Sprite Animation Contact Sheet Application

[Microneezia]

Hello there!

Im looking for an application, pay or free, whichever is better, that can quickly and easily take rendered frames of animation and organize them into rows and columns on a single texture / contact sheet.

I need to be able to determine the width and height in pixels of the final sheet.

I need the alpha channel to be preserved from the input frames ( I could have just simply used Photoshop cs3 contact sheet II if they preserved the alpha, but for some reason, it doesnt have that option....)

I need to determine the number of rows and columns.

and also I need to determine the distance between each frame. IE the border. (mainly so I can make it zero)

there must be a program like this that does a bang-up job left over from SNES days or something. If anyone can point me in the direction Id be very grateful.

Thanks!

[Snowfly]

XnView of all the apps has this built in. Might want to check that out if you already have it installed. The feature is under Create > Strip of Images.

There's probably a better dedicated tool out there, but this is the one I used.

[Shadownami92]

I haven't used this but you can try this...

http://www.scirra.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=8271&p=63297

I remember there being some other sprite sheet program when looking through the Scirra Construct site but I can't seem to find it at the moment.

[renderhjs]

Google?
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=67052
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1128223&postcount=3

anyway I asked google and it got me this:
http://spritesheetpacker.codeplex.com/
http://phelios.net/supersprites.html
http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/sprite-render-script

glueIt seems to be down but I found a software grabbing site that has it (check for viruses first though) http://wareseeker.com/download/glue-sprites-2.2.rar/7cfffccf6

[Microneezia]

thanks everyone for your posts,

@render;
I knew about google search, ive used it a couple times. For this search specifically I found it hard to decide what to use or even try. I got a lot of freeware apps listed in my searches and found it hard to nail down what to use or try. Im sure there are a few apps that people who have spent careers in the industry will easily know as being really great, so I thought I might try a post here along side my solo searches.

thanks for posting some leads alongside your google suggestion, and btw I love where you are going with the texture ripper. I also have your textools installed. You make wonderful apps. you are a great asset to this community, although you could be a little less curt for someone who has such a great knowledge and spends so much time here anyway... :P

thanks everyone ill check these out!

[renderhjs]

Sorry for beeing curt, I was reading this thread and it reminded me of those recent wall posts with generic questions, kinda why we had this recent thread about how it does not always bring you further just asking (nor this community).

I can be very talkative when the thread starts with a short question but also brings loads to the table like own research to really kick start a discussion. But if its just a vague question that can be researched on Google I am not that motivated to put to much effort in a reply- especially if there are already other threads covering it.
So what I am saying: If the initial poster puts some effort in his post (images, research, links,...) people like me like contributing even more with quality posts.

Ok lets sort things here:


GlueIt (http://wareseeker.com/download/glue-sprites-2.2.rar/7cfffccf6)

free
8bit alpha
standalone

Is the only standalone tool I am aware of that supports 8 bit alpha transparencies. But that idiot cleared his website (had some trojan or adware links on it before though, but his tool was free of it). I provided alternative link


XnView (http://www.xnview.com/en/download.html):
free

easy pic selection
can be custom sorted (name, date, size,...)
no 8 bit transparency !!!

XnView is very basic and not meant for a professional tool. But it works for non 8 bit alpha sprites.


Zwoptex (http://zwoptexapp.com/)

20$
sprite packing
optional 90 rotations
lots of nice dev options

Looked into this recently among other commercial tools for work- mainly for iphone dev and some hardcore as3 cases where filesize and performance matters.


texture packer (http://texturepacker.com/)

free (basic version, ok for most of us)
8bit alpha (RGBA8888)
sprite packing
optional 90 rotations
nice tweaking sliders
nice export sets

My pick we started playing with it at work and it seems to be the most professional pick + its free in the basic version. You might not need the packing perhaps at first but if you are developing for mobiles or other low spec hardware it doesn't hurt optimizing your sprite sheets ;)


somewhat related:
SWFSheet (http://www.bit-101.com/blog/?p=2939)

free
adobe AIR
works only with SWF/ SWC sources
meant for flash devs

Its a nice approach for flash devs although rather primitive but a nice prototype. It creates sprite sheets from SWF (flash movies) and other sources around flash. This is usefull if you have animators that animate your things in flash but you need to build the game for consoles or other platforms (iphone & co).


Sprite Render Script (http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/sprite-render-script)
max script

free (if you own max)
different approach: guides you rendering sprites
cool possibilities (render normal,...)

well i mentioned it already here (http://www.polycount.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1128223&postcount=3). Cool stuff done in maxscript :)


a few photoshop scripts (instead of a standalone tool)
CSX v1.4 (contact sheet X) (http://ps-scripts.sourceforge.net/ContactSheetX/csx.html)

free but requires PS
bloody bload options
slow (because its in PS written in JSX)
lets you select a folder with images to process

Read the docs (http://ps-scripts.sourceforge.net/ContactSheetX/CSX.pdf)for in detailed info. Seems to be the master script for photoshop for contact sheet related matters. There is already a contact sheet script that comes with Photoshop (look in the File > scripts section) its the base version of this one as mentioned at Adobe's blog (http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2007/01/a_new_contact_sheet_script_for_photoshop.html). Maybe check the default one first ;) but be aware that it might be very slow :)


Generate Sprite Sheet.js (http://blog.rocketpack.fi/2010/07/15/generate-a-sprite-sheet-from-a-photoshop-animation/)

free but requires PS
expects you to work with the animation frames in CS3+
primitive

just read the link, has some screens but don't expect to much of it

[Alphavader]

renderhjs.. thanks you very much !

[renderhjs]

Just an update on this topic, over time I wrote my own tool that actually handles this as well. It can read SWF, GIF and frame sequences. Simply drag and drop it on the tool

And it should popup a preview window
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8176/8029266274_562d2570de_o.jpg

Several different export options and templates are available from the settings menu.

more detailed info at:
http://renderhjs.net/shoebox/aniSheet.htm

Home of the Tool ShoeBox:
http://renderhjs.net/shoebox