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A Pixelate Asset captures movement in one of two ways: it plays animation clips on a model or prefab, or it simulates a particle system. This page covers both, how many frames you get, and how to make clean loops. Which section you see depends on the Source: models and prefabs show Animation, particle systems show Particle Settings. See Source types.

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Animation clips

The Source Clips list in the Animation section holds the clips to capture. Each enabled clip exports its own sprite sheet for every camera view.
  • Click + to add a row, then pick a clip. Click − to remove the selected row, and drag the handle on the left to reorder.
  • The order matters: it is the order of the Preview’s clip menu, and the first clip is the default state of a generated Animator Controller.
  • In a narrow Inspector, Speed and FPS move to a second line under the clip.

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Clips added for you

When you create a Pixelate Asset from a model or prefab (with the Create menu or the Browser), its clips are added for you:
  1. Clips imported inside the model file (the clips on the model’s Animation import tab).
  2. Then the clips of the Animator Controller on the source’s Animator.
Duplicates and Unity’s internal preview clips are skipped. Every added clip starts enabled at Speed 1 and 12 FPS.
If you assign the Source later, in the Inspector, no clips are added. Add them with +.

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Still frames

Leave the list empty to capture a single still frame per view, for props, icons and portraits. Still sheets are named Static in the clip part of the file name, for example Chest_Static_SW.png. If the list has clips but all of them are unticked, a warning reminds you to tick one, or to remove the rows to capture a still frame.

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How many frames you get

Each clip is captured from its start, one frame every Speed ÷ FPS seconds, until it ends: Frames = clip length × FPS ÷ Speed, rounded up. For example, a 1-second clip at 12 FPS gives 12 frames. At Speed 2 it gives 6. The last frame is always just before the end of the clip, never on it, so a looping clip doesn’t repeat its first pose. The frames of a clip are laid out on one sheet in a near-square grid, left to right and top to bottom. A sheet can be at most 16384 px on a side. If a long clip at a high FPS would go over, an error asks you to lower the FPS, raise the Speed or lower the Cell Size.

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Preview playback

The Preview at the bottom of the Inspector shows exactly what Export writes. Pick the clip in its clip menu, then press the play button, or press Space while the pointer or keyboard focus is on the Preview. Drag the frame bar to scrub.

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Particle systems

When the Source is a particle system, the Particle Settings section replaces Animation. Pixelate Pro simulates the effect from the start and captures it frame by frame.

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How many frames you get

The length comes from the particle systems themselves: the longest Duration (in each Particle System’s Main module) in the prefab, times FPS, rounded up. Start Frames and End Frames then add or remove frames. For example, the Fire sample has a 1-second Duration at 12 FPS, so it exports 12 frames. To make an effect longer or shorter, change its Duration on the Particle System.

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Seeds and variations

Particle systems use random numbers for things like spawn positions and sizes. The seed fixes those numbers, so one seed always gives the same take.
  • In Random Seed mode, every export picks a new seed, so each export is a new take. The Preview, thumbnails and Save GIF keep one stored seed (shown greyed out in Seed), so they don’t flicker, but the next export can look different from the Preview. Switching to Random Seed picks a new Preview seed.
  • Use Fixed Seed to pick a take on purpose: try a few numbers in Seed until the Preview looks right. The Fire sample uses Fixed Seed 7.
  • Set Seed Variations above 1 (Random Seed mode) to export several takes at once, for example to vary repeated explosions. Each take gets its own sheet: Particles_0, Particles_1 and so on, instead of Particles.

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Framing particles

New Pixelate Assets made from a particle system keep the default framing (Cell Size 1 × 1, Camera Offset 0), because the effect’s size depends on the simulation. Play the effect in the Preview, then raise Cell Size until no frame is cut off and raise Camera Offset Y to center it. The Fire sample uses a 2 × 2 cell with Camera Offset Y 0.8 and the Bottom Center (Feet) pivot, so it sits on the ground. See Framing.

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When nothing shows

  • The Source prefab has no Particle System. Add one to the prefab, or assign a different Source.
  • No Particle System in the Source prefab draws anything. In the prefab, enable a Particle System’s Renderer module and give it a material.

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Make clean loops

  • Make sure the source clip has Loop Time on (in the model’s Animation import tab, or on the clip asset). The exported Animation Clip copies it, so it loops in your game too.
  • Pick an FPS where clip length × FPS ÷ Speed is a whole number, so the step from the last frame back to the first is as long as every other step. For a 0.8-second run cycle, 10 or 15 FPS work; 12 doesn’t.
  • Low frame rates (8 to 12 FPS) read well as pixel art and keep sheets small. Use Speed to tighten a slow cycle instead of raising FPS.
  • The exported clip loops when the prefab’s first Particle System has Looping on.
  • The capture starts with an empty system, so the first frames show the effect building up. Use a negative Start Frames to skip that part, and a negative End Frames to cut a fade-out.
  • Set the Particle System’s Duration to the length of one loop.
  • Use Fixed Seed so every export gives the same take, and the loop you approved in the Preview is the one you ship.
  • Turn Looping off on the Particle System, so the exported clip plays once.
  • Add a few End Frames if the effect should hold an empty frame at the end, or Start Frames for a short delay before it starts.

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Next steps

Export

Turn the clips into sprite sheets, Animation Clips and an Animator Controller.

Preview

Play clips, switch views and save a GIF.