Mike at BrashMonkey

I assume you mean to adjust the z-order of a specific sprite for all keyframes simultaneously..is this correct? As in the cases where you start animating and then realize the z-order is not right, but don't want to take the time to fix the z-order manuall in all frames? This feature does not yet exist, so certianly for now its important to test your z-orders carefully before creating any additional frames.. I do this simply by playing with the character once I've set it up...trying all kings of extreme positions to make sure there are no z-order issues. Adjusting z-order of a specific sprite across all frames might in fact be tricky to program, as each key frame might or might not have an instance of that particular sprite, end even if so, it might be in a diferent z-order (along with all other sprites) in all frames. There might also be a totally diferent number of sprites per keyframe.... cheers, Mike at BrashMonkey PS. If I understand correctly, bones have no effect on z-order...which is a great feature...becuase any sprites, no mater what z-order can be a child of any bone. This allows for fantastic flexibility, with some sprites on one bone going below things, while other sprites on the same bone can go above.

Thanks so much for the kind words and support dravenx! cheers, Mike at BrashMonkey

Hi everyone, I've taken the time to make a rough video explaining the general workflow and demonstrating the majority of features in this latest build of Spriter. Of course we'll be creating actual documentation along the way to the official release of 1.0, but until then, I hope this is helpful, especially to Spriter newcomers. Sorry for all the "um's" ;) 1) Starting from Scratch : http://youtu.be/Y5PBw4aCVNQ?t=30s 2) Adding Sprites(images) to the canvas: http://youtu.be/Y5PBw4aCVNQ?t=2m19s 3) Changing pivot point of a sprite in the canvas: http://youtu.be/Y5PBw4aCVNQ?t=3m1s 4) Animating boneless sprites: http://youtu.be/Y5PBw4aCVNQ?t=3m19s 5) Scaling a sprite and changing its opacity: http://youtu.be/Y5PBw4aCVNQ?t=3m32s 6) Changing images in a sprite: http://youtu.be/Y5PBw4aCVNQ?t=4m39s 7) Change z order of Sprites : http://youtu.be/Y5PBw4aCVNQ?t=8m7s 8) Changing properties/timespan of an animation: http://youtu.be/Y5PBw4aCVNQ?t=8m51s 9) zoom in or out of timeline: http://youtu.be/Y5PBw4aCVNQ?t=9m40s 10) expland timeline to edit per object keyframes: http://youtu.be/Y5PBw4aCVNQ?t=9m56s 11) Zooming and panning in the canvas (frame editing window): http://youtu.be/Y5PBw4aCVNQ?t=10m45s 12) Adding new or persistant sprites to a keyframe: http://youtu.be/Y5PBw4aCVNQ?t=11m38s 13) OnionSkin : http://youtu.be/Y5PBw4aCVNQ?t=13m42s 14) moving and setting pivotpoints: http://youtu.be/Y5PBw4aCVNQ?t=14m20s 15) Creating a character before adding bones: http://youtu.be/Y5PBw4aCVNQ?t=15m32s 16) Creating bones: http://youtu.be/Y5PBw4aCVNQ?t=17m32s 17) Assigning sprites to bones: http://youtu.be/Y5PBw4aCVNQ?t=20m34s 18) Animating using bones: http://youtu.be/Y5PBw4aCVNQ?t=21m44s 19) Animating child sprite independantly to it's parent bone: http://youtu.be/Y5PBw4aCVNQ?t=22m41s 20) Change position of bone relative to parent at any time: http://youtu.be/Y5PBw4aCVNQ?t=23m30s 21) Scaling child sprites with their parent bone: http://youtu.be/Y5PBw4aCVNQ?t=24m19s cheers, Mike at BrashMonkey

Hi simmon, Until Edgar has a chance to reply, have you tried doubleclicking on images in the File Palette? This brings up the default pivot point associated with any given image, and allows you to place the pivotpoint by hand or via typing numbers... Then every time you drag that image onto the canvas, it will have this exact pivotpoint unless you manually change it in the canvas. cheers, Mike at BrashMonkey

Hi roid100, The communities of many popular game authoring systems have already begun creating plug-ins for Spriter support, but due to the past delay in Spriter's development have not yet finished them. After all key features have been added to Spriter for it's 1.0 release, we'll be taking the necessary steps to help the communities finish plug-ins with full Spriter support as quickly as possible. In fact, within the next few days, Edgar will be finishing the documentation explaining the current Spriter features to facilitate easier plug-in development in the short term. We are determinded and will take the necessary actions to make sure Spriter is fully supported in Unity and many other authoring packages around the time of Spriter 1.0's official release or shortly thereafter. cheers, Mike at BrashMonkey

Hi everyone, We had hoped to have a new build availible for April 30th but it looks like it wont be ready until tomorrow night (if things go smoothly). Edgar has just finished adding back in the IK Locking feature but there are still a couple of small bugs and general testing we need to take care of before releaseing this build. We also recieved reports of a couple new bugs just today which whe will fix while we're at it. thanks for your patience, Mike at BrashMonkey

Edgar is trying to wrap up IK locking first and is almost there... We hope to get the new build out some time today. Sorry for the slight deadline slip everyone. cheers, Mike at BrashMonkey

Hi josempans, Are you using the Spriter version downloaded directly from the brashmonkey website, or the new pre-beta "daily" build from here in the forums? The version on our website has a known performance issue, causing severe slow-down once you've got more than a couple animations with bones... This issue is fixed wit hthe new pre-beta...which, if it keeps progressing smoothly will be replacing the current build soon. Is that what you were talking about, actual performance of Spriter or were you simply asking how to set a framerate for a given animation in Spriter? cheers, Mike at BrashMonkey

@ monsterzerozero I think you misunderstood. To rephrase, we have every intention of supporting skew and other forms of sprite distortion some time after Spriter 1.0 is released. It's just a matter of time. As a side note, I'm sure there are more than a few authoring systems that can't support sprite-skewing, which is part of why we didn't consider this to be an absolute must for the first release of Spriter 1.0 (even though we love the feature and realize its usefulness)...we first wanted to add as many features as possible which all game engines will be able to support. Lastly, As a professional animator and one who appreciates the gorgeous games by Vanillaware and many past 2d masterpieces which use modular animation with no sprite skewing in their character animations, I'd say many pro animators might disagree with your statement...but again, we know its a great and useful feature and have every intention of supporting it and more forms of sprite distortion after 1.0 is released...and this might be one of the first features to come with a warning that “some game engines or authoring systems might not be able to reproduce animations created with this feature.” Cheers, Mike at BrashMonkey

Hi morintari, I could have sworn someone already replied to your question. sorry if that's not the case... at any rate, its just a matte rof mopusing over the anchor point of a sprite thats selected. (the anchor point will enlarge). You can left-click and drag this anchor point to anywhere you want it. Also, in the new pre-beta build of Spriter you gan get from herehttp://www.brashmonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=11880&start=30, you can set a default (universal) pivot point per image by double clicking the image itself in the "file palette" to bring up the default pivot point dialogue.

@Silverwolf, The effects art pack is generic in that it can be used with any kind of game.. Other art packs will be more genre specific, but still quite flexible...any third party artist is also welcome to create additional animations to sell or give freely which works with our firsat party art packs...but of course can not simply slightly alter and then redestribute our art packs...they can only sell and distrubite original content. For the people who purchase our artpacks, they will be able to use the content for any number of games, motion comics, or other " media" they want to make with them, but of course can not redistribute the art packs them selves to anyone for reuse as artpacks. ;) We haven't decided the cost of art packs yet, and the price will vary per art pack, as some will be more complex to make and have more content...but they will certianly be pennies on the dollar as compared to hiring professional artists to make custom animation sets for you. ;) cheers, Mike at BrashMonkey

Hi trupti, Spriter Pro 1.0 will offer a feature to create a scaled clone of the entire scml file once it's fully featured. We can't promise how soon that will be... but it is one of the features planned for the initial release of 1.0 cheers, Mike at BrashMonkey

Hi Ulrack, Sorry for the delayed reply. the short answer is "yes, we'll eventually support such features, but we can't promise when...certianly some time after 1.0 is released"

Hi abls1, Welcome to the Spriter community. Making a full blown fighter game is a massive undertaking. To my knowlege an authoring system like Mugen is definately the fastest and easiest way to get the job done. Spriter can definately help you in the animation department, but you'll need to export all the animations as sequential images to get them into Mugen. I'm not sure if there's a more modern, better, open dev system specifically for making fighter games, but its definately worth taking your time to find the best option before starting on your project, as, like I said, its an absolutely massive unertaking.. Cheers, Mike at BrashMonkey

Sounds great brutfood, I loof forward to seeing it in action. Mike at BrashMonkey

Hi bobo, Skew is something we definately want to support in Spriter, but this feature will likely appear some time after the initial release of Spriter Pro 1.0. cheers, Mike at BrashMonkey

Fantastic! Thanks phongtt. Mike at BrashMonkey

Awesome. Glad Spriter is useful for your needs. Mike at BrashMonkey

Hi blazah99, No update yet, My dayjob has been eating up most of my time, so while I've been making some progress with the first two art packs, I've not yet had time to work out a percise list of what will be in the art packs upon their initial release (hopefully in sync with the release of Spriter 1.0), but I can say I do plan to continue to add to them after their initial release. And all future additions to any artpack will be free to the people who purchased them. I'll make a list when it is almost time for the release. cheers, Mike at BrashMonkey

Hi ricky.ngk, Don't worry, The object property dialogue will be reappearing in an update in the near future. The alpha control is just not finished, which is why you can't get rid of it once you bring it up. -Mike at BrashMonkey

We're glad you're finding Spriter useful. And we're determined to make it much more useful along the way to finishing version 1.0. -Mike at BrashMonkey

Awesome work, edupedu. Thanks on behalf of the entire Spriter community! Mike at BrashMonkey

nice stuff Mitch, Yes, the exported png's are silky smooth in this next build, which is coming along nicely. cheers, Mike at BrashMonkey

Hi LeapOfFate, Terribly sorry about this huge delay in my reply. I'm not sure how I missed your post until now... There is a lot of information availible for the status on the current new build in the works. Please note the last post by Lucid (Edgar) http://www.brashmonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=9807&start=50 cheers, Mike at BrashMonkey

Hi Ascorbius, Sorry we can't promise any exact dates, but there is a lot of information availible for the status on the current new build in the works. Please note the last post by Lucid (Edgar) http://www.brashmonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=9807&start=50 Obviously Edgar is working to get the new build out, stable, feature-rich and useful for large projects as quickly as possible, and as soon as this new build is out you'll be able to "kick it's tires" to help us make sure its ready to work with ASAP. cheers, Mike at BrashMonkey