Non-Unity: How to make sequence of animation files into a tiled single file?

Hello Folks,

I’m having fun with Unity iPhone and its ease of use. But have an non-Unity issue that I hope someone has some advice for.

To create billboard animations (explosions, etc) I have several tools like 3D Studio Max, Particle Illusion, etc.

These tools output a sequence of files for each frame of the animation (anim-0001.tga, anim-0002.tga, anim-0003.tga, etc…).

I have read and agree that tiling these into a single file for use on iPhone will be much more efficient for limited iPhone resources.

I am seeking help/advice on tools or methods for converting a sequence of animation files (tga files) into a single tiled animation file (tga file). I am using tga files in order to get transparency. If there is a better file format to use would appreciate advice there as well.

I have already created/copied script code that will properly display the “sub-tiles” within a single file. It works good.

But I had to manually create the single file using the sequence of files in photoshop. I am doing 64x64 pixel tiles into a 256x256 single file for 16 frame animation. Very error prone and arduous.

Any help greatly appreciated!

You might find ImageMagick a useful tool for things like this. In particular, check out the montage command.

http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/sprite-sheet-renderer