# Strip Generator - Free app for creating sprite sheets



## jesusginard (Mar 27, 2018)

Hey guys, 

Seeing that there is need for this I developed a light-weighted app that creates vertical stripes from any number of frames. 

It works for Mac and Windows (both 32 and 64 bit) and it can process PNG and JPG files. 
The workflow is very simple, you can click the big button to select a folder that contains the different frames, the app will stitch them vertically into a single image and will ask you where you want to save it. It will also work when you drag and drop the images directly into the app. 

Download it here for free: 
https://www.wavesfactory.com/strip-generator/







I was in need for this because I couldn't find anything Mac-compatible and I had to keep switching to Windows only for doing this. I also used an online resource called CSS Sprite Generator but it failed when loading too much files, so I decided to spend one day to make a custom solution. 

I hope you find it useful


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## EvilDragon (Mar 28, 2018)

A Python script with PIL library can easily do the same thing  AFAIK JKnobman also works on Mac, too.


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## jesusginard (Mar 28, 2018)

I wouldn't know how to even start with Python / PIL library, and in Knobman you should be adding frame by frame the animations, which is time consuming. 
I was using CSS Sprite Generator before but it can't handle a large number of frames. 
Cinema 4D, which is the software I mainly use for UI design, exports individual un-cropped frames with a transparent area around the rendered region, so even before stitching the images I had to run a batch image cropper that was only available for Windows. 
Strip Generator automatically crops the transparent area for you and it's very straight-forward. Just drag and drop the image files and save the result. 
It's very useful for me so I thought it would be useful for other people too.


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## EvilDragon (Mar 28, 2018)

jesusginard said:


> and in Knobman you should be adding frame by frame the animations, which is time consuming.



No. You just need to have files named starting from 0 (i.e. image_0.png, image_1.png etc.), then load the first one into Knobman's "Image" layer, and set Orientation to "Individual files". Pretty fast.


You can also crop the transparent area easily by unchecking "Auto-fit" in the "Image" layer of Knobman, and then adjust the export image size in Preferences.


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## jesusginard (Mar 28, 2018)

EvilDragon said:


> You can also crop the transparent area easily by unchecking "Auto-fit" in the "Image" layer of Knobman, and then adjust the export image size in Preferences.


Strip Generator still looks faster and more convenient to me


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## EvilDragon (Mar 28, 2018)

It's fast in Knobman too once you know what to do. 


BTW regarding Python solution, it's like this:


```
from PIL import Image

filename = 'image'   # input image filename, without numbering
outfile = 'knob.png'   # output image filename
num_frames = 128   # how many frames do we have?
step = 1   # are we jumping over some frames or not (i.e. every 3rd frame etc.)

images = [Image.open(filename + '%d.png' % i) for i in range(1, num_frames + 1, step)]
width, height = images[0].size
big_image = Image.new(images[0].mode, (width, height * len(images)))
for i, img in enumerate(images):
    big_image.paste(img, (0, height * i))
big_image.save(outfile)
```

Easy peasy.


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## jesusginard (Mar 28, 2018)

We could do a real time competition! Knobman VS StripGenerator. 10 knobs with any number of individual frames, counter at 0:00, the first who gets the 10 vertical strips done wins.


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## EvilDragon (Mar 28, 2018)

Haha. 

In that case my Python script will win.


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## Lindon (Mar 28, 2018)

jesusginard said:


> We could do a real time competition! Knobman VS StripGenerator. 10 knobs with any number of individual frames, counter at 0:00, the first who gets the 10 vertical strips done wins.


Really Knobman offers you so much more as well...


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## EvilDragon (Mar 28, 2018)

It does, but it can't quite compare with 3D render quality of a dedicated 3D program.


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## jesusginard (Mar 28, 2018)

Lindon said:


> Really Knobman offers you so much more as well...


Of course this is not meant to replace Knobman at all!


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## EvgenyEmelyanov (Mar 28, 2018)

My 5 cents.

I use TexturePackerGUI for such types of things:
https://www.codeandweb.com/texturepacker

Full version is not free, but works incredibly great. As I remember, supports MAC and Linux too.


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## joanhadeau (Mar 30, 2018)

Such a useful, easy to use little program! Thanks so much for sharing!!


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## joanhadeau (Mar 30, 2018)

I tried another test and its cropping the image weird. Any way to turn off the auto cropping? thanks!
Here is the test sequence I used. @jesusginard


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## jesusginard (Mar 30, 2018)

joanhadeau said:


> I tried another test and its cropping the image weird. Any way to turn off the auto cropping? thanks!
> Here is the test sequence I used. @jesusginard


Oh, I see what happens. I'll get it fixed ASAP. I will also include the option to enable or disable auto-cropping.


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## P.N. (Mar 31, 2018)

Hi, Jesus. Thank you for the app and the auto-cropping update.

Maybe this won't be of great importance for most users (just a way to minimize pixel count when rendering vertical elements), but are you considering horizontal output?

Cheers,
Paulo


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## jesusginard (Mar 31, 2018)

P.N. said:


> Hi, Jesus. Thank you for the app and the auto-cropping update.
> 
> Maybe this won't be of great importance for most users (just a way to minimize pixel count when rendering vertical elements), but are you considering horizontal output?
> 
> ...


Yes, already done 
I'll add the option to make it vertical or horizontal.


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## Paul SAS (Mar 31, 2018)

I am using Blender for the design, where I can already crop the part that needs to be rendered. Then I found Photoscape very helpful for stitching the individual pics and it's free...


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## jesusginard (Apr 2, 2018)

Version 1.0.1 available now. 
New:
- Export horizontal sprite sheets.
- Optional auto-cropping.
- Crop black areas.
Fixed:
- Auto-cropping now calculates the correct dimensions for dynamic width/height frames.

Download:
https://www.wavesfactory.com/strip-generator/


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## polypx (Apr 2, 2018)

Thanks Jesus, handy tool! Is there any chance the same app could also split a filmstrip into component frames?


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## P.N. (Apr 2, 2018)

Thanks you very much, Jesus.

Edit: Paranoid Avast sent the file to "analysis" again...
The same thing happened with the first version, but after a few minutes they returned it...

So, to any users that get their anti-virus triggered, don't freak out.


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