---
name: sprite-gen
version: 2.44.0
description: "Generates images and game sprites through GPT or Grok with guided provider choices, separate saved defaults, automatic cleanup and optional curation. Handles sprite requests, ordinary image generation/editing, typography logos (로고, 타이포그래피, 타이틀 글자, 타이틀 로고, wordmark, logo, title lettering: a title screen drawn with the title in it, its lettering lifted out transparent), standalone image-to-video clips (i2v, animate this still, 그록 영상, 이매진 비디오, 스틸 움직여줘, first/last frame, reference-to-video, 영상 이어붙이기, 영상 편집, extend/edit a clip), clips from a video MCP on the agent (ZCRE, 지크 MCP), chroma removal, animation atlases, video loops, 큐레이션뷰, image candidates, 팔레트 스왑, palette swap, recolor, rig layers, engine exports, repeating backgrounds, projected shadows, motion/contact inspection and optional scene composition from existing assets."
license: Apache-2.0
depends_on:
  required_bins:
    - name: codex
      why: "gen --provider codex (image_gen via ChatGPT OAuth)"
    - name: ffmpeg
      why: "video-frames (clip -> frames) and video-set"
    - name: img2webp
      why: "video-loop WebP with exact alpha (libwebp); Pillow's animated writer drops -exact"
    - name: rife-ncnn-vulkan
      why: "video-loop jump repair and video-cycle-align (RIFE v4.6 in-betweens, release 20221029). Install once with `sprite-gen rife install` (sha256-checked, into the user data directory); SPRITE_GEN_RIFE or PATH override it; Linux without a GPU also needs libvulkan1 mesa-vulkan-drivers. Without it, walk and run loops are cut as filmed with a warning"
  required_scripts:
    - scripts/prepare_sprite_run.py
    - scripts/generate_sprite_image.py
    - scripts/gen_set.py
    - scripts/generate_sprite_video.py
    - scripts/video_canvas.py
    - scripts/video_frames.py
    - scripts/video_loop.py
    - scripts/video_set.py
    - scripts/extract_sprite_row_frames.py
    - scripts/interpolate_frames.py
    - scripts/compose_sprite_atlas.py
    - scripts/preview_animation.py
    - scripts/compose_selected_cycle.py
    - scripts/compose_sprite_gif.py
    - scripts/inspect_sprite_run.py
    - scripts/score_sprite_run.py
    - scripts/run_correction_loop.py
    - scripts/curation.py
    - scripts/serve_curation.py
    - scripts/slice_sheet_cells.py
    - scripts/unpack_atlas_run.py
    - scripts/export_curated_pngs.py
    - scripts/recolor.py
    - scripts/compose_layers.py
modes:
  default: component-row
---

# Sprite Gen

Generation entry points: **make sprites**, **make an image**, or **animate a still into a video**. Existing generation, extraction and export tools do the work; the user chooses the result and provider. For **repeat a background**, **project a shadow**, **inspect motion** or **compose a scene**, use the independent routes below directly with existing assets.

## Start every generation request here

For a standalone video clip, read [video](docs/video.md) and use `sprite-gen video`.
This route works from any agent engine and delivers a verified MP4 plus report.
For sprites or ordinary images, use the guides below.

Read [user-workflow](docs/user-workflow.md), then run the appropriate read-only guide:

```bash
$SPRITE_GEN_ROOT/.venv/bin/sprite-gen workflow --kind sprite
$SPRITE_GEN_ROOT/.venv/bin/sprite-gen workflow --kind image
```

Pass choices already stated in the request. The guide checks access, combines explicit choices with saved defaults, and returns only missing questions. Follow its start and finish stages. Always pass the resolved provider explicitly to generation tools. Deliver checked files before offering the curation view; save defaults only when the user agrees. The complete conversation and settings contract is owned by the linked document, not duplicated in individual pipeline docs.

## When codex cannot run — exit 75

A call that names no provider (`gen`, `logo`, `gen-set`, `video-set`'s mid-step redraw) runs on codex. When codex cannot run here — not signed in, or the codex usage of the account used up — and the user's choice for that is to ask (the default), the command generates nothing, prints one stderr line starting `sprite-gen ask codex-unavailable:` followed by JSON, and ends with **exit 75**. That is a question for the user, not a failure: never answer it yourself, never retry without the answer, never switch provider on your own.

Ask it in these words, with the reason from the line's `cause` (`login`: "로그인이 없어요", `usage-limit`: "사용량을 다 썼어요"):

> 지피티(codex)를 지금 쓸 수 없어요 — {이유}. 어떻게 할까요?
> 1. OpenAI API 로 만들기 (호출당 과금)
> 2. 그록으로 만들기
> 3. 멈추기

Then run the same command again with the answer's flag from the line's `choices` — 1: `choices.openai` (`--provider openai`; `video-set`: `--still-provider openai`), 2: `choices.grok` — or, for 3 (멈추기), stop and say nothing was generated. When the user says to do the same from now on, save it: `sprite-gen defaults save --codex-unavailable openai|grok|ask --expected-revision <revision from defaults show>`. A saved `grok` or `openai` runs without asking and says so on stderr and in the report (`provider_fallback`). The rule is [gen](docs/gen.md#when-codex-cannot-run--ask-or-what-you-chose)'s.

## Side-view facing

Keep the side still, canvas placement and motion prompt facing the same direction.
`video-set` observes each side input once before canvas placement and uses the requested
`--facing` for both the canvas and clip prompt. Observation is record-only by default;
it never changes the requested direction. Image correction requires explicit opt-in.

| Command option | Values and default | Behavior |
|---|---|---|
| `gen --facing` | `preserve` (default), `right`, `left` | With `--ref`, an explicit direction adds a prompt requirement and checks the generated still. |
| `gen --facing-fix` | `none` (default), `mirror`, `regen` | Record without correction; opt into mirroring an observed opposite or regenerating once and rechecking. A still-opposite regeneration is mirrored. |
| `video --direction` | `side`, `front`, `back`, `front_diagonal`, `back_diagonal`; unset by default | `side` opts into facing inspection and a matching prompt requirement; the others skip it. The two diagonals are three-quarter views turned right (`VIEW_TEXT`); a walk or run in one is filmed pinned (`pins_last_frame`). |
| `video --facing`, `video-set --facing` | `right` (default), `left`; `video-set` also `right,left` | Required side direction. `right,left` films every side and diagonal view both ways, each from its own still (`--base side@left=…`); none is mirrored. |
| `gen --direction`, `--handed`; `video-prompt` / `video-set --handed` | a view; `"<item>=<left\|right> [part]"` | An item on one of the character's own sides: the still and clip prompts say where it is in each view, and mirroring is refused. |
| `video-prompt` / `video-set` / `gen --direction` / `prepare --body-plan` | `biped` (default), `quadruped`, `legless`; or `"<figure>=<plan>"` per figure of a scene | What the subject stands on: no clip, attack, redraw, still view or sheet row prompt names a part it lacks (a horse is not walked on a person's legs, stood up, given arms in a walk sheet or told to strike with its hands), and a scene says it per figure. |
| `video --facing-fix`, `video-set --facing-fix` | `none` (default), `mirror` | Record the observation; opt into mirroring an observed opposite in a copy. Batch side inspection is enabled by default. |
| `video-set --play`, `--motion`; `video-prompt --play`, `--motion` | `loop`, `once-return`, `once-hold`, `lifetime`; in `video-set` `"<state>=…"` or `"<item>=…"` | How a motion plays, and its own words: a word the engine does not name (`punch`, `type_at_desk`) is filmed in that mode; a once-return strip plays once and ends on its first pose (`loop: false`, `returns: true`). Without `--play` a named state plays as its preset ([play modes](docs/video-pipeline.md#play-modes)). |

Direction is requested through the generation and motion prompts, which cannot guarantee model compliance.
The detector can be wrong even at high confidence: review the still before choosing `mirror` or `regen`.
Generation reports record direction, model, requested direction, model-reported confidence and correction
under `extra.facing`; video reports and batch items use `facing`. `final_direction` is an observation
or a value derived from it, not independent verification; `final_direction_source` identifies which.
An uncertain or failed inspection records `unknown` and its reason and continues without correction;
front-facing observations also remain unchanged. Mirroring does not preserve left/right accessory handedness.
It stays the default, since drawing the left-facing views costs as much again; for a character with a watch on
one wrist or a pin on one side, offer to draw them instead with `--handed` and check them with `handed-check`
(a colour-marked item, frame by frame; `--board` for the eye) —
[handedness](docs/video-pipeline.md#handedness--an-item-on-one-side). In a side view an item on the far wrist
or hand shows each time that arm swings forward, never hidden for the whole walk: draw that side still mid-stride with
the far arm out in front of the body and the item in view (`video-prompt` says so under `still_needs`), do not
hold the arms still, and check the loop with `handed-check --state walk`.

## Execution routes

| Task | Entry | Contract |
|---|---|---|
| GPT image sprites | `prepare`, `gen-set --provider codex`, `extract`, compose and QA | [atlas-workflow](docs/atlas-workflow.md) |
| Standalone video / animate a still, pin a last frame, reference images | `video` (`--image`, `--last-frame`, `--reference`) | [video](docs/video.md) |
| Continue or edit an existing clip | `video-extend`, `video-edit` | [video](docs/video.md) |
| A clip run left unfinished (its line or report names a `request_id`): ask for it again, never submit it again | `video-resume --request-id <id>` | [video](docs/video.md#sprite-gen-video-resume--ask-again-for-an-unfinished-generation) |
| Grok video sprites | `video-set` | [video-pipeline](docs/video-pipeline.md) |
| A soft part of a walk loop follows the body (a chest, a belly): an ellipse in the first cell, after `video-cycle-align` — `--read-on <sha256>` where it was read on the cut the loop was aligned from; `--stretch-floor D` to keep a least area | `video-follow` | [video-pipeline](docs/video-pipeline.md#6-follow-through--video-follow) |
| Where that ellipse is carried in every other cell, and what the move changes there (an arm crossing a chest moves with it; the stretch, the bend and the seam): a record and boards of every cell, nothing moved | `video-follow-inspect` | [video-pipeline](docs/video-pipeline.md#inspecting-a-follow-through--video-follow-inspect) |
| A set's directions on one sheet, standing on one ground line (a 3×3 board, an engine import): rows in compass order S SW W NW N NE E SE from each loop's `--view`, one cell size, every row as cut, an optional centre picture (`--center`) at the rows' standing height; loops of different lengths are laid and said to differ (`same_length` false) — align the set first | `video-set-sheet` | [video-pipeline](docs/video-pipeline.md#7-one-sheet-for-a-set--video-set-sheet) |
| A walk or run that stops, from the clip's own start played backwards: a one-shot strip (`loop: false`, `hold_last: true`), GIF, WebP and report beside the loop, ending on the still as filmed; leaves the loop from the cell nearest the entry (`from_cell`), drift taken out across the frames by a straight share; a seam past 1.4 steps (`--seam-max`), a run-up that comes back to a pose it left (another motion, however short) or one over 1.5 cycles (`--run-up-max`) refused; ghost screen checked, cells placed and anchored to match the loop's pivot | `video-stop` | [video-pipeline](docs/video-pipeline.md#8-a-walk-or-run-that-stops--video-stop) |
| Compare the currently displayed loop with a final candidate, including after follow-through | `video-loop-compare` | [loop-comparison](docs/loop-comparison.md) |
| Restore post-processing damage in the current cut from its exact source times, preserving normal cells and playback | `video-source-manifest` → `video-loop-repair` → `video-loop-compare` | [source restoration](docs/loop-comparison.md#restoring-the-active-cut-from-source) |
| Video sprites from a clip your agent makes with a connected video MCP (ZCRE, 지크) | `video-canvas`, `video-prompt --no-last-frame`, the agent's own MCP tools (quote, user approval, generate, save the mp4), then `video-frames` and `video-loop` (a walk or run with `--anchor motion-auto`, which holds its size), and for a walk or run cut in two or more directions `video-cycle-align --view …` over their loop directories (a set it stops on a loop that may hold two cycles: look at that loop, count its strides, and pass `--cycles <loop>=<k>`; a loop the report lists under `unnamed_feet` — its view could not tell the feet apart, or only by too small a margin (`low-margin`): look at its first candidate frame, say which own foot lands there, and align again with `--foot <loop>=left|right`). `video-set` is not run on this route, so the set stage it runs by default (`--align-cycles auto`) is yours to run. sprite-gen never calls the MCP. Walk, run and jump only: ZCRE's `grok-imagine-video-1.5` has no end frame, so idle, attack and diagonal walks are refused unless `--unpinned` | [video-pipeline](docs/video-pipeline.md#a-clip-from-a-video-mcp-on-your-agent--zcre) |
| Typography logo, wordmark or title lettering (로고, 타이포그래피, 타이틀 글자): the title lettered into a title screen or poster first, then only its lettering redrawn on a key and cut out with its glow; the text is read back and a misspelt logo refused | `logo --text … --style …` (`--mood` to start from a picture you have, `--lettering` to cut again for nothing) | [logo](docs/logo.md) |
| Ordinary image or edit | `gen --provider codex` or `gen --provider grok` (the subscription login first; without one grok uses `XAI_API_KEY`, and a codex signed in with an API key bills it — both per call, said on stderr) | [gen](docs/gen.md) |
| Pixel art the model draws directly as a grid, 8–48 px (best at 32 or less): an icon, a prop, a monster, a character still, four directions, a walk draft, a tile, or a hand-drawn motion of up to 64 frames drawn four a call (`--motion`, `{name, pose}` frames, `--duration-ms`), in a style of your own (`--style`) — on your Claude subscription (`claude` signed in), or without one on `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY`, **billed per call**; `grid.txt` is the truth, `--grid` re-renders an edited one, `--resume` collects a batch instead of buying it twice | `pixel-draw` | [pixel-draw](docs/pixel-draw.md) |
| Image generation with no login available (server, container, SaaS) | `gen --provider openai` — server/SaaS route on `OPENAI_API_KEY`, **billed per call**, never a default; it runs only when named, or when the user chose it for a codex that cannot run | [gen](docs/gen.md#subscription-first--openai-runs-only-when-you-chose-it) |
| Base and direction anchors | `anchor` | [directional-anchor-workflow](docs/directional-anchor-workflow.md) |
| Curation view or existing image candidates | `curation`, `unpack-atlas --pngs-dir` | [curation](docs/curation.md) |
| Uniform background removal or imported sheets | `cutout`, `slice-sheet` | [sheet-slicing](docs/sheet-slicing.md) |
| Palette swap | `sprite-gen recolor-palette`, `sprite-gen recolor` | [recolor](docs/recolor.md) |
| Rig layer composition | `sprite-gen compose-layers` | [layer-tracks](docs/layer-tracks.md) |
| Idle breathing | curation choice, baked by compose | [breathing](docs/breathing.md) |
| Engine exports | `export-aseprite`, `export-pngs` | [engine-export](docs/engine-export.md) |
| Background recipe or repeating tile | existing `gen` / `cutout`, then optional `background-tile` | [asset-tools](docs/asset-tools.md#background-recipe) |
| Ground tile that repeats both ways | `gen` (opaque), then `background-tile --axis xy` | [asset-tools](docs/asset-tools.md#both-axes-a-ground-tile) |
| Game UI kit: panel, buttons, card, HP/XP bar frames and fills, timer badge, item slot, counter plate, on/off dots, joystick base and knob as sliced elements | `gen --transparent --aspect-ratio 2:3 --layout-guide ui-kit` (`1:1`: the seven frames alone), then `ui-kit`; the seven frames are required, and a band element whose box is empty is left out and named under `missing` | [ui-kit](docs/ui-kit.md#missing-elements) |
| Props or icons on a transparent sheet | `slice-sheet --chroma-key none --alpha-floor 64`, props with `--scale sheet --fit contain`, icons with `--fit contain` | [sheet-slicing](docs/sheet-slicing.md#props-and-icons-sheet-scale-and-contain-fit) |
| Painted props, a ground tile and a UI kit in a game pack | `game-pack` request version 2 (`images`, `tiles`, `ui`) | [game-pack](docs/game-pack.md#version-2-images-tiles-and-ui) |
| Standalone projected shadow | `shadow` | [asset-tools](docs/asset-tools.md#projected-shadows) |
| Duplicate poses, foot contact and stride measurement | `inspect-motion` | [asset-tools](docs/asset-tools.md#motion-and-contact-evidence) |
| Optional scene placement, lighting, camera and render | `scene-render`, `scene-inspect` | [scene](docs/scene.md) |
| Defaults | `defaults show`, `defaults save` (`--codex-unavailable ask\|grok\|openai`: what to do when codex cannot run), `defaults clear` | [user-workflow](docs/user-workflow.md#one-settings-owner) |

Say a thing once: what an option says, leave out of the prompt. `--direction`, `--facing`, `--handed`, the key background and `video --direction side` each add their own sentence after your text, in one place; without `--handed` every prompt is 2.22.0's, byte for byte, and only the handed sentences are left out where your text already has them. Your prompt carries the subject, its design and its pose. Text that says the opposite of an option ("facing left" with `--facing right`, the item on the other wrist) is sent as written with a warning (`extra.prompt_notes`, `video-prompt`'s `warnings`): fix the prompt, do not send it — [prompt-assembly](docs/prompt-assembly.md).

`gen --transparent` with `--ref` plans a chroma key (adding the key's background line to a prompt that names none), and publishes a result that already came back transparent on its own alpha instead of keying its outline away; `alpha.strategy_source` in the report says which (`refs-attached` keyed, `refs-attached-raw-alpha` not). A key background painted as a transparency checkerboard is refused before keying (`chroma: the background is a painted transparency checkerboard …`): generate again — [gen](docs/gen.md#transparent-output--strategy-per-provider).

Use existing automatic pipeline stages for background removal, extraction, alignment and export. Do not ask users to select each script. For a direct utility request, run that utility; no unrelated generation questions are needed. Preserve the row pipeline and component extraction for image sprites. One-shot grid generation and fixed cell cutting are not an alternative sprite-generation route.

For attack repeat coverage, observed one-shot returns and structured loop failure reports, follow [video-pipeline](docs/video-pipeline.md#one-shot-actions--cycle-autoperiodicone-shot).

Scene creation consumes finished assets and remains optional. Asset metadata owns frames, native durations and anchors; scene specs own placement, scale, playback rate, planes, camera and light. Measure stride only with declared same-foot contact and an isolated foot ROI; unknown contact stays unverified. Apply only a verified report for the exact selected asset with an explicit scene direction. Never infer walking direction from the bottommost silhouette, reverse frames or change source assets to make a scene work.

## 실행 인터프리터

`SPRITE_GEN_ROOT` is the absolute installed repository path. Use `$SPRITE_GEN_ROOT/.venv/bin/sprite-gen` or `$SPRITE_GEN_ROOT/.venv/bin/python`; do not assume an activated shell. **폴백 금지**: create a missing venv or report the failure, never use an arbitrary global Python. **NumPy 가 없는 인터프리터** fails at package import. Setup and diagnosis: [interpreter](docs/interpreter.md).

## RIFE for walk and run loops

`video-loop` repairs a walk's or run's jump frames and gives its filmed ghosts way (a half-drawn frame the video model left, `ghost_given_way`), and `video-set` gives a direction set one cycle length, both with RIFE in-betweens. Install it once per machine: `$SPRITE_GEN_ROOT/.venv/bin/sprite-gen rife install` (pinned rife-ncnn-vulkan 20221029 and model rife-v4.6, SHA-256 checked, into the user data directory, ending with a check frame; Linux without a GPU first needs `libvulkan1 mesa-vulkan-drivers`). Without it every loop is still cut — a jump as filmed, each filmed ghost given way to the clean frame beside it — and what was left unrepaired says so: a `warning:` line on stderr and `jump_repair.rife` with `jump_repair.unmade` (the jump left as filmed) in the loop report (`applied` alone is not the sign: a ghost given way reads true), `cycle_align.<state>.applied: false` and `warnings` in `set.report.json`. When that happens, tell the user which loops went unrepaired and offer the install; after it, cut those loops again and run `video-cycle-align`. `video-loop --repair on` and `video-cycle-align` fail without RIFE instead. [loop-repair](docs/loop-repair.md).

## Contracts and advanced tools

[run-contract](docs/run-contract.md) owns numeric requests, run layout, atomic publication and curated exports. [architecture](docs/architecture.md) explains domain ownership. [docs index](docs/README.md) lists every specialized feature and QA procedure. `sprite-gen --help` derives the command map from the package catalog. Never replace an engine stage — extraction, the loop cut, set alignment, loop repair — with a script of your own while presenting the result as a pipeline output. Where a stage's result is wrong, use the engine's own options first (another cut with `video-loop --max-len` or `--cycle fixed`, `video-cycle-align --length`, `--between auto` (the default: a made frame that melted or carries a ghost takes the nearer source frame, and a filmed ghost frame a clean one beside it; a made frame the report names as a possible cross-fade of two drawings, `look`, is kept — look at it, and where the legs show twice use `--between nearest` or film that direction again) or `--between nearest`, or `--cycles <loop>=<k>` once you have counted a suspect loop's strides, or `--foot <loop>=left|right` (`video-set --align-foot <item>=…`) once you have looked at the first strike frame of a loop the report lists under `unnamed_feet`), keep the engine's result as the comparison, report the defect against the engine, and name in the delivery each stage done by hand and why. A new clip is for what no stage can reach: the drawing, the motion itself, a clip that holds no whole cycle ([loop-review](docs/loop-review.md)) — and a clip the engine names for one: when the alignment report's `retake` lists a loop (reason `held-drawings`: the cycle cut from its clip shows each drawing for two or three frames, the set's length leaves it at under 13 drawings a second, and frames between its drawings could not be made, so the loop halts there; or `filmed-ghost`: a filmed ghost frame has filmed ghosts on both sides, so no clean frame stands there and the loop shows it — `reasons` lists both where both apply), run the engine verbs first as above, then film that direction again and align the set anew rather than hand-painting the gap; tell the user what the reason was and that a new take usually fixes it ([loop-repair](docs/loop-repair.md) section 4). `video-loop --anchor motion-auto` already cuts a walk two steps long — one cycle — where a staff held above the head closes only there (`cycle.steps`, `strip.json` `steps: 2`; `video-cycle-align` aligns it as the one cycle it is). When its report's `cycle.step_screen` says `suspect` (a slow walk cut one step long), or `video-cycle-align` stops on a loop under `one_step`, count the steps in the loop (how often each foot lands) and cut it again with `video-loop --steps 1` if it is one step (`--steps 2` if it is two); never stretch or double it by hand. When `video-loop` warns that the top of the silhouette jumps into the loop's first frame (a staff or flag held above the head, swinging on its own beat), or that the held part does not close at the wrap below its top, that part does not close at the cut: look at the loop, and try `--cycle fixed` with another cut before filming again; a walk refused for no cycle names in its report's `cycle.candidates` the windows it measured, best first, for a cut you must deliver anyway ([loop-repair](docs/loop-repair.md) section 3, "The seam pop" and "The held side").