Animations and Consumption

Crafting has two separate concepts:

• animation: what the player sees while ingredients are consumed;
• strategy: whether ingredients are consumed together or one after another.

Both can be configured at structure level and, when needed, inside a specific recipe ingredient.

Where to configure them

Level	Location	Effect
Structure default	options.crafting.animation and options.crafting.strategy	Default behavior used by the crafting station.
Recipe ingredient override	ingredients.<id>.animation and ingredients.<id>.strategy	Overrides only that ingredient.

Start at structure level. Use recipe-level overrides only for special ingredients.

Structure-level example

options:
  crafting:
    recipe: ["default"]
    recipe-slots:
      offsets:
        - "-1 1 0"
        - "1 1 0"
    animation:
      type: typed
      item:
        type: particle
        duration: 40
        speed: 3
        middle:
          type: particle
          particle: SOUL_FIRE_FLAME
          amount: 1
          speed: 0.02
      default:
        type: consume
        delay: 10
    strategy:
      type: typed
      item:
        type: sequential

This setup makes item ingredients consume one after another with a particle path. Other ingredient groups use the plugin fallback behavior.

Recipe-level override example

special_recipe:
  name: special_recipe
  ingredients:
    normal_item:
      type: item
      material: IRON_INGOT
    catalyst:
      type: item
      material: NETHER_STAR
      animation:
        type: item
        duration: 60
        speed: 2
        start:
          type: particle
          particle: PORTAL
          amount: 3
        end:
          type: particle
          particle: EXPLOSION
          amount: 1
      strategy:
        type: sequential
  result:
    reward:
      type: item
      offset: "0 1 0"
      item:
        material: DIAMOND

Only catalyst uses the custom animation and strategy. The other ingredient uses the structure default.

Animation types

consume

animation:
  type: consume
  delay: 20

Consumes the ingredient and plays the structure's consume decoration from the particle option.

delay is measured in ticks. 20 ticks are about one second.

item

animation:
  type: item
  duration: 40
  speed: 3
  start:
    type: particle
    particle: SOUL_FIRE_FLAME
    amount: 1
  end:
    type: particle
    particle: END_ROD
    amount: 4

Moves the visible item entity from the recipe slot toward the structure center.

Use it mainly for item ingredients placed in physical slots.

particle

animation:
  type: particle
  duration: 40
  speed: 3
  start:
    type: particle
    particle: SOUL_FIRE_FLAME
    amount: 2
  middle:
    type: particle
    particle: SOUL_FIRE_FLAME
    amount: 1
    speed: 0.02
  end:
    type: particle
    particle: END_ROD
    amount: 4

Removes the visible item and draws a particle path toward the center.

Use it when you want a clean visual trail instead of physically moving the item.

typed

animation:
  type: typed
  item:
    type: particle
    duration: 40
    speed: 3
  experience:
    type: consume
    delay: 10
  default:
    type: consume

Selects the animation based on ingredient group.

Common groups:

Group	Used by
item	item, saveditem, and supported custom item plugin ingredients.
experience	experience.
bag	bag, unorderedbag.
entity	nearby entity ingredient.
entitykilled	killed entity ingredient.
vault	Vault money ingredient.
coinsengine	CoinsEngine ingredient.
default	Fallback animation when no specific group matches.

Strategy types

parallel

strategy:
  type: parallel

Consumes matching ingredients at the same time.

Use this for fast, simple recipes.

sequential

strategy:
  type: sequential

Consumes matching ingredients one after another.

Use this when each ingredient should be visible during the animation.

typed

strategy:
  type: typed
  item:
    type: sequential
  experience:
    type: parallel

Uses a different strategy depending on ingredient group.

Important behavior in the current build:

• item is the most useful group to configure;
• unmatched groups fall back to the plugin's internal default strategy;
• unlike typed animations, a default: child inside typed strategy should not be relied on as the fallback.

For this reason, prefer explicit groups such as item, experience, bag, entity, vault, and coinsengine.

Using decorations inside animations

The start, middle, and end sections use the same decoration format as the particle option.

Inline decoration:

middle:
  type: particle
  particle: SOUL_FIRE_FLAME
  amount: 1

Reference a decoration already defined in the structure's particle option:

middle:
  type: instance
  key: primary

Structure particle option:

options:
  particle:
    primary:
      type: particle
      particle: SOUL_FIRE_FLAME
      amount: 1

This keeps large configurations cleaner.

Recommended particle option setup

Crafting can use the following particle keys:

Key	When used
insert	Item is dropped into the structure area and accepted into a slot.
place	Player places an item into a recipe slot by right-clicking.
take	Player removes an item from a recipe slot.
consume	Ingredient is consumed.
result	Recipe finishes and results are executed.
primary	General helper decoration for custom animations.
secondary	General helper decoration for custom animations.

Example:

options:
  particle:
    insert:
      type: sound
      sound: BLOCK_BREWING_STAND_BREW
      volume: 1
      pitch: 1
    place:
      type: sound
      sound: ENTITY_ITEM_FRAME_PLACE
      volume: 1
      pitch: 1
    take:
      type: sound
      sound: ENTITY_ITEM_FRAME_REMOVE_ITEM
      volume: 1
      pitch: 1
    consume:
      type: particle
      particle: SOUL_FIRE_FLAME
      amount: 10
    result:
      type: sound
      sound: ENTITY_PLAYER_LEVELUP
      volume: 1
      pitch: 1
    primary:
      type: particle
      particle: SOUL_FIRE_FLAME
      amount: 1
    secondary:
      type: particle
      particle: END_ROD
      amount: 3

Practical defaults

For a simple production server:

crafting:
  recipe: ["default"]
  recipe-slots:
    offsets:
      - "0 1 1"
      - "0 1 -1"
  animation:
    type: consume
    delay: 5
  strategy:
    type: parallel

For a more cinematic altar:

crafting:
  recipe: ["default"]
  recipe-slots:
    offsets:
      - "-2 0 0"
      - "2 0 0"
      - "0 0 2"
      - "0 0 -2"
  animation:
    type: typed
    item:
      type: particle
      duration: 50
      speed: 2
      middle:
        type: instance
        key: primary
    default:
      type: consume
      delay: 10
  strategy:
    type: typed
    item:
      type: sequential

Notes

• Animations run only after a valid recipe has been selected.
• If an ingredient has consume: false, it can still be checked, but it is not removed.
• item and particle animations work best with physical recipe slot ingredients.
• Event-only ingredients such as killedentity normally do not have a visible slot, so use consume or no custom animation for them.
• Test cinematic animations with several players nearby before using them on a production server.