I am often in need of creating spritesheets for games, and something that would really help me out was if Inkscape had a little window where it animated the layers. That is, simply showing each layer one after each other, just like a gif file(but of course still as vector).

Is this possible? It would seem like a simple feature, but very useful for me because I would be able to see how the animation plays while I actually make the individual 'sprites'!

I'm not an expert on this topic by any means, but I have played a little with animation. If you do a search, there are some posts about how to do it. One person used Inkscape solely and I think another made the graphics in Inkscape and then did the animation in GIMP. I ended up liking the latter way the best, it was easier for me.
I'm a little unclear for what you are looking for - to make layers, or to make just a preview, like a video show, once it's done - I'm thinking you mean the latter, and that's a great idea. Basically, that's why I used GIMP, for the ability to see what you've done. I've not really seen many ways to make the process better.
I wonder if YouTube has any more ideas on this subject, maybe by now someone has done an extension for this and it's on their blog or site. (here's hoping)
Just general info here, and wondering if you do something different - basically, I used interpolation to get my objects (i.e. I used a simple 2D person). I made sure to put the arms, legs, etc separately so I could easily do the interpolation, and then I manually made/created about 30 inkscape layers..... so I do see where you are coming from. I also remember following someone's youTube demo and was able to create a (holiday) card that opened, that was pretty cool, and I lost it as well, dang it all, it was very simplistic though. I'd love to see your, and others, animation using Inkscape!
I think when I attempt this again (somehow my 2D man got deleted in a pc crash), I will make a new template that has about 40 layers, and then will only have to do it once, or once again, lol.

Hi.

I don't know any extension that would do this exactly, but for a faster inkscape/gimp animation
there is a handy one here:
http://www.inkscapeforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=15561

Maybe keep an eye on this topic as well:
http://www.inkscapeforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=15984&p=59126

@Flamingolady
So sorry for the late reply, I totally forgot where I posted this and I have so many other things going on. But yeah, what I want in Inkscape is a preview animation function. Like very very simple. Like just shifting between showing two layers for a set amount of time each.

The idea about using layers is good I think, I will try it out. The way I do it now is using a game development program called Game Maker. That program has a picture animation preview function. I have to switch to the program and choose to open the picture file and then be able to see the animation run. however it would be much faster, simpler and convenient to do this directly in Inkscape at the same time I create and edit. I like your idea of doing each bodypart for easier animation(if I understand you correctly).

@Lazur, thanks for the links, I will check them out!