Tiled Animations

Create and edit animated tile assets visually in Pixscape Studio for exported Tiled layers in LibGDX games.

Tiled animations let you create animated tile assets directly from existing tiles. They are useful for water, lava, portals, torches, machinery, animated floors, doors, or any repeating visual effect that belongs to a tiled map.

A tiled animation is still a tile asset. Once created, it can be used in tiled layers like a regular tile, but its frames are played over time.

Tiled animations are managed under Project Assets > Tiles > Animations.

They are different from regular sprite animations, which are managed in the root-level Animations section.

Finding tiled animations

Open the Project Assets panel, expand Tiles, then select Animations.

This section contains tiled animations. From there, you can create a new tiled animation or select an existing one.

Do not use the root-level Animations category for this. That section is for regular sprite animations.

Creating a new tiled animation

To create a tiled animation:

1. Open Project Assets.
2. Expand Tiles.
3. Select Animations.
4. Click New tiled animation.
5. Enter the animation name.
6. Click Create.

The new animation appears under Tiles > Animations.

Adding tiles as animation frames

A tiled animation is built from existing tile assets.

To add frames:

1. Select a tile set under Project Assets > Tiles.
2. Drag the tiles you want to use as frames.
3. Drop them onto the tiled animation entry under Tiles > Animations > your-animation-name.

The tiles must be dropped into the animation entry to become animation frames.

After that, select the tiled animation to view its frames.

Editing animation frames

When a tiled animation is selected, its frames are displayed in the asset panel.

Each frame has a duration value displayed in milliseconds. For example, 300 means that the frame lasts 300 ms.

To change the timing, edit the duration value under the frame.

You can also right-click a frame to open the context menu.

Available frame actions:

• Move left: moves the frame earlier in the animation.
• Move right: moves the frame later in the animation.
• Remove from animation: removes the frame from the tiled animation.

Use these actions to adjust the animation order, timing, and content.

Using a tiled animation

Once created, a tiled animation can be used like a tile asset in a tiled map.

Select the tiled animation and paint or place it in a compatible tiled layer.

Use tiled animations for visuals that belong to the map itself, such as animated ground, walls, decorations, effects, or environmental elements.

For actors, characters, enemies, or moving entities, use regular sprite animations instead.

Checklist

• Open Project Assets > Tiles > Animations.
• Click New tiled animation.
• Name the animation.
• Drag tiles from a tile set.
• Drop them onto the tiled animation entry.
• Select the animation to view its frames.
• Edit frame durations in milliseconds.
• Use the context menu to reorder or remove frames.
• Use the tiled animation in tiled layers like a regular tile.

See the Tiled Animation API for controlling exported tile playback per cell from Java.