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After several months of research and programming, I have developed a new DST animation and texture tool that supports both Windows and Mac systems.

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Core features: Supports animation preview and editing, can achieve SCML and ZIP format conversion, fixes common issues with official packaging(autocompiler) and unpacking(ktools), and supports TEX texture preview, cutting, and multi image merging to generate XML.

Basic editing support: allows editing of various animation data, import and export of Spine animations (compatible with 3.8/4.2 versions), operation history backtracking, supports scaling, rotation, layer adjustment, and other operations.

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Some shortcut operations: supports batch replacement/deletion of symbols/layers, quickly builds animations from GIFs or sequence diagrams, and has built-in character reference animations.

Basic usage method: Simply drag SCML or ZIP files into the tool to preview and edit animations, and then export them directly to the desired format in the export panel, including ZIP, SCML and Spine JSON.

Download page for the tool: 
https://msisunny.github.io/dst-mod-tool-publisher/

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These two GIFs demonstrate the simple operations supported by the tool.

Jietu20250829-002339-HD.gif.17cc3c1049dafe393a6f4240e20e7c94.gif

 

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Here are some shortcuts supported by the tool:  
Ctrl + Z: Undo an action,  
Ctrl + Shift + Z / Ctrl + Y: Redo an action,  
Ctrl + X: Cut the selected element,  
Ctrl + C Copy the selected element,  
Ctrl + V: Paste the copied element,  
Arrow Up: Move the selected element's layer up,  
Arrow Down: Move the selected element's layer down,  
Tab: Switch views between Build and Anim.

Edited by Aether825
  • Like 8
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Sounds great! Could you implement something to make it easier to import fonts (.ttf or .otf) into the game? It's something I've been trying to do all month, but I haven't been able to. I think the game only accepts bitmap fonts, and the programs I've found for that are detected as viruses... so I haven't installed any.

19 hours ago, Edible Coal said:

why does your app looks oddly same to a pervious web app that also allow you to view scml files

You're right, in fact, I received a lot of inspiration and help from Jerry during the development process. I have adopted the layout style of the website for the UI interface of the animation tool section.

On 8/29/2025 at 9:55 AM, FerniFrenito said:

Sounds great! Could you implement something to make it easier to import fonts (.ttf or .otf) into the game? It's something I've been trying to do all month, but I haven't been able to. I think the game only accepts bitmap fonts, and the programs I've found for that are detected as viruses... so I haven't installed any.

As for fonts, in fact, I have never made mod fonts before, so I cannot help much at the moment.

On 8/31/2025 at 3:17 AM, Feything said:

*foams at the mouth* Did you say it can support and export/import spine animations? :D

You are a savior!!! I'm going to try it out.

Ensure that the JSON file exported from Spine is at the same level as your Images folder, and then simply drag the JSON file into the tool. However, it still cannot support animations that use mesh deformation.

 

1 hour ago, Aether825 said:

You're right, in fact, I received a lot of inspiration and help from Jerry during the development process. I have adopted the layout style of the website for the UI interface of the animation tool section.

As for fonts, in fact, I have never made mod fonts before, so I cannot help much at the moment.

Ensure that the JSON file exported from Spine is at the same level as your Images folder, and then simply drag the JSON file into the tool. However, it still cannot support animations that use mesh deformation.

Thanks, I found out about that yesterday. It also doesn't seem to support sequences so I had to manually swap images. I'm loving the tool so far and the fact I can finally shear sprites is amazing! I'm still confused about how it handles pivots though but I'm assuming it's through the use of bones?

hello! thank you for this, this looks phenominal!

a few issues im running into with this:

1) As a result of my computer's display (i have to have everything zoomed at 200% in order for anything to be intelligible, considering how large the resolution is vs how large it is in person), it is impossible to export anything. The export button is perpetually off-screen.

Spoiler

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2) Is it possible to move things perfectly straight, i.e. holding shift to move something only vertically or horizontally? This would make it much easier to align things on the same plane if need be. Specifically asking for cases where you have multiple symbols highlighted, as opposed to just tweaking the numbers on one, because this is currently a much more difficult thing to achieve

3) For whatever reason, the program does not properly recognize input from my Huion Drawing Tablet (Inspiroy 2), it only moves the view panel around. My mouse is not clicking correctly and as a result makes doing anything needlessly frustrating, so i've been using the tablet until i can afford a replacement. If it became possible to use the drawing tablet instead that'd be wonderful.

Edited by crushcircuit
15 hours ago, Feything said:

 

Thanks, I found out about that yesterday. It also doesn't seem to support sequences so I had to manually swap images. I'm loving the tool so far and the fact I can finally shear sprites is amazing! I'm still confused about how it handles pivots though but I'm assuming it's through the use of bones?

Regarding the sequence diagrams in Spine, I must admit that I hadn't considered or used them before, so there might be some issues in this area. As for how to obtain the pivots of images from Spine files, there is actually a degree of freedom. Simply put, I calculate the pivots based on the first time each image is read, and all subsequent references use this as the standard.

14 hours ago, crushcircuit said:

hello! thank you for this, this looks phenominal!

a few issues im running into with this:

1) As a result of my computer's display (i have to have everything zoomed at 200% in order for anything to be intelligible, considering how large the resolution is vs how large it is in person), it is impossible to export anything. The export button is perpetually off-screen.

  Reveal hidden contents

image.png.49f29084803f22e8fdf398a17b324cfe.png

2) Is it possible to move things perfectly straight, i.e. holding shift to move something only vertically or horizontally? This would make it much easier to align things on the same plane if need be. Specifically asking for cases where you have multiple symbols highlighted, as opposed to just tweaking the numbers on one, because this is currently a much more difficult thing to achieve

3) For whatever reason, the program does not properly recognize input from my Huion Drawing Tablet (Inspiroy 2), it only moves the view panel around. My mouse is not clicking correctly and as a result makes doing anything needlessly frustrating, so i've been using the tablet until i can afford a replacement. If it became possible to use the drawing tablet instead that'd be wonderful.

 

14 hours ago, crushcircuit said:

hello! thank you for this, this looks phenominal!

a few issues im running into with this:

1) As a result of my computer's display (i have to have everything zoomed at 200% in order for anything to be intelligible, considering how large the resolution is vs how large it is in person), it is impossible to export anything. The export button is perpetually off-screen.

  Hide contents

image.png.49f29084803f22e8fdf398a17b324cfe.png

2) Is it possible to move things perfectly straight, i.e. holding shift to move something only vertically or horizontally? This would make it much easier to align things on the same plane if need be. Specifically asking for cases where you have multiple symbols highlighted, as opposed to just tweaking the numbers on one, because this is currently a much more difficult thing to achieve

3) For whatever reason, the program does not properly recognize input from my Huion Drawing Tablet (Inspiroy 2), it only moves the view panel around. My mouse is not clicking correctly and as a result makes doing anything needlessly frustrating, so i've been using the tablet until i can afford a replacement. If it became possible to use the drawing tablet instead that'd be wonderful.

Regarding the issue of not being able to click the buttons at the bottom of the panel under high scaling settings in Windows, I haven’t come up with a particularly good solution for now. Perhaps you could try reducing the scaling ratio a bit.  

As for the second issue, I am currently working on improving the usability of editing animations within the software. Your suggestion is indeed something that should be implemented. But, to be honest, this tool cannot replace professional animation software.  

Regarding the last issue, I’m not very familiar with the input mode you mentioned. This tool is designed to be used with a keyboard and mouse, so it may not be fully compatible with specialized input methods.

3 hours ago, Edible Coal said:

is there plan to upload the project files to git? not the website, the tool

Thank you for your interest in the tool! At the moment, I don’t have plans to open-source the project or upload the code to a public repository.

  • Like 1
16 minutes ago, Aether825 said:

Regarding the sequence diagrams in Spine, I must admit that I hadn't considered or used them before, so there might be some issues in this area. As for how to obtain the pivots of images from Spine files, there is actually a degree of freedom. Simply put, I calculate the pivots based on the first time each image is read, and all subsequent references use this as the standard.

Thanks for the response. I tried exporting a lot of unrelated DST mobs I created from scratch for a video game I was making and they all exported really great! Some even used IK restraints and moved pretty good with full skeletons, parented regions and all. If there is any plans to add sequence support that would be even more of a life saver because it'll make looping particle effects play with just a press of a button instead of manual swapping. Making FX a tedious thing of the past.

Regardless though, I love this tool so much and I'm going to have so much fun with it :D

Thank you so much for making it!

Thank you so, so much. Ktools has entirely stopped functioning for me on Windows 11 for months after a recent update, and I've been unable to extract assets to use as reference for making my own textures/animations. This program finally lets me restore my old workflow! ❤️ 

2 hours ago, Edible Coal said:

they are probably asking how useful is this programe

14 hours ago, Jrramon_GOLD said:

I dont really know that much about modding,

How big is this?

The initial intention behind creating this software was to serve as a complete replacement for Autocompiler and Ktools, as they had numerous issues. Currently, this tool should have addressed almost all of the potential problems encountered, including images not displaying in animations, texture misalignment, and incorrect layer ordering. I believe this is the most significant aspect of this tool.

Previously, using Spriter to create animations or unpacking the original animations with Ktools often led to numerous issues. In many cases, these problems were nearly impossible to resolve without a deep understanding of Don't Starve's animation format. This tool helps avoid these issues and, if desired, even allows for the introduction of Spine into the production of Don't Starve animations.

Cool tool.

Can you edit the collision box with this? And if you can, could you the set same size for a whole animation?
Now I use https://dont-starve-anim-tool.vercel.app/ but have to edit every frame. Takes a lot of time. The automatic collision box is not always the best. For example if you don't want the cursor to flicker if you are near the edge of animating flame - good to have it always the same size not depending on the current frame.

Edited by EldVarg
On 9/18/2025 at 3:07 AM, EldVarg said:

Cool tool.

Can you edit the collision box with this? And if you can, could you the set same size for a whole animation?
Now I use https://dont-starve-anim-tool.vercel.app/ but have to edit every frame. Takes a lot of time. The automatic collision box is not always the best. For example if you don't want the cursor to flicker if you are near the edge of animating flame - good to have it always the same size not depending on the current frame.

Regarding fixing the collision of each frame to be the same, I did not consider this requirement at all before. This feature should be added in future updates.

I'm facing an issue with the SCML export. When I open the file in Spriter Pro, the animation playback is stepped, resembling a staircase pattern. This happens despite the motion graph being a straight, linear curve. Could you please look into fixing this?

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