DevLog 02: Aseprite Bulk Tag Creation

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Watch this devlog on YouTube!

https://youtu.be/yKHnLkeyGzc

You Are Here: https://russmatney.com/devlogs/devlog_aseprite_bulk_tag_creation.html

Aseprite Bulk Tag Creation

- Need to create 10+ animations x # of characters?
  - Why batch tag creation?
  - Demo of solution
  - Github repo available: `russmatney/aseprite-scripting`

- Solution Overview
  - Symlink a `scripts` folder to Aseprite's config:
    - `~/.config/aseprite/scripts/<project-name>`
  - Write a script to add-tags to the current open sprite
  - Invoke the script!

- Symlinking Walkthrough
- Script Overview + Walkthrough

What are tags in Aseprite?

- tags are 1:1 with an animation (one or more frames)
- tags have a name, a start frame, and an end frame

Why so many tags?

- I've built up base controllers for my games
  - (in dino/addons/beehive)
- They expect specific tags (animations) to exist

Latest list from dino below
- supports side-scrolling, top-down, and beat-em-up

idle, _jump, falling, _dead,
running, air, _knocked_back, _dying,
idle_down, idle_up, idle_right, run_down, run_up, run_right,
_landed, walk,
_punch, _punch_2, _kick,  _jump, _jump_kick,
_punched, _kicked,
_grab, _grabbed, _throw, thrown,
_hit_ground, _get_up,

Demo

- Let's jump into Aseprite and create some tags!

Github repo and slides available

- github.com/russmatney/aseprite-scripting
- russmatney.com/devlogs/devlog_aseprite_bulk_tag_creation.html

Links in description!

Automating tag creation

- Symlink a `scripts` folder to Aseprite's config:
  - `~/.config/aseprite/scripts/<project-name>`
- Write a script to add-tags to the current open sprite
- Invoke the script!

Symlink a scripts directory from your project

Benefits:
- once per project
- quick to jump into a script next time!

Aseprite has a user-configuration directory somewhere on your machine

• Usually ~/.config/aseprite, but varies by OS
• Find it in File > Scripts > Open Scripts Folder

We want to symlink scripts in our project into this scripts folder
- like: ~/.config/aseprite/scripts/<project-name>

Creating a symlink (on linux):

ln -s ~/<your-proj>/scripts ~/.config/aseprite/scripts/<your-proj>

You’ll need to File > Scripts > Rescan Scripts Folder at least once.

Then you can write a script in your project, and invoke it from Aseprite via File > Scripts > <project-name> > <script-name>.

Demo time

- let's create a symlink!

Bulk Tag script

- Hard-code a list of tags
- Collect the existing tags
- Walk the list of desired tags
  - Check if each tag already exists
  - if not:
    - create a new frame
    - create a new tag with that frame
    - set the tag's name

- There's some "colorwheel" logic to make the tags easier to distinguish.
- (otherwise they all end up the same color. yuck!)

Code walkthrough

Time for some code!

Longer demo

Let’s see some aseprite files!

• beatemup-city animations
• dino animations

Wrap up

I hope you made it through all that!

If not, check out the repo’s readme (github.com/russmatney/aseprite-scripting) or the code itself.

Feel free to open an issue or leave a comment with any questions.

Resources

• Aseprite Lua API docs: https://www.aseprite.org/api/app#app
• Aseprite Extensions by Kacper Wozniak: https://thkaspar.itch.io/
• Big list of aseprite scripts: https://community.aseprite.org/t/aseprite-scripts-collection/3599/71
• Godot Aseprite Wizard: https://github.com/viniciusgerevini/godot-aseprite-wizard

Credits

Thanks for watching!

Special shoutout to my Patrons:

- Ryan Schmukler
- Jake Bartlam
- Duaa Osman
- Cameron Kingsbury
- Aspen Smith
- Ellie Matney
- Alex Chojnacki

Links

• github.com/russmatney/aseprite-scripting
• patreon.com/russmatney
• russmatney.com