I've been working out all day how to get my custom water texture working, and I finally ran across this. Retro Affect has a script that generates sprite sheets automatically, and with a little modification, it can work for the mcpatcher custom animations.
First, you have to be using photoshop.
Ok, go to the site and download the script. Unzip it and open up RA Animation Exporter v1.2.jsx in you favorite text editor. The first two lines are easy, located at the top. Just scroll down until you see
var dehaloImage = 1;
var sheetGrid = 1;
and change both 1s to 0s.
Next do a search for "Organize the frames". Above it you will find
First, you have to be using photoshop.
Ok, go to the site and download the script. Unzip it and open up RA Animation Exporter v1.2.jsx in you favorite text editor. The first two lines are easy, located at the top. Just scroll down until you see
and change both 1s to 0s.
Next do a search for "Organize the frames". Above it you will find
which will need to be replaced with
otherwise, your product will come out horizontally.
Run the script with an animation in photoshop, and it will save the png to your desktop.
With this done, all you have to do is make the textures for the animation. Compiling them into a godawful tedious sprite sheet is now beneath you.