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Please post feature suggestions here.


Mike at BrashMonkey

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After working a bit more with spriter I have a couple more suggestion regarding ease of use and making an animator's life simpler.

-When you are switching images, there should be a way to make previews larger. I'm working with large amounts of images and in the size of the preview most of them look almost the same (specially things with subtle differences like necks and arms).

-Again, when selecting a image to switch too, I would find useful to see the image file name.

-There should be a way to reorganize your files, folder structure and rename files without destroying your animations.

-Be able to point the spriter file to look for images on another folder. I think this would be especially good for art pack. For example, I have the spriter file looking for images at one folder that has the pieces for one character, but on another folder with the same structure and file names I have the images for another character. So, instead of having to go in windows and replace the files in the original folder I can just tell spriter to look for images on a different folder.

And this is more of a question, is there a way to switch images any other way than right click? If I want to switch an image when another is on top of it I just can't, since right click will bring the files of the image in front, I can go and change the z-order, change the image and then restore the z-order, but this isn't very practical.

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This is probably a complicated feature to ask for, but here goes - a way to work with high res sprites and then export a lower res version. Spriter would create a new directory with the new scaled down sprites and a new scml file.

This would be useful to future proof my assets so that I wouldn't have to reanimate everything if using the high res versions became viable.

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This is probably a complicated feature to ask for, but here goes - a way to work with high res sprites and then export a lower res version. Spriter would create a new directory with the new scaled down sprites and a new scml file.

This would be useful to future proof my assets so that I wouldn't have to reanimate everything if using the high res versions became viable.

This is actually a planned feature for 1.0. It's always something we considdered a very important feature.

cheers,

Mike at BrashMonkey

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Since it seems that manually moving or deleting images can cause issues, I might recommend that the program notify the user when it comes across non-existent files as a sanity check. And if the user desires, perhaps Spriter should clean up after itself and eliminate all internal references if the user doesn't care for the missing image(s)?

I ran across this scenario like a couple others on this board, in my case (and I only just started playing with Spriter) I added a mockup image to my project to help me place & align pieces, then I wanted to get rid of the mockup, or at least tag it somehow so my own exporter can deal with it - but no real options to best manage this case (unless I missed something). I manually deleted the image, loaded the project and resaved. The internal reference is still in the scml, which means adding some hackery to my own exporter to get around this...

Perhaps some thought could be given to this, or project management and flexibility in general.

Cheers

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Sorry if this was asked for already, but I don't know how to search one thread only instead of searching whole forums.

It would be a great user experience improvement if I could select multiple keys with selection box on the timeline (right now I can select multiple keys only by holding ctrl and clicking them, when I have around 20 sprites and I want to delete keys for 19 of them in 10 frames, i must ctrl+click 190 times, and guess what happens if I miss the little grey circle? all keys become unselected ;)

Nightmare. I'm begging you for this one :)

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Sorry if this was asked for already, but I don't know how to search one thread only instead of searching whole forums.

It would be a great user experience improvement if I could select multiple keys with selection box on the timeline (right now I can select multiple keys only by holding ctrl and clicking them, when I have around 20 sprites and I want to delete keys for 19 of them in 10 frames, i must ctrl+click 190 times, and guess what happens if I miss the little grey circle? all keys become unselected ;)

Nightmare. I'm begging you for this one :)

I think I forgot to put this in the changelog, but this should work now. Where the timeline keys are below should work with a regular click and drag. In the top area (with the diamond shaped keys), since the left button already controls time, you hold alt to click and drag to select several keys.

If either of these two doesn't work, it's a bug.

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Since I didn't read all the previous suggestions, I hope I'm not repeating someone.

One thing that I was missing is 'animation specific sub-folders' (for lack of a better term) as depicted in figure 1 (lower-part). By default the right-mouse button menu would reveal sprites the usual way, but when there's a sub-folder that has the same name as the current animation the sprites in its respective sub-folders would automatically be added as well.

Some of my (test) animations (figure 2) have elements that are specifically created for that animation and would only clutter up the right-mouse button menu when I put their respective root-folders (figure 1, upper-part, red outlines). I can already quite easily put them in their own 'animation' folder, select the element, and right-click the sprite in the sub-folder; and this works quite well. But I don't really like going through the file palette. Also, when I then set the right-mouse button menu to 'object', these animation-specific sprites will still clutter up the menu even when I'm in a different animation where this image isn't used.

I really like the default behavior most of the time, but for some special animations I would really like an automated filter of relevant images.

figure 1: folders_zpsbac97afb.png figure 2: getPhone_zps62f80caf.gif?t=1372858511

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It would be nice to have the ability to add objects into the animation, these objects are not about how to render animation, but would be great for easy of code. e.g. I can set an object on top of a character's head, and when this character gets a buff or whatever effects, this object will act as an place holder for the specific buff animation. Currently I get around with special prefixed image names, this works so far, but object would be neat instead. It is a similar idea in the Tiled map editor, where you set object as place holder which are great help for program to use them on the fly.

Haven't read previous replies, sorry if it's a duplicate.

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This is from a topic I made earlier with this suggestion. I'll put it here in this post.

Is it possible to use smaller animated sprites (made in Spriter or otherwise) as art pieces to attach to larger sprites? Example: If I wanted to create a space marine with customizable armor that had each part of its armor lighting up or moving on its own, would I be able to create the sprite for the armor piece, and then attach it to the space marine's bone structure as an (animated) art piece?

If Spriter is able to do this, it would help me out so much with my project. I would love it if I was able to create smaller animated sprites (with it's own art pieces), that could then be attached to a larger sprite's bones and be used in that sprite's animation, all in the same project file. I wonder how that would work with project folders and files too?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hiya,

So I spent a morning playing around with Spriter and I really like the way it's headed.

Here's a couple of points that I jotted down. Apologies if these have already been mentioned / planned or are just down to me being ignorant somehow!

- I found it really confusing when you drop a new item onto timeline where there's already keyframes, and your object disappears after the other keyframes. I get that what you're meant to do is use the Paste to all Keys option in the edit menu, but this feels counter-intuitive to me. I would naturally expect a new object to exist across all keyframes by default, or at least to be given this option when adding something.

- When adding a series of bones, it's impossible to release the mouse button after making a bone, and immediately click again to add a new bone as it thinks you're trying to move the previous one rather than make a new one. The only way I could find around this was to always leave a little gap between bones, and move them back into place afterwards which is a bit bonkers.

- Hard to tell whether a timeline layer label applies to the keyframe dots above or below it. Surely the text on the layer names should be exactly in line with the keyframes?

- I really wanted to be able to temporarily hide some layers or object while I was working on others.

- This is a small aesthetic point, but on OSX there is an odd and rather jerky animation of the application window scaling up to 100% as it first opens when you start the app. The fact that it's jerky screams "cheap and flaky" to me which is the very first impression you get of Spriter, and reminds me of every rubbish non-cocoa Adobe app . I'd argue just get rid of that animation and have the window open normally.

Thanks!

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Hi there, i did some testing in Spriter and...

I have one big suggestion so i could animate in spriter like im used to - DEFORMATION feature.

Currently spriter is kinda simple cutout animation tool, theres lots of similar softwares already, best tool on the market for this is in my opinion stickman from cutoutpro website, it has ragdoll physics and has great deformation layer, supports bones and control points to deform body parts , i made some animations for my games with it:

smurf_walk_animation_by_bwwd-d6dautw.gif

enemy_idle_animation_by_bwwd-d6c2w0q.gif

ZmS8XDs.gif

These are not possible to do in spriter currently because of limited deformation, currently its just linear scaling when you click on border and resize from side but would be great to actually deform the body part with bones or points so you could flex muscle , using one image of entire hand and assigning 3 bones to it so it will bend in elbow and wrist, without deformations like this cutout animation looks very stiff and i would like my cutout animations to not look like cutouts but like animations so they need to deform freely however i want whenever i want but in preplanned places so in muscle areas etc. but would be best if i would choose deform places myself.

I recommend to give stickman software a try, i can upload one of my characters for devs to test how it works, if spriter could get close then it would be really great.

You can check out more of my animations all made in stickman cutout animation software on my deviantart:

http://bwwd.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=0

Im not really a fan of using bones all the time cause they can also limit you, sometimes character must stretch his body for dynamic effect and with bone its not possible or if stretch is too big then bones are bit misplaced, would be nice to have similar control points like in stickman, that allows for full control over single body part, you can add as many points to it as you like and then stretch them out.

This is screengrab from it:

http://i.imgur.com/NL4zgLD.jpg

I rarely use bones in my animations maybe for head so it wont deform that much, but i controll pretty much myself how far body will stretch, or maybe you could introduce bones that could stretch(stickman has them too).

Anyway its easy and fast to make character in stickman you just import body parts and click on them to create points then assign every part to points and you move points around to create keyframes, thanks to ragdoll physics animations are very fluid.

Im currently making platformer you can see some gameplay vids on deviantart profile, all chars are cutouts, everything is drawn by me .

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Hi Bwwd,

while I'm not entire opposed to deformations (and even if I were, I have no say in the things spiter implements ;) ), they are to me only as useful as the (game) engine that supports them. In most cases you do not want spriter to export each frame as a .png-file, but you will want to use the .scml file combined with the character-parts. As a result, many advanced deformations could not be used in many engines.

Personally I'd rather use multiple sprites and animate deformation by hand where needed (so strictly speaking combine it with classical animation). This gives me the most freedom and best control (and should allow for dynamic animations)...but that's just a personal taste.

Anyway, I'm curious as to how you would implement it, while ensuring that the output is compatible with as broad a set of game engines as possible (in my opinion that means that I should work with at least CSS3) without having to use pre-rendered frames....because I might be missing something (due to my lack of hands-on knowledge with stickman)

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so you say its better to limit software based on what supports plugin that can sends animations between engine and animation software, noooooooo its like handicapped fat guy slowing down sportsman by not letting his legs go.I thought its free minded software and i hope it will be.Implementing deformations in this software can push game engines creators to support it later, thats how you create revolution, lots of cutout animations look very stiff but look at rayman origins game, ubi framework is fantastic.

You can always export stiff animations, but i hope to see more control over shape and deformation, its real freedom and adds a lot of dynamics to animations. This is just one feature and can add a lot.Not easy to implement but totally worth it.

IF game engine doesnt support some feature then it would be good to add preconfigured templates for every supported engine so you would start project made specifically for it and some features would be disabled if engine doesnt support it so you cant use deform in animations for example.Thats not really any problem at all.

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From the tone of your post I have the feeling I offended you, and if so then I apologize for that, because it was not my intention. Neither was it my intention to attack your opinion (or do I feel that I did).

I just asked a genuine question, and give my opinion based on my own experience. For me, there is a lot of freedom already in the software to steer away from simple (and stiff) cutout animations (e.g. by using multiple hand-sprites, dynamic bones, etc), while keeping the memory footprint of these animations low. Still, I would love to see some of the animations you made recreated in spriter to give me a better idea of the 'walls' you run into to make the animation as dynamic as possible. I really just want to understand your limitations (in case I ever run into them).

ps. if you would be willing to share some of the basic sprites I would also love to give it a go myself just to better understand your point. Because I'm curious by nature (of course we would have to do that in a different thread ;) ).

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Well there is freeform deform and skinning at the end of the video on kickstarter so im sure devs know that its very important if you want to create organic characters.

My limitation is that i need to use that technique, without it its going to look odd:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squash_and_stretch

It is possible to deform body parts but only using rectangle walls and corners.

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I should be able to move animations up and down the list in the Animation Window.

When I go to start a new animation by cloning an existing one, it appears directly under the source animation and cannot be moved, meaning it is hard to keep the list in any kind of organised order.

CTRL+UP / CTRL+DOWN on the highlighted Animation to move it would be perfect.

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I'm having some trouble animating an insect like creature. My problem is that the wings have keyframes every 30ms. When I want to just animate the body, I have to drag the timeline up, check out where the keyframes are for that bone and then animate at that point. Not such a huge deal, but it's a pain to press 1 or 2 to snap to keyframes when I have to go through every keyframe for the wings. Snapping to keyframes also scrolls the timeline window back to the top, so if I'm trying to see where a bone's keyframes are and that bone is close to the bottom of the timeline window, I now also have to scroll the window down to find it again. Would it be possible to have a timeline option where I only see the keyframes from the selected object and snapping only goes to those keyframes? 3D Studio Max works like this and it seems to be a better way to view keyframes.

Thanks.

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@UberLou

-> framerate based workflow is already on spriter's roadmap if I'm not mistaken.

Two suggestions after 1 month using the software professionnaly (already emailed some to you guys directly) :

-Axis constraint for movement (the convention in other image editors and anim softs, as you know, is shift)

- Volume conservation option for scaling -> Making proper squash and stretch is really time consuming at the moment. You can always add the option(s) next to IK and axis lock.

Thanks much,

Nathan

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My limitation is that i need to use that technique, without it its going to look odd:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squash_and_stretch

Ok, now I understand your point/limitation. I normally prefer to draw a few extra frames for certain body-parts and do the stretch and squash manually using hand-drawn animation; I like the control I get when doing it that way (plus there's a lower chance of making it look rubber-band-like), and it fits perfectly with Spriter...

But I can understand that for some many animations it's much easier and faster to have an automated approach that will result in a nice, dynamic, movement without the need to draw additional body-parts.

As I said: I just wanted to understand where your limitations came from, to see how it would affect me. So thanks for the clarification.

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Yesterday I was playing around with an animation, and I had the character blink for a few frames. This, of course, was easy enough by just swapping out the sprites. But it made me realize that then combining more complex hand-drawn animations with modular animation, it would be a lot easier if the timeline/key frames for sprite-swapping were separate from the one for body-part movement.

So yeah, that's something I would love to see sometime in the future.

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A simple tweak suggestion :

- Store framerate for the Export to PNG feature -> keep the last framerate used inside the project or simply in spriter. An animator is likely going to always export at the same framerate (8, 12 or 24).

Default framerate at 24 or 30 fps for the export to PNG feature -> right now it's at 62.5, which is more than twice the standards for game animators.

Kind regards,

nathan

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