Guides

Guides are grouped by output type.

Time estimates assume editor familiarity.

Drawing

Draw a sprite: a layered 32×32 character with clean outline, fill, and shading. (~1–2 hours)
Build and manage a palette: a disciplined color set from presets, Lospec, ramps, and the Color Wheel. (~30 min)
Recolor with Hue/Saturation: global hue, saturation, and brightness shifts with live preview. (~10 min)
Build a UI button with states: normal, hover, pressed, disabled, each as a tagged frame. (~1–2 hours)

Animate with physics and particles: give existing layers physics behavior, add particle effects, set an inclusive frame range, and bake editable pixels.
Animate through MCP: pose masked parts, inspect slow loops, check foot drift, and undo edits from an external AI chat.
Animate a walk cycle: a looping 6-frame walk with onion skinning and a tagged range. (~1–3 hours)
Slice animations with tags: one project, multiple exportable animations (idle, walk, attack). (~20 min)
Generate in-between frames: Crossfade, Motion, and Hybrid tweens between key poses. (~15 min)
Spin an item with pseudo-3D: a 16-frame coin spin from a single front view, including cleanup. (~30–60 min)
Generate a multi-frame animation with AI: ask the assistant for a whole animated scene, not a still. (~15 min)

Build a seamless tileset: grass, dirt, and water tiles that repeat without seams. (~1–2 hours)
Create skin variants: fire, ice, and poison looks from one set of frames, via Variations. (~2–4 hours after the base art exists)
Use the Asset Store: drop in prebuilt static and animated assets. (~10 min)

Export a PNG: a static image, separate frames, or per-variation files. (~5 min)
Export a GIF or sprite sheet: animated output paths and how they differ. (~10 min)
Export an engine-ready sprite sheet: column layout, multi-direction rows, and the importer contract. (~15 min)
Version history and publishing: auto-saves and published milestones, restore and rollback. (~10 min)

Work keyboard-first: a fast, mouse-light editing loop. (~practice)
AI-assisted editing: structured, reviewable edits from the assistant. (~varies)
Generate a multi-frame animation with AI: a full animated scene — timeline, carried background, and moving elements like rain or a lightning strike. (~15 min)
Production workflows at scale: multi-animation projects, frame budgets, publish checkpoints, and a 36-frame boss worked example. (~a day or more)

Need a quick UI icon? ~5–15 minutes. Draw at 16×16, fill, export PNG at 1x and 4x. See Draw a sprite and Export a PNG.
Need a walk cycle for a character? ~1–3 hours. See Animate a walk cycle.
Need fire/ice/poison versions of a character? See Create skin variants.
Need a UI button with hover/pressed/disabled? See Build a UI button with states.
Made a mistake and saved over it? See Version history and publishing.
Need a milestone for review? Publish a version. See Version history and publishing.
Want the AI to clean up a jagged outline? See AI-assisted editing.
Want an animated background — rain, drifting water, a flickering light? See Generate a multi-frame animation with AI.