Pixxino — Intermediate

#What you'll learn

• How to plan and build a clean rig from your own pixel art: bones, parts, pivots and draw order.
• How to key single channels, shape motion with easing curves and reuse keys.
• How to set up IK for planted feet and how to turn it back into normal keys.
• How to use poses, mirrored poses, part keys and sprite swaps (skins).
• How to manage clips: lengths, looping and left-facing copies.

#Before you start

• You've played with the sample knight in the Beginner guide: playing clips, rotating a limb and exporting.
• You need a plan that includes Pixxino. Your character's body parts as separate PNGs (head, torso, upper arm, lower arm…), each 480 × 480 or smaller.
• A sheet of cut-out parts works too: the Library can turn every filled cell of a sprite sheet into its own part.

#How-tos

#How to start a new rig and set the canvas

1. Click New / sample… and choose New rig (or Sample knight (idle · walk · attack) to study a finished rig).
2. Switch to Rig mode (M toggles Animate and Rig).
3. In Canvas, set Frame width and Frame height (up to 480 each). This is the size of every baked frame, so leave room for swinging arms and weapons.
4. Set Origin x and Origin y. Root bones hang from this point, and flipping the character mirrors around it. Put it between the feet.

#How to build the skeleton and attach parts

1. In the Bones tab, add a root bone (for example the pelvis), then select it and use + Child bone for each joint going outward: torso, upper arm, lower arm, and so on.
2. Double-click a bone to rename it. Name left/right or front/back pairs to match, for example upperArm.F and upperArm.B, so mirrored poses work.
3. Select a bone and click + Part to import a PNG for it, or drop PNGs onto the stage: they land on the selected bone.
4. With the Pivot tool (P), drag each part's pivot onto its joint. The art stays where it is; only the joint point moves.
5. Fine-tune in the Part panel: Pivot x / Pivot y, Offset x / Offset y, Rotation °, Draw order (z), flip and Opacity.

#How to control draw order

1. Open the Parts tab: the top of the list draws in front.
2. Use Bring forward / Send backward, or type a Draw order (z) value (higher is in front).
3. To change the order only during part of a clip (an arm swinging in front of the body), go to that frame in Animate mode and click Key draw order under Keys for this part. It holds until the next draw-order key.

#How to key one channel at a time

1. In Animate mode, select a bone. The Bone panel shows Rotation, X, Y, Scale X and Scale Y.
2. Click the ◆ next to a single channel to key only that channel on this frame (click it again to remove that key).
3. Click ◆ Key all, or press K, to key every channel of the bone at once.
4. Untick auto-key in the top bar when you want to try poses without recording keys.

#How to shape motion with easing curves

1. Click a ◆ key in the timeline. The Key panel opens.
2. Pick linear, step, in, out, inout or back. Easing shapes the move from this key to the next one.
3. Choose custom and drag the two white handles on the curve for your own shape, for example a slow wind-up and a fast strike.
4. Use Go to frame to jump to the key, or Delete key to remove it.

#How to set up IK for a leg or arm

1. Select the lower bone of the limb (the shin or forearm) and press + IK chain in the Bone panel. The button needs a bone that has a parent.
2. In Animate mode, the chain appears under IK chains in the Clip tab. Tick it to switch IK on for this clip.
3. Choose the IK tool (I) and drag the orange target. The two bones follow and the target is keyed on this frame.
4. Click ⤺ if the knee or elbow bends the wrong way.
5. When the motion is right, click Bake → FK: Pixxino writes rotation keys on every frame and switches IK off, so you can polish by hand.

#How to work with poses

1. Pose the character on any frame, open the Poses tab and click Save pose. Give it a name.
2. On another frame, click Apply to key every bone into that pose at once.
3. Click Mirror to apply it with left and right (or front and back) swapped. Pixxino pairs bones by name endings such as .F / .B, .L / .R, Left / Right and Front / Back.

#How to swap a part's image (skins)

1. Select a part and open Sprite swaps (skins).
2. Click + Skin image…, name it (for example open hand) and pick the PNG. It keeps the part's pivot.
3. In Animate mode, go to the frame where it should change and click Key here on that skin. Use Key default here to switch back.
4. Use Key hidden / Key visible to make a part appear or disappear, for example a slash trail.

#Workflows

#A walk cycle from scratch

1. Make a clip with + Clip, name it walk, set Frames (for example 8) and FPS, and tick loop.
2. Key the contact pose on frame 1, save it as a pose, and apply it mirrored halfway through the clip.
3. Add the passing poses in between, then copy frame 1's keys (Ctrl+C) onto the last frame (Ctrl+V) so the loop closes.
4. Turn on onion skin (O) to check the spacing.
5. Make the other direction with Left-facing copy.

#Parts drawn in Pixxivi, animated in Pixxino

1. In Pixxivi, draw each body part in its own cell of a sprite sheet and send it As a sprite sheet.
2. In Pixxino, select a bone, click Library and open the sheet: every filled cell becomes a part on that bone (up to 32). Move each part to its own bone with the Bone dropdown in the Part panel.
3. Rig, animate and bake, then send As a sprite sheet to Pixxeta for hitboxes or to Pixxula for an atlas.

#Variants without re-animating

1. Duplicate a clip (Duplicate in the Clips section) and swap skins on the copy, for example a sword for an axe.
2. Both clips share the same bones, so they stay perfectly in sync.

#Tips and shortcuts

• Tools: R rotate · G move · I IK · P pivot. M switches Animate / Rig.
• K key the bone · Delete delete the key · Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V copy / paste a key onto the selected bone.
• O onion skin (red = previous frame, green = next) · B bones overlay · ⇆ in the top bar views the rig facing the other way.
• 0 or double-click fits the view · + / − zoom · Ctrl+S opens Bake & export.
• Clip keys are stored as changes from the rest pose, so editing the rest pose in Rig mode moves every clip at once.
• Clips can be 1 to 240 frames long.

#Troubleshooting

• "A bone cannot hang under its own child." You tried to make a bone the parent of its own ancestor. Pick a parent higher up the chain.
• IK does nothing when I drag. Make sure the chain is ticked for the current clip under IK chains, and that you're in Animate mode with the IK tool.
• Mirrored poses don't swap. Rename the bones in matching pairs (.F / .B, .L / .R).
• A skin shows up on the wrong frames. Skin, visibility and draw-order keys are stepped: they hold until the next key. Add a Key default here where it should switch back.
• "Parts are limited to 480×480." Crop or split the image before importing.

#Related guides

• Pixxino — Beginner · Pixxino — Advanced
• Pixxava · Pixxeta · Pixxula · Send to App