Top Down Sprite Maker is a flexible and powerful pixel art character creation tool. It is a desktop GUI application with executable binaries distributed for Windows. The JAR distribution can also be run on macOS and Linux distros with compatible versions of Java (17 or above).

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Making myself in the Pokémon Trainer sprite style

Key Features

• Complex customization logic: Customization layers are connected with rules that cause them to affect each other
  • Layer masks: Equipping a hat or helmet will mask the hair pixels that should be confined by the headwear [ screenshot ]
  • Dynamic updates: Changing your body type propagates changes to your clothing layers to reflect the updated sprite dimensions without altering the data of the clothing equipped [ screenshot ]
• Controlled randomization: Each customization layer can be "locked"; locking a layer will ignore it when a random sprite is generated, giving the user granular control over which components may be randomized [ screenshot ]
• 100% configurable sprite sheets
  • Custom sprite size: Pad or crop each animation frame at any edge for sprites ranging from 1x1 pixel to 128x128 [ screenshot ]
  • Sequencing & Inclusion: Determine the order of directions and animations in the exported sprite sheet, as well as which directions and animations to include [ screenshot ]
  • Layout: Determine the axis along which directions and animations are exported in the sprite sheet, as well as how distinct animations follow one another [ screenshot ]
• Export formats: In addition to the standard PNG sprite sheet, TDSM optionally exports the sprite sheet's metadata in a JSON file, and the sprite sheet as a Stipple Effect project with the contents of each customization layer on its own layer in the file [ screenshot ]

Note:

TDSM is not designed specifically for one sprite template. While it only features the Pokémon Trainer [Gen 4] sprite template at launch, it will soon be updated to feature more styles of sprites with entirely distinct animations and base assets.

Contributing

You can help me develop TDSM on both the programming and artistic fronts!

Code

• Follow this link and press the New issue button to report a bug.
• If you identify a bug that you think you can fix yourself, you are welcome to fork the repository, make your changes, and submit a pull request to the dev branch of this repository.

Art

• Check out the TDSM art repo for information on contributing art as a pixel artist.

License

TDSM is distributed under an end-user license agreement (EULA).

Dependencies

• Delta Time: Handles GUI, execution loop, underlying menu logic, and sprite assembly
• STIP Parser: Writes the layer-wise separated sprite sheet to a Stipple Effect project file (.stip)