SprEd - New Atari Sprite Editor

[rra]

@bocianu Thanks for making this tool better and better!  I have uploaded several animations to the library that the A/W/A team created with the old Flash-based PM animation tool and used in some of our games we have created in the past year.

 

I have a couple more suggestions:

 

1. Save feature: can you bring up a dialog that allows you to select the folder where the file will be saved?

 

2. Library: I think the library could be split into at least 2 sections: a. single frame bitmap, c. multiple-frame animations.    That way, if you are looking for a simple bitmap for a character, you can go to the "single frame bitmap" section.  

 

3. Sprite editor: It would be helpful to place the binary/hex/decimal values for each of the colors directly next to each row of the bitmap.  That way, if you make a simple change to just one or two bits on a row, you don't have to go through the entire export, you just see the changed values as you type them.   Even better, allow the user to type in a value in binary/hex/decimal for each row/color and it would update the bitmap for that row.

[bocianu]

42 minutes ago, rra said:

1. Save feature: can you bring up a dialog that allows you to select the folder where the file will be saved?

 

No. Unfortunately it is impossible for now. I have checked this in several places and it cannot be done from the browser.

 

42 minutes ago, rra said:

2. Library: I think the library could be split into at least 2 sections: a. single frame bitmap, c. multiple-frame animations.    That way, if you are looking for a simple bitmap for a character, you can go to the "single frame bitmap" section.  

Yes, the library will get updated soon. Search bar and some filters. This will happen sooner rather than later.

 

42 minutes ago, rra said:

3. Sprite editor: It would be helpful to place the binary/hex/decimal values for each of the colors directly next to each row of the bitmap.  That way, if you make a simple change to just one or two bits on a row, you don't have to go through the entire export, you just see the changed values as you type them.   Even better, allow the user to type in a value in binary/hex/decimal for each row/color and it would update the bitmap for that row.

For single sprite it is not a bad idea, but I cannot imagine that for 4 players with missiles  That would be a mess on the screen.

And if you want to type your sprite bytes manualy, then probably you do not need an editior for your work, because you already have your data

It like reversed editor function. Or maybe I do not get it  I see no scenario where it can be useful. It's always easier do to one click with the mouse to set a bit than type whole byte for the row.

Edited February 16 by bocianu

[rra]

3 hours ago, bocianu said:

No. Unfortunately it is impossible for now. I have checked this in several places and it cannot be done from the browser.

 

Yes, the library will get updated soon. Search bar and some filters. This will happen sooner rather than later.

 

For single sprite it is not a bad idea, but I cannot imagine that for 4 players with missiles  That would be a mess on the screen.

And if you want to type your sprite bytes manualy, then probably you do not need an editior for your work, because you already have your data

It like reversed editor function. Or maybe I do not get it  I see no scenario where it can be useful. It's always easier do to one click with the mouse to set a bit than type whole byte for the row.

I understand what you are saying that if you already have the sprite data then you don't need a sprite editor.  But there is a lot of source code out there (BASIC and assembly) that has data for sprites, and you might want to copy that data into a sprite editor and see what it looks like, and then make edits.  Many people make tweaks to Atari 8bit games that are nothing more than improving sprites.  They get the sprite data from a hex dump of the game's binary data.  They could benefit from typing that data into the sprite editor, then making edits to the sprites and saving out the changes.

[Beeblebrox]

@bocianuGreat tool which seems to just be getting better and better!  I'd love to see some talented individual create the following iconic animations using this tool sometime, if for no other reason to see them running on the A8. (Flashback, Another World, Secret of Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Abe's Oddessey, and (anyone care to guess the last one... thrown in for fun?). I love the cat animation XEX earlier @bocianu 

 

       

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Beeblebrox]

damn there are so many (although these obvioudly have one or more+ too many colours/pixel height/width for the ol A8 and the tool:

        

 

and for a laugh just thought I'd post this heh heh ahhhh:

Edited February 16 by Beeblebrox

[Mathy]

Hello guys

 

3 hours ago, Beeblebrox said:

 

Why does the animation on the left remind me of Tim Allen?

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

 

 

Edited February 17 by Mathy

[bocianu]

SprEd 1.0.3 is out

 

What is new:

 

- You can search in the library from now on, for now only by name and author, but I will add some more filters
- I added option that you can draw during animation. The idea by pajero was brilliant. Drawing explosions and flames, has never been easier! (Option: Draw on Animation)
- The ability to edit multiple frames simultaneously. Select a range with the shift at the bottom and all operations work over the entire frame range (option: Edit Frame Range)

[bocianu]

Animal Gang!

 

 

Edited February 22 by bocianu

[bocianu]

The next version of the editor SprEd 1.1.0

 

A lot of new features:
- library sorting
- animated previews in the library
- added ability to move and clone a selected range of frames
- optional linking of colours c0-c2 and c1-c3 when drawing on 4 sprites
- a new "Frame Delay" mode that allows you to set the duration of an individual animation frame
- export of animation to GIF file

 

 

 

[bocianu]

New version of the SprEd editor 1.1.2

 

New features (mostly proposed by @pajero_pn) :

- the prefix to the labels in the export has been added (set in the options)
- it is possible now to insert a sprite background as a picture (format *.mic, any size up to 64KB, assuming that the data is 2 bits per pixel and the last 4 bytes are colours)
- in the options you can set the width of the loaded background (in bytes), or give 0 - then the line width adapts to the width of the image (with one byte precision)
- the options now include vertical and horizontal offset of the sprite on the background (max 8 bits)
- various bug fixes

 

 

These modifications required quite a lot of changes, so probably you can expect some new errors  
For help in finding them I sincerely thank you and promise to correct them.

 

Edited April 4 by bocianu

[cRc_atari]

Hi,

I have strange colors in my animation

skull.spr

[bocianu]

3 hours ago, cRc_atari said:

Hi,

I have strange colors in my animation

skull.spr 1.05 kB · 2 downloads

probably I am not loading "common palette" option. 

just switch it and it should solve the problem.

 

thanks, I will fix it in next version.

 

EDIT: already fixed.

But you have to save this file again to store "common palette" option properly.

 

 

 

Edited April 5 by bocianu

[bocianu]

SprEd 1.1.4

 

Fixes:
- Added "Image Offset" option for the background. Allows you to freely move the image in the background of the sprite.
- fixed bug preventing entering keyboard shortcut letters in the options textfield.
- fixed bug in storing/loading "common palette" option
- fixed rare palette error during export to gif file

 

 

[FifthPlayer]

On 2/21/2022 at 11:56 AM, bocianu said:

Animal Gang!

 

 

This is begging for someone to create an Animal Crossing clone for the A8.

[Beeblebrox]

On 2/14/2022 at 9:03 PM, bocianu said:

A running cat in its natural habitat

 

catrun.xex 1.93 kB · 29 downloads

@bocianu    Great ongoing work to the editor.

 

Just a quick one. Seeing the above Catrun.xex running on real hardware was great. Do you have any similar new animation XEX's you'd be willing to post up here like the Catrun one. It's nice to see it running on screen on real hardware in it's own right. I'd love to see these animations on screen in a very short one screen demo/game scenerio for example.

[Mathy]

Hello FifthPlayer

 

15 hours ago, FifthPlayer said:

This is begging for someone to create an Animal Crossing clone for the A8.

 

Like Mashed Turtles?

 

https://youtu.be/rVe4hCiqPFQ

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

 

[_The Doctor__]

1 hour ago, Mathy said:

Hello FifthPlayer

 

 

Like Mashed Turtles?

 

https://youtu.be/rVe4hCiqPFQ

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

 

well if all the different characters and graphics were moved over to it ... sure. You could say that.

[FifthPlayer]

On 4/7/2022 at 9:48 AM, Mathy said:

Like Mashed Turtles?

Not looking to hijack this thread, but seriously you haven't heard of Nintendo's Animal Crossing?  It's a game where you are a human living on a remote island along with a group of cartoon animals.  You build friendships with the animals, develop (and eventually terraform) the island, and collect lots of stuff.  The game has literally hundreds of different animals you can meet.

 

 

Anyway, the animal sprites in the demo screen fit the aesthetic for a 2D adaptation of the game on the 8-bit.  I do hope the sprites end up in some game; the artwork is a lot of fun.

Edited April 9 by FifthPlayer