Getting Started

This guide walks you through your first animation in AniMate. You'll build a character sprite, rig its skeleton, animate it, and export the result. AniMate keeps sprites (your rigged characters) and animations as separate files, so one character can star in many animations.

1. Build a Sprite

On the home screen, tap New on the Sprite Builder card and choose how to start:

Import PSD (Character Wizard): each PSD layer becomes a named body part, ready to rig. Use Auto Assign Matched Names to match layers to parts by name.
Blank Canvas: start empty, then draw or import a PNG of your character.

Tip: Name your Photoshop or Procreate layers after body parts (e.g., "Head", "Left Arm Upper") so the wizard assigns them in one tap. Save your part list as a template for characters with similar anatomy.

Cutting Parts

If your art is a single image, cut it into parts in Sprite mode. Select an area with Lasso or Marquee, use Eraser and Magic Erase to clean up the background, and create a part from the selection. The Layers panel on the right lists every part. The Anatomical tab groups them by body region.

2. Rig the Skeleton

Switch to Skeleton mode at the top of the editor.

Drawing Bones

Choose Create Bone and tap to place the bone's start joint, then its end joint.
Name the bone and, optionally, attach it to a part and choose a parent bone.
Use Modify Bone to adjust joints, parents, and rotation constraints later.

Tip: Start with the root bone (torso or hips) and work outward. Everything else moves relative to the root.

IK, Poses, and Templates

The IK tool links two bones, like an upper and lower leg, into a chain. Then you can drag the foot and the knee bends on its own. Test the rig with Pose. The Pose menu saves poses, sets the default pose, and blends between two saved poses. Save the whole rig as a skeleton template to reuse it on another character.

Optional: Deform and Shade

Deform bends a part with a lattice. Apply it to the art or save it as a variant. In Sprite mode, Shade paints materials (metal, lit, emissive) and a height map onto each part. Turn on Lit Preview to see how the part will react to light in a game engine.

3. Create an Animation

Back on the home screen, tap New on the Animation card and add your sprite. The editor opens in Animate mode.

Posing and Keyframes

With the Pose tool, drag joints to pose the character. Each change records a keyframe on the current frame. Step through frames with the timeline at the bottom. Use + Frame and − Frame to change the animation's length, and Copy and Paste to reuse poses across frames.

Interpolation

AniMate fills in the frames between keyframes. Select a keyframe and tap Interp to choose linear, ease in/out, stepped, or a custom bezier curve.

Playback, Onion Skin, Events, and Sound

Press play to preview in real time, and change the frame rate in the animation settings.
Turn on Onion Skin in the side panel to see ghosts of nearby frames.
Events puts named markers on frames (like "footstep" or "strike") that a game engine can react to.
The Audio Editor puts sound clips on frames, trims them, and shapes their volume.

4. Export

Open the export menu from the editor's top toolbar and pick a format:

Sprite Sheet: every frame on one image (horizontal, vertical, or grid).
GIF: an animated GIF with its own playback speed, for sharing and previews.
MP4: video with your audio mixed in (Android).
.animrig: one file with the full rig, animation, and part images. Drop it into Godot with the free AniMate Godot plugin and it plays as a live character, not baked frames.
JSON / .rig: the raw animation data for custom pipelines.

Tips & Tricks

Undo and redo freely. Most edits support multiple levels of undo.
Recent Files on the home screen jumps back to what you were working on. All Files has folders, tags, and search.
The root joint moves the whole character. Use it for jumps and bobs.
Attach a prop sprite to a bone (a sword to a hand) and it follows the animation.
Retarget copies an animation onto another character with matching bone names.