seq2sprite

Make a Scratch2 / Scratch3 sprite file from an image sequence

View project on GitHub

Scratch sprite generator for Windows/Mac/Linux

(Japanese)

Convert a sequence of images (png, svg) to a sprite file that can be imported to your Scratch project.

Scratch 2.0 allows you to upload multiple image files at the same time using [Upload costume from file] but the original order of the image files is not maintained in the costume window. It seems Scratch 3.0 does not allow uploading multiple images at once (at least in its preview version). Using the sprite generator tool introduced here, you can create a sprite that has a lot of costumes in the same order as the original file-name order. This can be utilized for projects using, for example, realistic animations. (Demo video)

flow

Usage

  1. Download the archive of this project.
  2. Open the archive file. Copy or move img folder and script files starting from seq2sprite (seq2sprite.bat, seq2sprite-s2.bat, seq2sprite-s3.bat, and seq2sprite.sh) to other folder, for example, a new folder under your Documents folder.
    • In what follows, we assume that a folder named seq2sprite is created under the Documents folder and that img and script files are copied there.
    • img folder contains sample images.
    • While we will use either the batch files (end with .bat) or the shell script (end with .sh), we here copy all the scripts for simplicity.
  3. Open seq2sprite folder.
  4. Replace the sample image sequence in img folder with your image sequence. (You can first try with the original sample files.)
    • If you want to keep a used img folder, change the name to backup it and create a new empty img folder.
    • The base name of each file (for example, c0005 of c0005.png) is used as a costume name.
    • All the image sizes are assumed to be the same 240x300. If you want to change the size, please see here.
  5. Run an appropriate script depending your environment, and it generates a sprite file. See below for details. It is recommended to rename the generated sprite file so that it is not overwritten.

Windows (Use seq2sprite.bat)

  1. Double click seq2sprite-s2.bat (or seq2sprite-s3.bat for Scratch 3).
    • If you are using Windows 10, you will see a warning message for the first time. Click “More info” and then select “Run anyway”.
    • Wait until the opened (black) window is automatically closed.
    • Do not run the script again before the window is closed.

  2. A folder named work will be created. If you are using Windows10, work.sprite2 (or work.sprite3) will also be created, and it can be imported to Scratch.

    (The following steps are for Windows 7, 8, 8.1 users)

  3. Double click work folder and select all the files inside.
  4. Move cursor on the selected files and open a menu by right click.
  5. Select “Compressed (zipped) Folder” option from the “Send To” options. It will generate work.zip.
  6. Change the name of work.zip to work.sprite2 or work.sprite3 depending on the version of Scratch, and move the file oudside of the work folder.

Mac, Linux, Windows bash (mingw, cygwin, subsystem) (Use seq2sprite.sh)

(Note) zip command is required. In addition, md5sum command is required for Scratch 3. zip is usually preinstalled but md5sum should be installed by yourself (explained later).

  1. Open bash (terminal). If you use Mac, type “terminal” from Launchpad or Spotlight search.
  2. Change the current folder by typing the following command. 
    cd /Users/<user name>/Documents/seq2sprite
    • Press return after you typed. <user name> should be replaced by your user name of the PC.
    • Command cd means change directory (folder). You can also use pwd and ls to check the path to the current folder and files/folders under the current folder, respectively. ls should show img/ and seq2sprite.sh.
  3. Run the script by typing one of the following two commands. Note the last number should be appropriately set depending on the version of Scratch. 
    ./seq2sprite.sh -2  (For Scratch2. `work.sprite2` will be generated.)
./seq2sprite.sh -3  (For Scratch3. `work.sprite3` will be generated.)

Install md5sum to Mac

  1. Install Homebrew.
  2. Open terminal and run the following command: 
    brew install md5sha1sum

Open a created sprite file from Scratch

From Scratch 2

  1. Select “Upload sprite from file” icon in the “New Sprite” section (see the figure below). Load a created file (work.sprite2).

    screenshot

  2. A sprite named “myCandle” will appear in the “Sprites” subwindow. You can change the sprite name by clicking the top-left blue “i” icon.

From Scratch 3

  • Hover the mouse cursor on the “cat icon” in the sprite subwindow. Then a menu list will appear. Select the top icon [Upload], and open work.sprite3.

Demo Video

Use with Scratch 2

Project with micro:bit

Use different image size or SVG files

If your image size is different from 240 x 300, open a script file (seq2sprite.bat or seq2sprite.sh), and change the following numbers. Do not insert space around ‘=’. The image center will be automatically set as the center of the sprite.

    WIDTH=240
    HEIGHT=300

If you want to use svg files, change EXT=png to EXT=svg.

About the sample images (credit)

Candle images used on this web page and the sample images in img folder are from the video “Candle flame being blown out 1 | Free Stock Footage” by DL Stock Footage. They also provide several other nice video clips.

About other video clips

https://www.techradar.com/news/the-best-free-stock-video-sites introduces many free stock video sites. For example, Videvo (Free Stock Video Footage) has many useful videos with a free license (see here for the details of license information).

License of the scripts

This software is released under the MIT License, see LICENSE.txt.