Experimental support for importing animated image formats

We're using an experimental new feature in Chrome (WebCodecs) to support the ability to import animated image formats like GIF and APNG in to Construct 3.

Where it's supported

To use the experiment you will need to use:

• Google Chrome 86+
• Construct 3 r218+
  • In stable releases, tick Enable experimental features in Settings
  • In beta releases, it's enabled by default

How it works

When the feature is supported, you can import animated image formats (e.g. GIF files) to Construct 3, and it will import each individual animation frame as a separate image. This includes:

• Importing image files to the Animations Editor by any means (open, import files, drag-and-drop etc.), which will import all the animation frames
• Dragging and dropping an image file directly in to the Layout View, which will create a Sprite with a default animation containing all the animation frames

The following animated image formats are currently supported in Chrome:

• GIF (.gif)
• APNG (Animated PNG, .png or .apng)
• Animated WebP (.webp)
• Animated AVIF (.avif, .avifs)

Feedback

Let us know if you have any thoughts about this! You can use this thread for general discussion about the feature. If you find a bug or a crash with it, please file an issue on the issue tracker as usual, following all the guidelines to ensure we can help.

It's great, we really need this kind of features to improve the workflow in general. I can't wait for it to work with the "Load image from URL" action, with an automatic adjustment / adaptation of the total number of frames relative to the one in the GIF file.

When I drag a GIFs in layout,a sprite is made. But when 2 or more GIFs are dragged, construct 3 just "combines" them in same animation frame.

The problem with dragging multiple animated image files in one go is it's ambiguous - do you want two sprites, one sprite with two animations, or something else?

You can also import animated images in to the Animations Editor to import all their frames, so I think that's the best approach for handling separate animations.

I can't wait for it to work with the "Load image from URL" action, with an automatic adjustment / adaptation of the total number of frames relative to the one in the GIF file.

Please note this is an editor feature and isn't supported in the runtime.

Ok, yes of course. Just being able to "load" will be already fine in development / test / design context, I already do it, but I have to adjust the exact number of frames by sprites and animations with a reference data sheet to facilitate the task.

Another cool thing would be to export an area of the game to GIF. For example, when the player dies in the game or even a coloring game to show how it was done.