Animate a layered PSD: from painted layers to a rigged 2D character

Paint your character the way you always do, in layers and folders, save it as a PSD and drop it into pinkcel. Each part arrives as its own layer, in place, ready for bones. This guide shows how pinkcel reads the file and how to organise a PSD so the rig almost builds itself.

How pinkcel reads a PSD

• A folder that contains only layers becomes one image. Painters split a part into line art, colour and shading; pinkcel composites those into a single image, because for a rig that folder is one moving piece.
• A folder that contains other folders stays a folder, so a hierarchy such as Character › Arm › Forearm survives the import.
• Clipped layers merge into their base, the way they look in your painting app.
• Hidden layers are kept, hidden. A folder with any hidden layer inside stays a folder and every layer in it comes in on its own, including the hidden ones. That is where alternate mouths, eyes and hands usually live.
• Layer masks are applied, so a masked part arrives already trimmed.
• Everything stays in place. Parts keep their positions from the canvas; the whole import arrives as one group in the middle of your scene, folders collapsed to keep the panel tidy.

Organising the PSD for rigging

1. One folder, or one layer, per moving part. Head, torso, pelvis, each upper arm, forearm, thigh and shin. Inside a part's folder, use as many layers as you like.
2. Paint what hides behind the joints. Extend each part a little under its neighbour and round the ends, so nothing opens up when a limb rotates.
3. Group alternates and hide all but one. Put the mouth shapes in a Mouth folder, stack them from closed at the bottom to wide open at the top, and hide every shape except one. The folder then stays a folder and becomes a ready lip-sync mouth. Eyes and hand poses work the same way.
4. Name layers clearly. Names carry into pinkcel, into your bones and clips, and into exported game files.
5. Save as 8-bit RGB. Convert CMYK or 16-bit documents before saving; pinkcel tells you plainly if a file is in a format it cannot read.

From PSD to animation

1. Drop the file in. Drag the PSD onto the canvas or the layers panel, and its layers are imported straight away. Nothing is uploaded; the file is read in your browser.
2. Check the result. Expand the new group and make sure every part came in as one layer. If a part is split, it was two folders; if two parts are merged, they shared a folder.
3. Turn alternates into switches. Select the Mouth folder and make it a switch group, so exactly one shape shows at a time.
4. Rig. Add bones and bind each part to its bone. The rigging guide walks through it.
5. Animate and export. Clips, lip-sync, then a video, a sprite sheet or a Godot scene.

Only need a picture to draw over? Load the PSD as a tracing reference in the scene settings instead: its composite shows faintly behind your drawing without adding any layers.

What is supported

Whenever something is skipped, pinkcel says what and how many after the import, so nothing disappears silently.

Vector art: SVG import

If your character is vector, import an SVG instead and the shapes stay editable as vector paths: fills, strokes, linear and radial gradients, group transforms and styles from the file's stylesheet all come along, and reused elements are expanded into real shapes. As with PSD, anything that cannot be carried over is counted and reported.

FAQ

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