Hi fellow pixel-pushers,
This is Mike at Brashmonkey.com
The beta version of our all new Spriter, a highly optimized 2D game animation tool, is finally available. What makes it special is it's specifically for creating animations for games!
http://www.brashmonkeygames.com/brashmonkey/spriter/Spriterbird.jpghttp://www.kickstarter.com/projects/539087245/spriter?ref=liveIt doesn't just export sequential images of full frames, it can also export the actual animation data in XML format, so game engines can recreate all the animations using just the original source images (like body parts) thereby saving massive amounts of VRAM and disk space. It will also support tons of game specific features, like visually placing unlimited collision rectangles per frame (with names and numeric values for each!), unlimited action points per frame, unlimited named variables can be changed per frame, and sound effects can be triggered per frame. It also supports an awesome feature called “Character Maps” which lets you show, hide, or replace images from specific folders on the fly to make game features like customizable character appearance and changes in weapons, armor, etc super easy and efficient.
Please check out the Kickstarter page to learn more and for the link to download the free beta version.
We'd love your feedback, suggestions, and support so we can make Spriter hands down the ultimate 2D game animating tool.
A note for pixel artists: for now it uses HWA filtering, but in the relative near future we will be adding a pixel art friendly mode with no flitering and aith no floating point pixel coordinates, and in general, a better experience for working with low res sprites. Still even in its current beta stage, I think Spriter can me a very valuable tool for creating animations for even low res games, by creating the animations large than you need for the final spriters, then batch processign the, down to your final size. (then palletizing and pixel popping as required or desired)
Thank you very much.