General Suggestions... and a question

[MikeHarvey]

Been using Spriter for 2 days now, and I absolutely love it! I still feel there are a few things that can be added to make it better. Here are some suggestions...

1) A toolbar. I understand that hot keys make everything a faster process, but if it wasn't for the manual I found on the forum, I wouldn't have been able to use the program as easily. An icon for creating bones for example would have been nice.

2) Tools that help with precision placement. I believe this could be fixed by adding in an alinement toolbox (like the one in Illustrator for example).

3) Options for background art and/or a grid. Being able to use the background art to compare the sprite size and animation to an in-game background, foreground or even a character model or turn around sheet would be extremely helpful.

4) An animation guide (lined/curved). Being able to animate an art piece (or sprite) with a guideline would also be extremely helpful.

5)Masks! Being able to use masks for highlights, shadows, and other effects would be great. It would allow for more natural looking lighting and could help make the sprites look better overall. Out of all possible additions, I really hope this one makes it in.

Question...

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?

One last thing. Is there a list of all the things you plan on including in the final build of Spriter, and how often is it updated (if the list gets updates)?

That's all I have to say for now. I really love all the hard work you're putting into this program and I can wait to get my hands on the final product. Aslo, I'm going to upgrade to the pro version sometime this week and test out that version since it has more features.

[MikeHarvey]

Sorry, I just now noticed that there was a post for featuring suggestions. I'll look through it and see If these have been asked or answered. Again, sorry about that.