Asset workshop

Drawings, textures, cube models, animations and tile maps made inside editor 0.4.0. How each tool opens, where what you make is kept and how it is used in the game.

DescribesEditor 0.4.0 For creating without programming

On this page

The five tools
How it opens
What the workshop shares with the editor
The pixel editor
Exporting a drawing
The cube model editor
Exporting a model
The animation editor
The tile map editor
The asset browser
Where each thing is kept
Using what you made in the game
In Blocks mode
Before playing, testing and exporting
If a document gets damaged
Measures
What the workshop does not do
Next

The asset workshop is the part of the editor where you make the things a game shows: pixel drawings, textures, cube models with their animations and tile maps. It arrived with editor 0.4.0. Everything is done without leaving Green Games Studio and without another program.

If it is your first time, follow the guide Your first model: draw a texture, build a model, animate it and put it in a game, step by step.

The five tools#

Tool	What for	What it exports
Pixel editor	Sprites (the pixel art of flat pieces, tiles and 2D characters), tile sheets and textures that repeat.	A sprite, a PNG image or the color of a cube terrain block.
Cube model editor	3D models built from cubes, in named parts.	A model to place in the scene, or a prefab of pieces.
Animation editor	Clips of a cube model (turning, moving or stretching each part over time) and animations of a sprite (which frames are shown and how fast).	They travel inside the model or the sprite.
Tile map editor	Maps of a scene: side view (platforms) or view from above.	The map, placed in its scene.
Asset browser	Everything in the workshop as cards: where each thing is used, how much it weighs and the game's budgets.	Nothing: it is for finding and sorting.

How it opens#

It is in Full mode. There are three ways:

At the bottom of the Content browser: the Drawing, Model, Map and Assets buttons. Import…, next to them, opens the importer.
The File menu: New drawing…, New cube model…, New tile map… and Workshop assets.
From what is already in the game: a sprite in the Content browser opens its drawing; in Details, Draw opens the drawing of a sprite or a texture, and Edit or New map open a tile map of the scene.

The editor in Full mode with the Content browser at the bottom: on the left the filters All 43, Prefabs 20, Materials 14, Palettes 5, Sounds 2, Models 0, Textures 0, Recorded sounds 0 and more; at the bottom of the panel, the Drawing, Model, Map, Assets, Import… and Script buttons — The workshop buttons, at the bottom of the Content browser.

The File menu open with Save, New script, New drawing…, New cube model…, New tile map…, Workshop assets, Game blocks, Import… with Ctrl+I, Export game…, Show the project in its folder, Game card, Settings… and Close project — The same from the File menu.

Each document opens in its own tab in the center, next to the scene, the script and the Game card. Above the tool there are three buttons: Draw (or Model) and Animate, which switch tools on the same document, and Assets, which opens the browser.

What the workshop shares with the editor#

Undo. Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y are the editor's: a drawn stroke is undone just like a piece moved in the scene. Consecutive strokes on the same document are merged into one step. The undo button says what will be undone, for example "Edit drawing "Brick"".
Saving. Every change is saved by itself, like everything else in the project.
Theme and language. The tools follow the light or dark theme and the language of the interface.

The pixel editor#

It is for sprites, tile sheets and textures. When you create a drawing you choose what you will draw:

Option	Starting size
Small sprite: an item or an icon	16 x 16
Character: matches the avatar	8 x 16
Big sprite	32 x 32
Tile sheet	4 x 2 tiles of 16
Repeating texture	64 x 64
Big canvas: texture or illustration	256 x 256

The New drawing dialog with the Name field, which says Brick, the What you will draw dropdown with Repeating texture (64 x 64), the Palette and the Create button — A new drawing: name, what you will draw and palette.

The tools are on the left: pencil (B), eraser (E), fill (G), line (L), rectangle (R), ellipse (O), selection (S), move (V) and eyedropper (I). On the right, the palette, with Ready palettes…, and the layers, up to 16. Below, the animation frames with the length of each one and their preview.

The top bar has the left-right and top-bottom mirror, tiling (it shows the drawing repeated around it and a stroke that leaves through one edge comes in through the other, for textures that match themselves), Ready textures, the canvas size and Export.

Ready textures generates a texture so you can start without drawing. There are seven recipes: Noise, Brick, Wood, Stone, Grass, Metal and Cloth. Each one has its sliders and colors, and Another like it changes the randomness without changing the recipe. Use this texture replaces the chosen layer of the frame; it can be undone.

The Ready textures dialog with the recipes Noise, Brick, Wood, Stone, Grass, Metal and Cloth, Brick selected, the preview repeated twice, the Rows, Bricks per row, Mortar and Variation sliders, the Brick and Mortar colors, the Another like it button and Use this texture — A recipe as a starting point.

The pixel editor in its Brick tab: on the left the tools with the rectangle selected, in the middle a brick texture with a gray rectangle drawn on top at the top left, on the right the 14-color palette and the layer Capa 1 (the default layer keeps its Spanish name); below, frame 0, the frame length and the preview; in the status bar 64 x 64 and 5 colors in use — A brick texture with a stroke on top.

Exporting a drawing#

Export opens a dialog with what can be taken out of that drawing:

Sprite: the game's image format, for flat pieces, tiles and characters. A sprite is at most 64 x 64 pixels, with up to 64 frames and 36 colors; if the drawing does not fit, it is not exported and the message says why.
PNG image: a texture for a piece's material. It is kept in texturas/.
Cube terrain block: the terrain paints each face with a single color, so a texture gives it the average color of the top, the sides and the bottom.

The drawing's Export dialog: the explanation of the sprite, the Sprite and PNG image buttons, and the Cube terrain block section with the Top, Sides and Bottom colors, the Block (JSON) button and the note that the terrain paints each face with a single color — Export: sprite, image or block color.

The cube model editor#

A model is built by placing cubes on a grid of up to 64 x 64 x 64. When you create one you pick a template or start from scratch:

Template	Grid
Empty	16 x 16 x 16
Character	20 x 30 x 10
Tree	16 x 24 x 16
Vehicle	16 x 12 x 28
Furniture	16 x 10 x 12
Coin	12 x 12 x 4

The New model dialog with the name Robot and the templates Empty 16 x 16 x 16, Character 20 x 30 x 10, Tree 16 x 24 x 16, Vehicle 16 x 12 x 28, Furniture 16 x 10 x 12 and Coin 12 x 12 x 4 — Start from scratch or from a template.

The tools are place (B: the new cube sticks to the face you touch), remove (E), paint (P), fill (G), box (R: drag from one corner to another and it places, removes or paints the whole block), selection (S), eyedropper (I) and turn the view (H). With the right button the view turns and the wheel zooms in; Front, Side and Top straighten it.

A model is built in named parts (up to 24). Each part has its cubes, its pivot (the orange mark, with the Top, Center and Bottom buttons) and the part it is attached to: if the body turns, the head turns with it. The parts are what you animate later.

The status bar shows the grid size, how many cubes there are, which part is selected and the height of the model in units, with the game character's next to it (1.80) for comparison. The slider below hides the top layers so you can work inside.

The cube editor in the Robot tab: a green body with a yellow head on top, inside the grid; on the right the 8-color palette and the parts Cuerpo (the default part, which keeps its Spanish name) and Head, with Head selected and attached to Cuerpo, and its pivot; in the status bar 16 x 16 x 16, 856 cubes, part Head and height 1.00 (the game character is 1.80) — A model with two parts: body and head.

Exporting a model#

Export offers two outputs:

Model (optimized mesh): for characters and detailed objects. Only the visible faces are kept and neighbors of the same color are joined. The dialog says how many triangles are left, how much it weighs and how many clips it carries, against a model's maximum: 20,000 triangles and 2 MB. The model is kept in modelos/ and shows up in Place pieces, under Project models.
Prefab of pieces: for small models. The model becomes game boxes (up to 240) and is placed like any prefab. It is not animated.

The model's Export dialog: Model (optimized mesh), 24 triangles (unoptimized it would be 10272), 4.4 KB, max 20000 and 2 MB, 1 clip, with the Model button; and Prefab of pieces, 2 pieces, with the Prefab button — What the model weighs before you export it.

The animation editor#

With a cube model open, Animate switches to the timeline of the same document.

Clips. A clip is a named movement. New clip offers templates (idle, walk, jump, fall, attack and spin), which move the parts named like those of the Character template, or an empty clip. The game uses four names on its own when the model is a character: quieto, caminar, saltar and caer.
Timeline. One row per part and one diamond per key. The red cursor is dragged along the ruler. A clip lasts up to 10 seconds.
Pose. Rotation, offset and size of the selected part at the cursor's instant. Changing a number leaves a key there, and each key says how it moves on to the next.
Preview at ¼, ½, 1 or 2 times the speed.

Animate mode of the Robot: the model turning its head in the preview, the timeline with the Cuerpo and Head rows and a key on Head, the look clip and the rotation, offset and size controls of the selected part — A clip that turns the head.

With a sprite, Animate shows its animations: the sequence of frames, the length of each, the steps per second and whether it repeats.

The tile map editor#

A tile map is part of a scene. It is created from Details, with nothing selected, in the Tile maps category with New map, or with the Map button of the Content browser. The dialog asks for the name, the kind of map (side or floor), the columns, the rows and the scene it goes into.

Tiles (up to 60): a plain color or taken from a sprite. Each one says how it collides (solid, platform, hazard, ladder, floor or decoration; only the ones that exist in that kind of map are offered), its color or its frame, and tags for the code.
Tools: paint (B), erase (E), fill (G), rectangle (R), stamp (T), selection (S) and eyedropper (I).
Layers (up to 8): the ones that collide and the background ones.
Map: columns, rows, tile side and place in the world.

The map editor in the Path tab: a row of brick tiles and a rectangle of gray tiles on a 12 x 8 grid; on the right the Block tile and the brick one, the name, how it collides, the stone color and the wall height; below the Floor layer, which collides; in the status bar 12 x 8, floor map (view from above) and 40 tiles placed — A floor map painted with two tiles.

When you export it, or play, the map goes back into its scene. In Details, each map has its Edit button.

The scene with the brick map on the floor to one side and Details with the Tile maps category: the map path, floor, 12×8, 1 layer, 2 tiles, with its Edit button, the note that what you paint comes back into the scene when you export it or play, and the New map button — The map in its scene, with Edit and New map.

The asset browser#

Assets opens a tab with everything in the workshop as cards, with search and filters. When you pick one:

Where it is used: in which scenes, maps, pieces and documents.
How much it weighs, for what goes into the game.
The actions open, animate, duplicate, rename (it follows the references in the scenes) and delete.

At the bottom are the game's budgets as bars: sprites, models, textures, the heaviest model, the total of models and textures, and the whole game without the workshop sources.

The asset browser with the Robot, Path and Brick cards; Brick selected, with Where it is used: a tile of the map path, the texture of a piece in the principal scene and a tile in the map document; at the bottom, the bars Game sprites, Game models, Loose textures, Heaviest model, Models and textures total and Game without the workshop sources — Where each thing is used and how much it weighs.

Where each thing is kept#

What	Where, inside the project
The documents you edit	`taller/pixeles/`, `taller/cubos/` and `taller/mapas/`. They do not go into the `.ggx`.
A sprite	`laminas/<id>.json`
A texture	`texturas/<id>.png`
A model	`modelos/<id>.glb` and its settings, `modelos/<id>.json`
A map	Inside its scene, `escenas/<id>.json`
The credit	`creditos.json`: what you make in the workshop gets the license propia (your own), your author name (the one in Settings) and the origin "Taller de assets de Green Games Studio".

The id comes from the name you gave it: "Brick" becomes brick, in lowercase, without accents and with hyphens.

The Content browser has the new filters Models, Textures, Recorded sounds, Cube models and Tile maps. What you have not exported yet carries the label draft.

The Content browser with the Cube models filter selected and the Robot card, 16×16×16; on the left the filters with their counts: All 48, Models 1, Textures 1, Sprites 1, Cube models 1, Tile maps 1 and the rest — The workshop documents are in Content too.

Using what you made in the game#

What	Where it is used
A texture	In a piece's Details, Material category: Texture (project image), with Repeat and Pixelated. Draw opens its drawing.
A sprite	As a flat piece: drag it from Content to the viewport. In Details, Draw opens it.
A model	Place pieces › Project models: it is placed at its natural size. Details › Model picks its clip. See Models in the scene.
A model as the player	In Details, with nothing selected: Player look. It only uses the clips `quieto`, `caminar`, `saltar` and `caer`.
A map	It stays in its scene when you export it.
In the rules	Recorded sounds are picked in "play sound". See Rules without code.
In code	`pieza.reproducir(clip)`, `pieza.pararAnimacion()`, `pieza.clips` and `sonido.muestra(id)`. See Models, textures and sounds.

In Blocks mode#

In a Blocks game, the show the sprite block in the Looks category has a pencil next to its list: it opens the drawing of the chosen sprite or, if there is none yet, creates a new one. Once you export it, the sprite shows up in the block's list.

A blocks project with the floor object: the when the game starts hat and below it the show the sprite block, with its list and the pencil to draw; on the left the Looks category open — The pencil of the show the sprite block.

A piece with a model, programmed with Program with blocks from Details, has in Looks the blocks animate me with a clip, once or over and over, and stop my animation. Events has when my animation ends. If the game has recorded sounds, Sound also has play recorded sound.

The Looks category of an object that is a model, with the blocks animate me with girar over and over and stop my animation at the end, after the other looks blocks — The blocks of a model.

Before playing, testing and exporting#

You do not need to remember to export. Before Play, Test with bot and Export, the editor exports what changed since last time and says so in the Console, for example: "Before playing, 1 changed asset was exported into the game: Brick."

If something cannot be exported, for example a sprite bigger than 64 x 64, it shows up in Problems with the code TLL and a button that opens the document.

If a document gets damaged#

A document in taller/ that cannot be read does not stop the project from opening: the rest opens anyway and Problems shows a warning with the file name.

The Problems panel with a warning: taller/pixeles/roto.json could not be read, JSON Parse error: Unexpected EOF; the rest of the project opens anyway, fix it with a text editor or delete it — A damaged document is only a warning.

Measures#

What	Up to
Canvas of a drawing	512 x 512 pixels (a game sprite, 64 x 64)
Layers and frames of a drawing	16 and 64
Colors in a palette	62 (a game sprite, 36)
Grid of a model	64 x 64 x 64 cubes
Parts of a model	24
Length of a clip	10 seconds
Tiles and layers of a map	60 and 8

What the workshop does not do#

The assistant does not use it. The assistant does not draw or build models; if you ask it to, it says where the workshop and the importer are. It does not receive the list of what is in the workshop either.
Textures on the cube terrain. A terrain block carries flat colors: from a texture it takes its average color.
The scene view does not animate clips. The chosen clip shows when you play.
Model cards carry an icon, not a thumbnail.
A drawing's layers have no partial transparency, the selection is always a rectangle, and a cube model has one color per cube, with no texture.

Everything that is missing is in What is missing.

Next#

Your first model: the step-by-step guide.
Models in the scene: placing, animating, limits and credits.
Import assets: models, textures and sounds made with other tools.