SpriteDX

Right now, SpriteDX is more of a gimmick. It can generate stylized characters and animated them and split it into animation states such that it can be used inside projects like video games. However, right now, that's about it. In order for a large project, we don't just need humanoid characters, but also need expansive list of stuff.

We need to add things like prop generation, and ability to easily add in new states. The non-landing page design allows you to do this to certain extent but it is tucked away so much and not really invites users to update them.

The latter usability issue is not something I can work on today. But, I can start doing initial research on prop generation.

There is also a big marketing problem where our only entrypoint to the product is one old reddit post. We should address that later.

What is Prop Generation?

SpriteDX (aka Sprited-X) will help creator's to build their world. It should allow users to generate assets that go beyond humanoid characters.

We want users to be able to generate anything.

Crates
Bow
Diamond
Ore
Etc.

So, yeah, it really lends it self to "X" in SpriteDX where we can generate ANY physically sound 2D sprite assets.

Early Results?

The most promising of all came from NanaBanana Pro when we worked on Machi.

These assets were mostly generated using NanoBanana Pro node in ComfyUI.

Then, hand edited in Aesprite.

Result is satisfying pixel arts.

You can check the https://blog.sprited.app/assets-for-machi-prototype for the prompts used.

The key is to provide character arts (or world background and ask NB (Nano Banana) to create assets that go well with the character or the context.

Why not Flux.1 Fill? Fill-in-the-blank apporach using the Flux.1 Fill models unfortunately fail and is quite tricky to control it such that it creates various assets. It is rather dumb compared to NB and produces most probable image results and often ignores prompts. Hard to steer.

What's the learning?

Learning is that we should use Nano Banana models. For now, let's use Nano Banana Pro since it is readily available as ComfyUI partner API nodes.

Can you create a vehicle?

Let's test it out.

add 10 stone age style cars and bikes that fits into current pixel art style

Result

Does it preserve the style? Yes

Does it preserve the scale? Somewhat.

Let's try it out with a different data.

Add 12 vehicles while preserving the style and scale

top row: futuristic pixel art vehicles

middle row: modern day pixel art vehicles

bottom row: war machines like mechs

Result:

Analysis: Yup, this could work. The designs and styles are rather bland but I can work with this.

F…. Gotta go for something.

But basically though, we believe that it is possible to support prop generation by adding a templating mechanism and extraction mechanism. Wish me luck.

-- Sprited Dev 🐛