Home
Creators
Search Recent Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register Favorites Keys Review DMs Logout
Community
Telegram ThePornDude
Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

Sprite Sheet Formatting Feedback thread (Patreon)

Published:
2021-09-29 15:00:01
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Content

Hello! Today's post has no new graphics-- instead I'm asking for your suggestions.

You're aware that I've spent a lot of time over the past few weeks finalizing the elements base, structure, and animations. For reference, here are the previous two progress posts:

Elements Progress Thread #3

Elements Progress Thread #4

Everything's moving along swimmingly, as I've explained (in detail) in those threads.

Right now, now that I'm set on the animations and frames-- I'm curious about how would be best to organize the final sprite sheets. I would really appreciate the thoughts and suggestions of users, so that I can come up with an organization that would make sense for most people.

I've shown the previous of all of these animations in the previous threads. For the sake of clarification, this is what we're looking at:

In all four directions:

Stand - 1 frame*

Walk - 3 frames*

Arms up - 3 frames (walking)

Crouch - 1 frame

Jump - 3 frames

Attack/ToolUse Anticipation - 1 frame

Attack/ToolUse - 4 frames (5 with the anticipation)

Bow Nock - 1 Frame

Bow - 3 frames (walking)

Others:

Climb (north-facing) - 3 frames

Down/KO/Sleep - 3 frames, unique

*Note: The regular standing frame is duplicated in the walking animation as the central frame, so it isn't necessary to exist as a separate standalone animation.

For RPGMaker Users: Obviously RPG Maker by default doesn't use all of these animations. It's easy enough to put MOST of them in an RPGMaker-friendly sprite-sheet, though. The exception is animations that use more than 3 frames. I IMAGINE that if I come up with a unique format that is similar to RPGMaker, then we can get some friendly scripter-bro to make a plugin that would allow RPGMaker to read the sheets correctly... is that right? I don't know much about that side of things-- so please let me know if you have thoughts on this subject.

For everyone else: It's my understanding that most other game engines are pretty flexible in how sprite sheets are arranged, because the user can specify a lot of details (that's the reason that normally I default to the RPGMaker format-- it's the most restrictive).

That said, some arrangements are certainly more optimal than others. If there's a specific format or arrangement that would be best for general use, then I'd appreciate suggestions, any knowledge or reference points.

Individual frames is certainly a possibility as well. If so-- are there any naming conventions for the files that I should consider? I'm not familiar with most game engines, so if this kind of thing can be helpful, please share with me.

So please use this thread to share any ideas or thoughts you have on the organization and layout of the final exported graphics.

I'd appreciate your thoughts so that I can try to find something that will work best for the most users as I move forward onto the next phase of this project.

------

Anyways-- I've already got the end-of-month thread written up and scheduled for this week. See you soon with that one. :)

Thanks!

Comments

Jay St.Gelais

Working in Unity, I can confirm that we have flexibility to handle sheet format however you end up arranging it. The one ask (and maybe this is already assumed by default) is that each frame on the sheet be the same size and spaced evenly. Such that it can be uniformly sliced when importing it.

DadofZAM

I use rpg maker and I am using 9 image walking characters. There are a few scripts already out there that allows you to use more than 3 images. If you do space them evenly, I can use them.

Mike

I agree with Jay. It is an absolute pain to get sprite sheets where each frame is a slightly different size or spaced differently or even sprites not being centered in the middle of the frame makes it incredibly tedious and ultimately not worth whatever the investment is. I am not saying your sprite sheets are like this, just explaining the experience when it occurs. But for Unity, each sprite needs to be the exact same pixel size and spaced the exact same across the entire sheet (each frame being directly attached to the next is perfect as long as same size) so that it can be spliced easy without the user having to manipulate them. Generally speaking they should also be centered in the frame so horizontal flipping of the sprite doesn't cause a rubber band effect on the animation.

Eitan Margalit

They are. If you find an exception, it's probably an accident.

Jay St.Gelais

I should have been clear. All the finalbossblues spritesheets I use meet this criteria. Just calling out that it is a key feature that makes this easy in Unity and one that we should preserve going forward.

Afaryz

Hey final, rpg maker is by far the most restrictive, but they are some addons out there to handle it. I personally love to use for rpg maker mv the plugins of https://quxios.github.io/#/ but there is no further updating. Cant tell how about MZ right now. The important thing is to the space them evenly as already mentioned. Other engines are far easier to handle spritesheets. (Unity, godot, unreal, solarus etc) space them evenly and it is all good :) thx for your work and I am looking forward to see the new sheets.

DC

nm previous post, I miscounted frames. Math hard. My suggestions: 1. I'd make the top row the plug-and-play ready "Moving row": everything that animates using the default RM movement engine (walking, walking carry, walking bow, and climb). Not critical, but moving the "climbing" frames to the "back" position (moving north) would align better for both in-game transition and editing. 2. Everything requiring plugin for animation should go on the second row. Jump, attack, nock, etc. I am so excited to get to work with these.

Salyhin Chowdhury

It's gonna be a pain in the a** for me to have everything in one sheet cos I use the Chrono Engine MV plugin which requires individual sheets for every animation/action

DC

Oh, if ya got room for a swimming head... it'd be a low-maintenance addition with a high reward payoff in functionality.

Vaioui

I prefer individual sheets per animation, too. If not possible there should be only one animation per row.

Salvatore Del Prete

To have a good RPGMaker sheet which does not need any script you can arrange the 4 frame animation as 4-dir frames. I mean, frame0 up, frame1 right, frame 2 left, frame 3 down. In other words, arranging frames vertically rather than horizontally. Then in the event section, the animation will be done by rotating the hero rather than make him step forward.

hyzilion

I think individual frames could be the best option, but we know that a lot of people use engines that need specific types of spritesheets, for that, there are softwares like TexturePacker that automatically turns folders of individual frames into spritesheets corresponding to the engine you want

Tobias Gogu

RPG Maker format would be appreciated. I'm not sure how difficult or time consuming it would be to post them in multiple formats though.

Chris Jaynes

Thanks so much for taking the time to ask your patrons about these things! The nice thing about individual frames is that devs can easily re-pack them using all kinds of tools, most of which will also output an "atlas" file in JSON or other formats. If pre-packed sprites end up being the preferred option, it would be super-helpful if a basic JSON file could be included. Having uniformly-spaced sprites that can be read as a grid is the next best option, after individual files, or a sprite atlas.