SpriteDance (Developer’s site | iTunes) is an animation-composition app for the iPad with these features:

• Import your own background (called a stage)
• Import your own characters (called dancers)
• Drop characters onto the stage
• Move the timeline’s playhead, create a keyframe, reposition the dancer; repeat.

From there you can export the animation as a Movie in your Photo Album, send to Youtube or save as Quicktime (and save it to your desktop via iTunes File Sharing as a 1024×768 MP4)

Great stuff. But how do you get your own drawings in there?

So Tell Me How To Import My Stuff

Not so fast. Unless you want your drawings to be rectangles with solid backgrounds, your stuff needs to be in PNG format. This is because PNG allows for very nice transparent backgrounds and even nicer blending of the edges of your stuff against this transparent background. Your stuff can even fade off into transparent nothingness.

Sadly, SpriteDance doesn’t (yet?) support pasting of new images from other apps, so you’ll need an app that will export your drawings in PNG format.

But Not All Apps Support Exporting Of Transparent PNG

These few do (as of October 2011):

• ArtStudio – $2.99 for iPad at iTunes
• ProCreate – $4.99 for iPad at iTunes
• Sketchclub – $1.99 for iPad at iTunes

ArtStudio Tips

• Note that the final PNG will be the size of your document. Plan accordingly.
• Be sure you don’t paint on the background layer. Tap New Image, choose your image size and for “Start with layer” choose “Transparent”
• Note that ArtStudio will show you the typical checkerboard pattern to indicate you are working on a transparent background.
• When ready, tap “Export” and choose “Send PNG by e-mail”
• Send it off, go to your desktop, open your email and save the PNG attachment to your computer.
• Under iTunes File Sharing, click “SpriteDance” under the Apps list and click “Add…” to transfer your PNG to the app
• Sync your iPad and you should find your image under the Dancers list.

ProCreate Tips

• Note that the final PNG will be the size of your document. Plan accordingly.
• Be sure you don’t paint on the background layer. Create a new layer and paint on it.
• Note that ProCreate will NOT show you the typical checkerboard pattern to indicate you are working on a transparent background.
• When ready, go back to gallery view and tap the export icon. Choose “Email artwork”
• Send it off, go to your desktop, open your email and save the PNG attachment to your computer.
• Under iTunes File Sharing, click “SpriteDance” under the Apps list and click “Add…” to transfer your PNG to the app
• Sync your iPad and you should find your image under the Dancers list.

SketchClub

• Tap export icon, choose “E-Mail” then tap PNG and slide “Transparency” to the “On” position. Then “Send E-Mail”

Apps That Support PNGs But Not Transparent Ones

• ArtRage – too bad, it’s a great natural media painting app, although a bit sluggish to work with.
• TinyPixels – after emailing yourself a PNG, you could manually delete the background and resave with transparency.
• Any others? Let me know.

What Could We See In Future Updates to SpriteDance?

Ever the optimist, I could hope for:

• Dropbox integration for importing PNG images and for exporting rendered videos
• Options for video export settings
• Option to resize the stage to, say 1280×720 and other true HD dimensions
• A simple sprite editor which could support pasting image data from the above drawing apps

In a country far, far away (France) two retired Jedi drop-outs battle for the right of way on the road.

“In 1972 a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn’t commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the A-Team.”

I think this wookie needs a cookie.

A film dealing with the relative size of things in the universe and the effect of adding another zero.
Made by the office of Charles and Ray Eames for IBM (1971)