the plugin if prompted.
4. Drag and drop .gif or .webp files into the Content Browser to import them.

Screenshots

Runtime Load

The plugin can build UAnimatedTexture2D objects at runtime, without going through the editor asset pipeline. Two sources are supported: the local file system and HTTP(S) URLs.

Module Dependencies

In your game module's *.Build.cs, add the AnimatedTexture module (and HTTP if you use the download API directly from C++):

PrivateDependencyModuleNames.AddRange(new string[] { "AnimatedTexture", "HTTP" });

C++ Example — Load From Local File (Sync)

#include "AnimatedTextureFunctionLibrary.h"
#include "AnimatedTextureLoadTypes.h"
#include "AnimatedTexture2D.h"

void UMyUserWidget::LoadLocalGif()
{
    // Relative paths are resolved against FPaths::ProjectDir().
    const FString Path = TEXT("Content/Runtime/sample.gif");

    EAnimatedTextureLoadError Error = EAnimatedTextureLoadError::None;
    UAnimatedTexture2D* Texture =
        UAnimatedTextureFunctionLibrary::LoadAnimatedTextureFromFile(Path, Error);

    if (Texture)
    {
        // Assign to UMG Image's Brush.ResourceObject, or use as Texture parameter in a Material Instance.
        MyImage->SetBrushFromTexture(Cast<UTexture2D>(Texture), /*bMatchSize=*/ true);
    }
    else
    {
        UE_LOG(LogTemp, Warning, TEXT("Failed to load gif: %d"), (int32)Error);
    }
}

Blueprint Nodes

• Load Animated Texture From File Async — reads file bytes on a background thread, then constructs the object on the GameThread. Two output pins: On Success (Texture) and On Failed (Error).
• Download Animated Texture — downloads a .gif / .webp from an HTTP(S) URL. Inputs: Url, Timeout (default 30s), Max Bytes (default 32 MiB). Output pins: On Success (Texture, Url, ETag), On Canceled, On Failed (Error).
• Cancel — a Blueprint-callable method on the download node; will trigger On Canceled exactly once.
• Load Animated Texture From Memory — synchronous helper accepting a byte array (e.g. bytes read from Pak or a custom network protocol).

Error Codes

EAnimatedTextureLoadError: None, HttpFailed, HttpBadStatus, EmptyBody, DecodeFailed, FileNotFound, InvalidFormat, SizeLimitExceeded, InvalidUrl.

Notes

• UObject construction and RHI resource creation always happen on the GameThread.
• The returned UAnimatedTexture2D is created under GetTransientPackage() by default; keep a hard reference (e.g. a UPROPERTY() on your owning widget/actor) to prevent it from being garbage-collected.
• HTTP download only accepts http:// and https:// URLs; other schemes fail immediately with InvalidUrl.
• Runtime load reuses the exact same initialization path (UAnimatedTextureFunctionLibrary::InitAnimatedTextureFromMemory) as the editor import factory, so behavior stays consistent.

Self-test Checklist (maintainer memo)

• Drag & drop .gif / .webp into Content Browser — import still works.
• Asset Reimport — still works.
• Thumbnail renders correctly.
• LoadAnimatedTextureFromFile with absolute path works.
• LoadAnimatedTextureFromFile with ProjectDir-relative path works.
• HTTP download: 200 OK → OnSuccess.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

Support

If this plugin saved you time and you'd like to say thanks, you can buy me a coffee:

Donations are 100% optional — stars and PRs are equally welcome. 🙏