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, macOS, and Linux distributions.
Making myself in the Hokkaido sprite style
- Multiple sprite styles: Unlike most pixel art character creators, which are built for a specific sprite art style, TDSM is designed and built with a modular, logic-first approach that allows for it to support multiple sprite styles with unique sets of animations, directions, and customization options.
- 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 ]
You can help me develop TDSM on both the programming and artistic fronts!
- 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
devbranch of this repository.
- Check out the TDSM art repo for information on contributing art as a pixel artist.
TDSM is distributed under an end-user license agreement (EULA).
You may...
- Use TDSM for personal or commercial projects
- Clone the TDSM source code and privately modify it to suit your needs
You may not...
- Distribute or sell copies of TDSM (whether modified or not)
- Use TDSM for NFT or crypto-related projects
- Use TDSM to train generative AI models
Note:
Some sprite styles featured in TDSM are based on established IPs. The use of sprites in such styles in commercial projects (fan games, etc.) may infringe upon the copyright of the associated copyright holder.
- 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) - Color Processing: Color processing utilities like converting RGB to HSV