Even More Tools
I looked further into Synfig as an animation tool for game development and it’s just not built for sprite animation. The most success I’ve found is with GIMP and Magnifier to preview a zoomed version of GIMP’s Animation Playback filter (detaching the animation ensures that it stays on top of all the windows). Being able to make pixel tweaks while running a live preview has its advantages. Basically, each layer is its own frame. Each layer can have (?ms) for duration and either (combine) or (replace) in its name for how it transitions to that frame. These coded settings in the layer’s name work for the Playback filter and for exporting as an animated GIF. I keep a separate sprite sheet file and an animation file open at the same time for greater control.
The following are additional tools that I’ll be using:
- Magnifier – This application has a couple of crucial features for viewing sprite animation. First, it’s draggable and resizable and can be set to stay on top. Secondly, it can update its magnified view automatically, allowing you to see your animation running.
- PNG Gauntlet – When you need to reduce the file size of a PNG file, this tool does it perfectly. The interface is an extremely easy to use drag-and-drop window. The program then tries all sorts of compression algorithms to find the smallest one without sacrificing quality.
- The Font Thing – This is an older application that seems to have stood the test of time. It’s a font viewer that allows you to preview both installed and uninstalled fonts.
- IZArc – While researching different development tools I found myself with compressed installation files of all sorts. This program handles it all.
- Comodo – Seems to be a competent and complete Firewall and Anti-virus solution. It has a great sandbox feature for running untrusted programs in an isolated environment and always asks for confirmation on how new programs can access your system. The thing I like the most about it though is how lightweight it seems on my system. I list this application because, with all the freeware I’m suggesting, it’s just peace of mind to know what these non-commercial and, often, hobbyist programs are doing.
- Pivot – It’s an amazingly simple stick figure animation tool. Two features that this tool lacks is the ability to color different body parts on the same figure (for differentiating limbs and such) and being able to animate the length of the sticks (you can only rotate them). Still, the program is great and finding workarounds for more complex animations is always an option.
- Pencil – Just as MyPaint made me glad to have a graphics tablet for digital painting, Pencil does the same for hand-drawn animation. It’s great for prototyping animation techniques beyond simple spriting. If nothing else, you just have to try it if you have a graphics tablet and any inkling towards making pictures move.
Note: A few other animation applications that are worth looking into are Skeleton (a spiritual successor to Pivot), Animata, and GAP (GIMP Animation Package). Also, for coding purposes, Notepad++ is a great alternative to Programmer’s Notepad.
