Level Up - Paint.NET: How To Create Sprite Sheet From Layers In Paint.NET

Need an easy way to create sprite sheets in Paint.NET? Don't want to create a new file for every image of your animation? Want to experiment with cool new plugins to make your graphic design skills better?

All you need is one plugin combine all your layers into an evenly-spaced sprite sheet.

Difficulty: Easy
Estimated time of completion: Less than five minutes.

Step 1: Download this plugin for Paint.NET: Spritesheet Export Plugin

Step 2: Make sure that Paint.NET isn't running, then copy the "SpriteSheet.dll" file into your Paint.NET installation folder, i.e. Program Files/Paint.NET/FileTypes/ subfolder.

Step 3: Now, when you open Paint.NET, you should have the extra ability to save as SpriteSheet (*.ss.png)

And, if you would like to do the opposite - Spritesheet to images, then check out Sprite Animation Helper Plugin

~ Danial Goodwin ~

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My Android Apps | My Windows Phone Apps | My Developer Blog

Construct 2: Exporting to Windows Phone

Windows Phone app certification requires games to have "Back" button functionality. E.g. Main menu should exit app and other pages should either go back within the game for navigation or bring up a pause popup.

So, using the plugin + strategy mentioned here, I was able to bring the Windows Phone app up to standards for publishing. There is a great function/event/action that can be called to intercept the back button presses so that the developer can do whatever.

Also, I didn't use the entire strategy mentioned at the above link, but that's the method I would recommend others to take. I took the harder method just for learning how the plugin worked and involves moving a lot of code around manually and breaks some of the functionalities in the plugin so that only `Back` works. But, eventually, I think I will share the specifics for learning about the C2 plugins.

~ Danial Goodwin ~

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My Android Apps | My Windows Phone Apps | My Developer Blog