Quickstart: Changing Animations

Now try changing an animation in the template.

Rivals reads your character's animations from the sprites folder, with meaningful names like walk_strip8.png, and at least some of them being double sized. Technically all you need to do to change an animation is to edit one of those files.

That's extremely gross and inconvenient though, and will make it very difficult to make your own animations. Instead, by using an animation editor like Aseprite you get access to switching between frames, watching the animation, layers, and other features that will save you huge amounts of time.

This guide will teach you how to work with Aseprite, not to edit the sprites directory.

When you want to make your own animations, look into the art guide.

See the workflow section for technical difficulties.

Exporting animations with the Assistant

The Assistant uses a new folder called anims which holds Aseprite files. You work in anims, and the assistant creates the files in sprites every time you save.

There are two main prerequisites:

• Your assistant/assistant_config.yaml file must have your Aseprite path supplied.
  It will probably look like aseprite_path: C:\Program Files (x86)\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Aseprite\Aseprite.exe
• You need to have an editor with the Assistant installed, open to a file in the character's folder.
  You can confirm it's watching for changes from Gmedit by pressing Ctrl+Shift+i to open the dev console, and finding for a line like Will now watch: <your character folder>/anims near the top.

If both of those are true, any time you save an Aseprite file in the anims folder, it should automatically create the correct file in the sprites folder. Reloading should show your changes in game.

Warning

Note that if you change the canvas size, or change the position of the character on the canvas, you'll need to adjust load.gml to point to the new position.

Further reading on Assistant Animation handling

Exporting animations without the Assistant

If you don't have the assistant running, changing a spritesheet is a bit longer.

1. Loading (If you don't have a separate Aseprite file to work from):
   1. Open the spritesheet in Aseprite.
   2. File -> Import sprite sheet, adjusting the width and height to line up properly.
   3. Usually resize it (rivals sprites are usually double size).
2. Make the changes
3. Saving:
   1. Put the size back.
   2. Export to sprite sheet.
   3. Rename it if you changed the number of frames. Sprites are named like [name]_strip[frames].png.
   4. If it's an attack:
      1. Remember to adjust the hurtbox animation the same way to match.
      2. Adjust the attack script to make the windows line up.