Sprite Sheet Meaning

A sprite sheet is a image file which contains a row, column or grid of sprites.

Sprite sheets are most often used for frame-by-frame animations but may also be used as a sprite atlas to reduce file requests.

Software, often video games, loop through the frames of the image, displaying the animation.

The sprite sheet layout may be a single row or column, or a table of rows and columns.

Common sprite sheet formats include PNG, JPEG, WebP and SVG although sprite sheets can be created in any image format.

Many sprite sheets will use transparent backgrounds to allow the placement of the animated image upon another background image.

Frame by frame animation is a traditional animation technique where each frame of the animation is drawn separately and rendered in order. It may also be known as "hand-drawn animation" or "classical animation".

A series of slightly different images are stitched together and then played in rapid succession to give the appearance of movement.

Frame by frame animation is commonly used in cartoons, 2D video games or in physical drawings such as flipbooks.

Such animations can give an animation a classical or personal touch as opposed to modern programmatic animation which is often smoother and more precise.