🎮 Minecraft Skin Animation Slicer

A beautiful Python GUI application for generating progressive alpha mask animations from Minecraft skins. Perfect for creating smooth reveal animations that can be used in games, videos, or other projects.

✨ Features

• Modern Dark UI: Beautiful, responsive interface built with CustomTkinter
• 🎮 3D Skin Preview: Interactive 3D Minecraft character model with real-time skin rendering
• Real-time Preview: See your Minecraft skin before processing
• Multiple Animation Types:
  • Bottom to Head (feet to head reveal)
  • Head to Bottom (head to feet reveal)
  • Left to Right (left side reveal)
  • Right to Left (right side reveal)
• Customizable Frames: Choose any number of animation frames
• Alpha Mask Generation: Creates black silhouettes with preserved transparency
• Progress Tracking: Real-time progress bar and status updates
• Organized Output: Automatically creates organized folders for your animations
• In-App Animation Viewer: Preview your generated animations with a scrub slider
• Frame 0 Support: Automatically generates a blank starting frame
• Smart Naming: Files named with original filename + frame number
• Interactive 3D Controls:
  • Mouse drag to rotate the 3D model
  • Mouse wheel to zoom in/out
  • Real-time texture mapping from skin files

🚀 Installation

1. Clone or download this repository

2. Install required dependencies:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

3. Run the application:

   python animation_slicer.py

📋 Requirements

• Python 3.7+
• Pillow (PIL) 10.0.0+
• customtkinter 5.2.0+
• numpy 1.21.0+ (for 3D rendering)
• tkinter (usually comes with Python)

🎯 How to Use

🎮 3D Skin Preview

1. Launch the application by running python animation_slicer.py

2. Navigate to the "3D Skin Preview" tab

3. Load a Minecraft skin:

   • Click "📁 Browse Skin" to select your own skin file
   • Or click "🎮 Load Test Skin (BanditSkin.png)" to use the included test skin
   • The 3D model will update with your skin texture

4. Interact with the 3D model:

   • Left click + drag: Rotate the model in 3D space
   • Mouse wheel: Zoom in and out
   • The model shows how your skin looks on an actual Minecraft character

🎬 Animation Generator

1. Navigate to the "Animation Generator" tab

2. Select a Minecraft skin file:

   • Click the "📁 Browse" button
   • Choose a PNG file containing your Minecraft skin
   • The skin will appear in the preview panel

3. Configure animation settings:

   • Number of frames: Set how many animation frames to generate (default: 36)
   • Animation type: Choose from:
     • Bottom to Head: Gradually reveals the skin from feet to head
     • Head to Bottom: Gradually reveals the skin from head to feet
     • Left to Right: Gradually reveals the skin from left to right
     • Right to Left: Gradually reveals the skin from right to left

4. Generate animation frames:

   • Click "🎬 Generate Animation Frames"
   • Watch the progress bar as frames are created
   • Files will be saved to output/[filename]_animation/

5. Preview your animation:

   • Use the animation viewer in the right panel
   • Scrub through frames with the slider
   • Play/pause the animation with the ▶️ button

📁 Output Structure

The application creates organized output folders:

output/
└── your_skin_name_animation/
    ├── your_skin_name_0.png   (blank frame)
    ├── your_skin_name_1.png   (first animation frame)
    ├── your_skin_name_2.png
    ├── your_skin_name_3.png
    ├── ...
    └── your_skin_name_36.png  (last frame - full visibility)

Each frame uses the original filename followed by an underscore and frame number. Frame 0 is always a blank/transparent image of the same size.

🎨 Understanding Alpha Masks

The generated frames are alpha masks where:

• Non-transparent pixels from the original skin become black (RGB: 0,0,0)
• Transparent pixels remain transparent (Alpha: 0)
• The alpha channel is preserved for proper compositing

This format is perfect for:

• Shader effects in game engines
• Video compositing in editing software
• UI animations in applications
• Special effects overlays

🔧 Technical Details

Minecraft Skin Format

The application works with standard Minecraft skin files:

• 64x64 pixel PNG images
• RGBA format (with alpha channel)
• Standard Minecraft skin UV mapping

Animation Generation Process

1. Load the original skin texture
2. Convert non-transparent pixels to black while preserving alpha
3. Progressively reveal sections based on animation type
4. Save each frame as a numbered PNG file

3D Preview System

• 3D Model: Accurate Minecraft player model with proper proportions
• UV Mapping: Correct mapping of skin textures to 3D geometry
• Real-time Rendering: Smooth 60fps canvas-based 3D rendering
• Texture Sampling: Smart color averaging for better visual quality
• Cross-platform Input: Mouse and wheel support for Windows, Mac, and Linux

Performance

• Multithreaded processing to keep UI responsive
• Efficient pixel manipulation using PIL
• Progress tracking for large frame counts

🛠️ Customization

Adding New Animation Types

You can extend the application by adding new animation methods to the MinecraftSkinAnimator class:

def generate_custom_animation(self, original_img, output_dir, frames):
    # Your custom animation logic here
    pass

Modifying Output Format

Change the filename format in the generation methods:

frame_path = output_dir / f"frame_{i+1:04d}.png"  # 4-digit padding

🐛 Troubleshooting

Common Issues

"Failed to load image" error:

• Ensure the file is a valid PNG image
• Check that the file isn't corrupted
• Verify the image has proper permissions

"Generation failed" error:

• Make sure you have write permissions in the output directory
• Check that there's enough disk space
• Verify the number of frames is a positive integer

Application won't start:

• Ensure all dependencies are installed: pip install -r requirements.txt
• Check that you're using Python 3.7 or newer
• Try running with: python -m tkinter to test tkinter installation

Performance Tips

• For very high frame counts (100+), expect longer processing times
• Close other applications if you experience memory issues
• Use reasonable frame counts (10-50) for most use cases

🎬 Use Cases

• Game Development: Create smooth player reveal animations
• Video Production: Generate mask sequences for video editing
• UI Design: Create progressive loading animations
• Educational Content: Demonstrate skin structure and layers
• Art Projects: Generate stylized animation sequences
• Skin Design: Preview how your custom skins look on a 3D Minecraft character
• Content Creation: Test and showcase skin designs before uploading
• Skin Validation: Ensure your skin textures map correctly to the character model

📝 License

This project is open source. Feel free to modify and distribute as needed.

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Some ideas for improvements:

• Additional animation patterns (spiral, radial, etc.)
• Batch processing multiple skins
• Export to GIF or video formats
• Custom color options for masks
• Support for other texture formats

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Happy animating! 🎮✨