
If you are simply exporting a bitmap sprite, then you can stop reading here, as there really isn't much more to say since the method for creating and using "normal" sprites is well known.

This animation can then be exported either as a bitmap sprite strip, or as a Spine JSON file for adding into your game in GameMaker. The skeleton is composed of "bones", which can be attached and moved in relation to one another over a set time-frame, and the final animation can be "skinned" (ie: given a texture) for the final animation. Spine works by having you create a "skeleton" and then pose it to create animations.

NOTE: Spine has a Trial version available for download here: Note that Spine is a very powerful program with lots of possibilities and there is not nearly enough room in one short article to explain how it all works! We will however give a brief overview of some key points that are related to the way that GameMaker implements skeletal animation sprites. GameMaker supports this type of animated sprite created using the program Spine (you can find out more about Spine here). This animation can then be " skinned" (ie: given a texture) and drawn to the screen like a sprite. These poses can then be turned into animation key-frames, and in turn you interpolate the bone positions between each key-frame to create a smooth and very natural looking animation. The idea behind this is that you create a base " skeleton" and then move the " bones" to create poses. A very powerful tool for creating naturalistic sprites is to create them using skeletal animation.
