What makes a walk cycle loop cleanly
A loop is clean when the last frame leads straight back into the first. If the pose at the end differs from the pose at the start, even by a few pixels of arm swing, the player sees a hitch every time the animation wraps around. Every MoveLab clip starts on its direction's standing still and is made to stop back on it, so the idle pose and the walk always meet.
Cycles are made at 24 fps, the traditional rate for hand-drawn animation. Your game does not have to match it: a 60 fps game shows each 24 fps frame for two or three screen refreshes, and pixel-art games often play fewer frames on purpose for a snappier look.
In between, the character walks steadily for several strides. The export keeps that whole sequence instead of cutting it for you, and the LLMS.txt inside tells your coding agent how to find the exact cycle length in the steady middle, check the seam by playing it three times in a row, and trim, so the loop you ship is the loop you checked.
Walk versus run
MoveLab makes two gaits for every direction, both from the same 8 stills, so they belong to the same character:
- Walk, about 2 steps a second. One foot is always on the ground and the body stays upright. Use it for exploring, towns and indoor scenes.
- Run, about 3 steps a second. Both feet leave the ground between strides, the body leans into the motion and the arms are bent and pumping. Use it for combat, chases and sprinting.
Most games want both and switch between them at a speed threshold. Because the two sets share stills, frame size and frame rate, the switch reads as the same character speeding up rather than a different sprite taking over.
Frame count and pixel art
A 24 fps cycle has plenty of frames for smooth, high-resolution sprites. For pixel art, fewer frames often look better. LLMS.txt describes how to downsample a cycle to about 8 to 12 frames and resize every direction at one scale with premultiplied alpha, so outlines stay crisp and no direction ends up a different size from the others.
From one image to a walk cycle
- Upload one image of your character, PNG or JPEG.
- MoveLab draws a clean front view, then the 8 stills from it.
- Choose walk or run. Each direction gets its own loop, with the background removed and the edges outlined.
- Export one zip of transparent PNG frames for Unity, Godot, GameMaker, Phaser or any engine that reads PNG.
Bought once, not rented
MoveLab is a desktop app for Windows, macOS and Linux, bought once on itch.io instead of rented by the month. Generations run on your own OpenRouter key and OpenRouter bills you only for what you make.