If you need a program to build a sprite sheet from many separated images, here is something to help you: Stitch Studio.
StitchStudio:StitchStudio is a free program from me that allows you to load any number
of GIF, BMP, JPG, PNG image files and stitch them together. You can define
the width and height of each "tile", so you can actually create borders
around the images. Background color can be defined as well as horizontal
and vertical alignment of the images (left, center, right border). The tiles
can be arranged in an arbitrary m x n matrix, so for example for 48 images,
not only 48x1 (all images in one row) or 1x48 (all in one column) but also
8x6 structures are possible. Furthermore black and white mask bitmaps can
be generated for alpha channel tricks. Output format can be BMP, JPG, PNG,
GIF and even animated GIF. There is also an "unstitch" mode which will take
a stitched image and extract the images again as separate files.
The process is quite self-explanatory and also you can cut a sprite sheet into different separated images (if they are aligned). I use this a lot when I need to edit several sprites, so I put all of them into a single sheet, edit and then convert it back to files.
If you choose a configuration which will make you lose sprites, the tool will give you a warning
It's part of a package of tools called GFX-Utils, which includesPNGTool:PNGTool, a simple utility to load/save the mask and image channel of a PNG
image separately. Not that much features yet, but maybe someone is interested.
Cropper:Cropper is a powerful tool to crop a series of images. "Cropping" means taking
a part of on image and saving it as a separate files. With Cropper, you can
define an unlimited amount of rectangular areas that are to be cut out of a
sequence of images (yes, batch processing, and yes, several areas per image
are possible!) and save them as separate files.
AniMan:AniMan is a little animation utility. It requires at least DirectX8.1. You can
have up to 4 layers, each one containing an image in PNG, GIF, BMP, PCX format.
Each layer can be scaled, rotated, colored, ... over a certain number of frames.
All layers are superimposed and each frame is then saved as a separate picture
(or as a GIF animation, or even as a stitched image). This probably sounds mighty
confusing, and there is no manual yet, but here is a little example:
layer 1: background for a knob, i.e. a large circle
layer 2: the pointer of the knob, i.e. a line
layer 3: a small dot in the circle
All 3 layers will be drawn over each other and you can for example make 100 frames,
set the rotation for layer 2 (the pointer) to 30 degrees in the frame #0 and to 300
degress in frame #99 and the frames inbetween will be interpolated. Same with color:
make frame #0 of layer 3 green, frame #50 red and frame #99 yellow and the color will
smoothly change. You can make any frame an active keyframe by double-clicking on it.
Argl, I don't know how to explain, but the program is quite powerful - and yes,
it is freeware.
Another new GFX program, but this is rather special: A graphic converter for DirectX
files (textures, bumpmaps, ..) that are usually stored in the memory of your graphic
card. Most games these days have their GFX for example in DDS files, which most graphic
programs can't open without special filters. DXGC will convert these files to regular
PNG or BMP files. As I said, probably only of limited use to most of you, this is
rather a tool for the gaming community.
TGA2PNG:This is a batch conversion tools to convert TGA files to PNG. Nothing special, you
might think, most graphic converters can do this. I did however not find any converter
that converts the alpha channel information from a TGA to an alpha channel in a PNG.
My converter preserves this transparency information channel, for single color as well
as grayscale alpha.
T-Rip:This is a tool for extracting common graphic, video and sound files stored in large
files like in many games or applications. It is faster than any file ripper I found
and supports the most common multimedia formats. You can also define your own chunks.
Download: http://www.tobybear.de/files.html
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