Sprite Sheets in XNA
Kris Stewart
CS 583 3D Game Programming - Spr2011

There are two big users of Sprite Sheets these days - web developers who wish to have elaborate pages with fewer http-calls and game developers. We will focus on the uses from game development point of view.

Our author recommends the http://paint.net/. The current version is Paint.Net v3.5.8 - still a free download. Its documentation is www.getpaint.net/doc/latest/index.html

Our textbook starts the discussion in Chapter 3: Fun with Sprites
Lect3_finishCh3.html
which features the threerings.png sprite sheet Fig 3.8 Sample Sprint Sheet. We are told on p. 40 that the required dimensions are Presented in the Game1.cs file in AnimatedSprites directory. LearningXNA4_code/Chapter3/AnimatedSprites/AnimatedSprites/AnimatedSprites/Game1.cs

One of the most useful write ups I found on
www.themechanicalmaniacs.com/guides/spriteguide.php
"Recently there has been allot of questions by people on how to sprite. While it is fairly obvious to me, allot of people have asked for a tutorial and I figured why not? Please understand that I make NO claims to be a great spriter, nor do I wish to be. I just know how it's done. All of these sprites can be made in any paint program. You don't need anything fancier than MS Paint.

Allot of other people go into actually using Paint and the subtleties of the Frankenstein, but ...... if you can't grasp the basics after reading my tutorial I don't think you'll have much of a future spriting. It's not complicated. You zoom into an existing sprite, change some stuff, and then yer done. Practice and you'll get better. If you still need tutorials after reading through this one then you're over thinking things. Really, it is that simple, but if it helps you get started read on and I'll give you the basics on making your very own shiny new sprites." 

Pre-sprite 1: How to make a sprite sheet
Pre-sprite 2: How to make a GIF file
Type #1 - the recolour
Type #2 - the remake
Type #3 - the totally original
Type #4 - the fancy animation
Shading and High Contrast
"So, what does 32-bit Actually MEAN, Anyway??"
The Spriter's Code
FAQ

Nick Gravelyn spritesheetpacker.codeplex.com//
Using Sprite Sheet Packer with XNA GS
Sprite Sheet Packer includes two ways for XNA games to consume the files:

1) Use the XML exporter which saves into the XML Intermediate Format. Add the XML file to your content project and use Content.Load> to load the file as a dictionary mapping the image name to the source rectangle.

2) Use the TXT exporter and read the file in manually. Below is one way to handle reading in this file:

First, add both the outputted PNG and TXT file to your content project. Right click on the TXT file and choose the Properties option. Find the “Build Action” property and set that to None and the “Copy to Output Directory” property to “Copy if Newer”. This will copy the text file to your outputted folder without trying to build it as content.

create.msdn.com/en-US/education/catalog/sample/sprite_sheet
The MSDN App Hub resource has a Sprite Sheet Sample that looks very useful for us. I would like to run a live demo in lecture today.