SpritePilot FAQ & Help

Answers to the most common questions about SpritePilot's sprite tools, formats, privacy, and engine exports. Can't find yours? Contact us.

What file formats does SpritePilot support?

Sprite Detection takes PNG sheets; the Bulk packer and Background Removal accept PNG, JPG, GIF, and WebP; and the converters handle animated GIF/APNG/WebP plus MP4/WebM video. Sprite sheets export as PNG, WebP, or JPG with your choice of metadata: TexturePacker JSON, Phaser 3 atlas, Godot JSON, Godot SpriteFrames (.tres), Aseprite JSON, Basic JSON, or CSS Sprites. Animations export as GIF or APNG.

How do I convert a GIF into a sprite sheet?

Open the GIF → Sprite Sheet converter and drop in an animated GIF, APNG, or animated WebP. Every frame is decoded locally in your browser and packed into a grid — download the sheet with JSON metadata, or send the frames to Export & Download for renaming, animation tags, and engine-specific formats.

Can I turn a video into a sprite sheet?

Yes. The Video → Sprite Sheet converter samples frames from an MP4 or WebM at whatever rate you choose (10–12 FPS works well for game animations) and packs them into a sheet. The video never leaves your device.

How do I remove a solid background color from a sprite sheet?

Use the Background Removal tool: load the image, click the background color on the preview (or pick a corner), and tune the tolerance slider until only your sprites remain. Download the transparent PNG or send it straight into Sprite Detection. Great for old sprite rips with magenta or white backgrounds.

What are the Padding and Extrude options when exporting?

Padding inserts empty pixels between sprites in the packed sheet. Extrude repeats each sprite's edge pixels outward — this prevents 'texture bleeding', the visible seams that appear in Unity, Godot, and Phaser when neighbouring sprites blur into each other at texture edges. 1–2 px of extrude is enough for most engines.

Can I draw my own pixel art sprites?

Yes! The Pixel Art Editor lets you create sprites from scratch: pencil, eraser, fill, line, rectangle, and ellipse tools, horizontal/vertical symmetry, onion skin, and frame-by-frame animation with a live preview. Your drawing auto-saves in the browser, and one click sends the frames to Export & Download for engine-ready sprite sheets — or downloads them as an animated GIF.

How does the smart sprite detection work?

Alpha / Background mode sends your image to our detection server, where OpenCV analyzes transparent pixel boundaries to identify individual sprites — the upload is used only for your results and deleted automatically within 24 hours. Grid Slice mode cuts uniform sheets entirely in your browser.

Is my data secure and private?

Nearly everything runs locally: the converters, players, pixel editor, map editor, packing, and every export happen in your browser, and those files never leave your device. The one exception is Sprite Detection's Alpha / Background mode, which uploads that image to our server for processing — it's used only to return your results and is deleted automatically within 24 hours. If you prefer fully local processing, use Grid Slice mode.

Can I use SpritePilot for commercial game development?

Yes! SpritePilot is designed for professional game development. You can export assets in formats compatible with Unity, Unreal Engine, Godot, and other popular game engines.

What's the difference between sprite detection and sprite extraction?

Sprite detection automatically finds and identifies individual sprites in your images. Sprite extraction then cuts out each sprite as a separate image with uniform sizing for consistent use in your game.

How accurate is the sprite detection?

Our engine achieves high accuracy rates, especially with images that have clear transparent backgrounds. For best results, use PNG images with proper transparency and ensure sprites don't overlap significantly.

Can I edit detected sprites before extraction?

Yes! You can manually adjust detection parameters, fine-tune boundaries, and even manually arrange sprites before extraction. The system provides full control over the detection process.

Can I reorder sprites and trim transparency before exporting?

Yes. In the Sprite Extraction panel, use the Sort buttons to order sprites by position or size, or drag individual sprites up and down with the arrow buttons to set a custom order. You can also enable the Auto-trim transparency toggle to automatically strip empty border pixels from every sprite before the sheet is assembled.

What is CSS Sprites export and how do I use it?

CSS Sprites export generates a .css file with background-position rules for every sprite in your sheet. Each sprite gets a class like .sprite-walk_0001 that you can apply directly in HTML — no JavaScript required. It's ideal for web-based game UIs and browser games.

Which game engines can import SpritePilot's exports?

Unity and Cocos2d read the TexturePacker JSON, Phaser 3 loads the Phaser atlas JSON directly with load.atlas, Godot 4 can use either the Godot JSON or the SpriteFrames .tres resource (drop it straight onto an AnimatedSprite2D), and anything with an Aseprite importer accepts the Aseprite JSON — including its animation tags.

Can I export animations from the Sprite Sheet Player?

Yes! Load any sprite sheet into the Sprite Sheet Player, set your column and row count, and use the GIF or APNG export buttons to download the animation. APNG supports full transparency and generally produces sharper results than GIF.

Can I upload my own tiles into the Map Editor?

Yes. In the Map Editor, click the Upload Tiles button in the editor header to load your own PNG tile images. Uploaded tiles are added to the palette immediately and are ready to paint with. You can also drop tiles onto the empty palette area.

What game engines are supported for map export?

Maps can be exported in JSON format compatible with most game engines including Unity, Unreal Engine, Godot, Phaser, and many others.

Is there a limit on image size or number of sprites?

SpritePilot can handle large images and many sprites, but performance depends on your device's memory. For optimal performance, we recommend images under 10MB and projects with fewer than 1000 sprites.

Does SpritePilot use Google Analytics?

Yes, SpritePilot uses Google Analytics 4 to help us understand how users interact with our application. This helps us improve the user experience and add features that matter most to our users. All analytics data is collected anonymously and no personal information is tracked.