Hi there,

I was looking for some guidance making sprite sheets. Because the project requires output be displayed at different resolution, we've opted for working with vectors. I've encountered a few problems with the software we're running which is making the whole process somewhat tedious to complete. We are using Inkscape .48 and the latest version of Gimp for Windows. Exporting Inkscape into a .PNG doesn't seem to be saving alpha channels and importing .SVG from Gimp doesn't save layers. What we've been doing is saving each .SVG layer as a separate file, then importing into Gimp. From gimp we are running a sprite sheet script. With and average of 12 FPS, It seems like more time is spent on file management then on the actual animation. Does anyone have a solution, or better way of managing this process? We'd like to continue using free software.

Current Process overview.

Inkscape.SVG => Create animation on different layers => "Save as" each layer => Import into Gimp as layers => Run spritesheet script.

It's a headache if any major part of an animation needs to be tweaked at the .SVG level.

Appreciate any input,
Conrad

Welcome to InkscapeForum!

Exporting Inkscape into a .PNG doesn't seem to be saving alpha channels...

Are you using Save As Cairo PNG? The proper way to preserve transparency is to use Export Bitmap. This feature has imo not been named properly, because it does not export a BMP file. It should, imo, be called Export Raster. At present, it only exports to PNG, but apparently it is planned to export other raster formats in the future. Anyway, if you use Export Bitmap, the transparency will be preserved.

I attempted to do a small animation using Inkscape and GIMP. At first I did export many PNGs, but then I later learned about GIMP's Open as Layer feature. Then I did just like you, and saved each future GIMP layer as a separate SVG. It's been a long time since I tried that, and I can't remember why I couldn't use the exported PNGs to be Opened as a layer....

I ran into the same problem as you though, and never did finish that project. (I'm just a hobbyist, so there was no great loss.) Much later, I learned about Synfig Studio (http://www.synfig.org/cms/) but have not investigated further. I don't know how ready it is for mainstream use, yet. But there IS a forum, if I recall, so you could easily get support.

So that's my experience. Maybe others will have better tips for you

Hi Brynn,

Thanks so much for the reply and sharing you experiences. You are correct, I was using "Save As Cairo PNG". I'll be sure to check out that link. Ultimately, being able to run a script to do the resizing/saving as layer and mapping to a sheet would be ideal.