Layers and rigging

Pixels baked into one layer cannot be animated without redrawing them. Separating a finished sprite into limbs later is more work than building it separated. If the sprite will ever move, rig it first.

Bottom to top in the layer stack, so nearer parts draw over farther ones:

  arm-near          ← the arm on the camera side
  leg-near
  head
  torso
  arm-far           ← partly hidden by the torso; this is what sells depth
  leg-far
  shadow            ← ground contact, if the style has one

Add weapon, cape, hair-back and hair-front as the design needs. Keep the names stable — every later tool call refers to them by name.

Build the whole rig in one layer call with a batch array; that is one undo step for the user and one round trip for you.

Group related layers (arms, legs) once the count passes about eight. Groups hold no pixels themselves — target their children when drawing.

A cel is one layer's image on one frame. Cels are only as big as their content, which is why moving a limb between frames is cel op move (cheap, lossless) rather than redrawing it.

Linked cels share one image across several frames: edit once, every linked frame updates. Use them for parts that genuinely do not move in a cycle — a static torso under moving arms. Do not link something you will later want to differ; unlinking after the fact loses the shared history.

• Keep a reference layer locked and semi-transparent while tracing; delete it before export.
• Keep sketch/blockout on its own layer until the clean pass is done.
• Never merge layers to "simplify" unless the user asked. The layer split is the sprite's editability.
• Hide layers rather than deleting them when trying an alternative.