Exporting Animations as GIFs and Sprite Sheets
Get an animation out in the right format: frames or a sprite sheet for your game engine, and a GIF for previews and sharing.
An animation is only useful once it's in the right format. There are two you'll reach for: a sprite sheet (or frames) to run the animation in a game, and a GIF to preview and share it.
Sprite sheets and frames: for your engine
Game engines don't play GIFs; they play frames. In the editor, open an animation's menu:
- Download saves every frame as a PNG, bundled in a ZIP.
- Add to sprite sheet opens the Sprite Sheet Builder; click Download Sprite Sheet to save one image with every frame on a grid.
Every frame of a Voidless animation is the same size, so the sheet slices on a fixed grid.
GIFs: for people
A GIF plays the animation as one looping file. Use it to check motion, post a character on Discord or social media, or drop it into a pitch or a store page. To make one, load the frames into the free Frames to GIF Maker, set the frame delay and download.
Frame size and order
For a sheet to play correctly in an engine:
- Uniform frames: every frame the same size.
- Playback order: frames left to right, row by row.
- Consistent padding: the same spacing (or none) between every frame.
Loops and one-shots
- Loops (idle, run): check the last frame flows into the first before you export.
- One-shots (attack, jump): export the whole sequence; the engine plays it once and returns to idle.
The workflow
- Preview the animation in the editor, or as a GIF.
- When it's right, download the sprite sheet or frames.
- Import into your engine, set the frame size and frame rate, and build the animation.
Need to combine frames from several animations into one atlas? The free Sprite Sheet Packer does that, with a JSON map of every frame.