Hi everyone,
I'm the developer of AnimGen, a browser tool that turns one piece of character art into transparent sprite animations. I've just added a dedicated Construct 3 export, and the Construct team kindly said I could share it here. I'd really like feedback from people who use Construct every day.
Why I built it
I've been making games for about 20 years. On my own project I kept running into the same problem: I had the character art, but not the budget to animate every run, jump and attack the game needed.
So I started experimenting. What if you could take the art you already have, describe the movement, and get usable animation frames from it? It turned out that generating the motion was only half the job. You still had to remove the background, pick the frames worth keeping, clean things up and get everything into the engine. AnimGen puts all of those steps in one place.
How it works
Upload a character image and describe the action, like run, jump or attack.
Watch the result and trim it to the part you want. If you need to, the Advanced Editor lets you adjust individual frames.
Generate the transparent version and export it as a Construct 3 Pack.
Load the pack in Construct's Animations Editor and preview it.
The pack contains the PNG frames in order plus Construct's own c3-import-settings.json, which stores the frame rate, loop setting and image origins. You don't need to install an addon or slice a sprite sheet by hand.
Try the sample first (no sign-up needed)
If you want to see how it imports before trying AnimGen itself:
Download the Construct 3 sample pack
Step-by-step import guide with screenshots
The sample has 96 transparent frames at 96×96, playing at 24 FPS. I tested import, playback and transparency in Construct r495.2 (free edition) with Chrome on macOS.
A couple of import tips:
Unzip the outer download, but don't unzip the animation.zip inside it. In the Animations Editor, open the folder dropdown in the top toolbar, choose Load animations and select that inner ZIP.
If an empty default animation is still there afterwards, set the Sprite's Initial animation property to the imported one before you preview.
Pricing and limitations
AnimGen is a paid tool. The sample pack is free so you can test compatibility, but exporting your own animations as Construct 3 Packs requires paid export access.
AI-generated motion isn't perfect. You'll usually want to review it, and some clips need trimming, frame fixes or a smoother loop. The export also only gives you animation assets. It doesn't set up collision polygons, behaviors or events.
What I'd love to hear
If you make 2D games in Construct, does this fit how you work? In particular:
Are the origins where you'd expect, or do you usually move them (for example, to the feet)?
Are there playback settings you'd want the exporter to handle?
How would you like multiple actions (idle, run, jump, attack) organized: one pack per action, or several animations in one sprite?
Thanks for taking a look. I'm happy to answer any questions.