Sprite
Sprite objects are the most commonly used objects in GDevelop.
A sprite object allows us to display an image or play a series of images as an animation. It can be used for many things in our games, like buttons, characters, or platforms. Anything that can be represented with an image can be a sprite object.
Creating a sprite object
To add a sprite to your scene, select the "Click to add an object" option located on the right at the bottom of the objects panel.
A new window will open that will show the different types of objects available in GDevelop.
From the New object from scratch tab in the new window, choose "Sprite" from the list to create a new sprite object in your game scene.
This selection will open up the sprite object properties window. In this window, you will see a few properties of the sprite object.
Adding an animation
An animation allows you to add an image or series of images to the sprite object. To add an animation, click the Add an animation button.
This will expand the current window and show you a variety of options you can change.
Adding an image to the animation
We can add images to the animation of our object by clicking Add a Sprite.
This will open the file explorer to browse through the files and choose a suitable image for your animation. After choosing the image, you will see the image being displayed in the window.
If you'd rather get your assets from the asset store, you can click on the arrow beside the Add a Sprite button to open a drop down menu, where you'll be able to select choose from asset store.
Collision and points
You can customise your sprite's collision area using the Edit Collision Masks button at the bottom of the window; you can set the area that will be taken into consideration during a collision. Read more about collision masks here.
Beside the Edit Collision Masks option, you will find the Edit Points option at the bottom of the sprite properties window. This option allows us edit and add additional reference points for an object. These reference points can be used in events when needed. Read more about points in sprites here.
Adding multiple animations
Objects often require more than one animation. To add animations, click the "Add animation" button again.
Later, we can switch between the animations using events.
Naming the animation
Above each animation in this window, you will see a field to the right of "Animation #" with grayed out "Optional animation name" written in it. To enter a name for your animation, click in to the field and type in a name.
Tip
For objects with multiple animations, you may find it difficult to differentiate between animations without names. It is generally a good practice to use animation names for objects with multiple animations.
If we don't enter a name, you can still use the animation number to refer to this animation in events.
Adding multiple images in an animation
To add multiple images to an animation, you can select all the images from the explorer and add them to the animation. You can also add more images to an existing animation by pressing Add a sprite for the animation you'd like to add images to. Images will be played in the same order as displayed.
Repeating the animation
By default, every animation plays only once, which means that the animation stops as soon as its last frame finishes. To repeat the animation, we can "loop" the animation; set the animation to "loop" by clicking the loop toggle button. Once an animation is set to loop, it will play continuously.
Setting animation speed
The speed of the animation can be set by changing the value to the right of the clock icon. The value entered in the field is the time elapsed between two consecutive frames. The default value is 0.08 seconds. For faster playback, use lower animation time while, for slower playback, use high animation time.
Naming the object
At the top of the window, you can see the name of the object in the "Object Name" field. The name of the object should be changed to describe the object which will make it easier to distinguish from other objects.
Adding object to the scene
After editing your object, be sure to click on Apply to confirm changes.
Now to add a new "instance" of this sprite object in to your game scene, click on the new sprite in the Object list and drag it to where you'd like to place the object. You will now see your sprite added to the scene. You can add multiple instances of your sprite to your game screen.
Using multiple animations with events
After creating multiple animations, each with their own unique set of images, you can use events to switch between animations.
Note
Do not use negative values for animation speed.
When you have set multiple animations for an object with unique animation names, you can control those animations with events in the events tab with the action "Change the animation (by name)." It will allow you to change animations based on the names that were given to them when the conditions of your related events are true.
You can also change animations using the number associated with that animation using the action "Change the animation", where you can change the number of the animation being played with the modification symbol.
You can use the current animation of a sprite object as the condition for an event, either with its animation name or number, as well as a particular frame of the animation.
When using an animation's name, write the name between quotation marks. For examples: "Animation"
For more practice with events, follow the tutorials here.
Advanced options
Currently, the Advanced options button opens a window that allows you to toggle whether this object plays its animations while off screen. This option should only ever be toggled off for specific use cases, because having multiple objects play their animations when not on screen is bad for performance.
Examples
See it in action! 🎮 Click on the images to open the examples online.
