Rig 2D Sprites & Animate with the Skeleton Editor
Turn a static sprite into an animated character in a couple of clicks — Auto Rig builds the skeleton for you, then apply a preset walk animation. No manual bone work or keyframing.
The Skeleton Editor lets you rig a 2D sprite with bones and animate it by posing those bones — the same "cut-out" technique used in modern 2D games. Instead of drawing every frame by hand, you build one rig and reuse it for walk, run, attack and more. The video above walks through the full process; this guide is the written companion.
Frame-by-frame vs. rigging
Frame-by-frame animation draws each pose individually — great for chunky pixel art, but slow to change. Skeletal (cut-out) animation splits a character into parts (body, arms, legs, head), attaches them to a bone hierarchy, and animates by rotating/moving bones over time. One rig gives you unlimited smooth animations, and edits propagate everywhere.
Step 1 — Load your sprite
Open the Skeleton Editor and bring in your character sprite. A clear, full-body character in a neutral, front-or-side pose works best — the auto-rigger needs to see the limbs to place bones correctly.
Step 2 — Hit Auto Rig
Instead of placing bones by hand, click Auto Rig. The editor detects your character and builds a skeleton for you automatically — spine, arms and legs, parented in the right hierarchy. This is the big time-saver: a usable rig in one click, with no manual bone-drawing or part-binding.
Step 3 — Apply a preset animation
Choose a preset animation — like Walk — and it plays on your freshly-rigged character instantly. Presets are ready-made motions mapped to the standard skeleton, so you get a clean walk cycle (and other common actions) without keyframing anything yourself. Swap presets to preview different actions on the same rig.
Step 4 — Preview and tweak
Play the animation back and adjust to taste — try a different preset, or nudge the rig if a limb doesn't sit quite right. Because the preset drives the auto-generated skeleton, most characters animate correctly straight away.
Step 5 — Export
Export the animation as a sprite-sheet strip or GIF for your engine, or keep iterating with other presets. Since the rig is reusable, adding another animation is just picking another preset — minutes, not hours.
When to use rigging
Auto-rig + presets are the fastest way to get a character moving, and ideal for higher-resolution art or anything you'll keep expanding with more actions. Stick with frame-by-frame for tiny pixel sprites where the retro, snappy look is the goal.