Create a sprite document

Set-up mistakes are expensive to undo: a canvas that is the wrong size means redrawing, and a palette chosen after the art means repainting. Get these four things right and the rest of the work is drawing.

Procedure

1. preflight. Stop if not ready.

2. Create the canvas.

   sprite_manage op="new" width=32 height=32 colorMode="rgb"

   • Use RGB unless the user wants hard palette enforcement at the file level. Indexed mode makes the palette a hard constraint Aseprite itself enforces — good for a strict retro target, awkward for iteration.
   • Size to the game's grid if there is one: a 16×16 tile game wants character sprites that are a multiple of 16 in at least one dimension.
   • Leave headroom. A 32×32 canvas for a 28px-tall character gives room for a weapon raise or a jump squash without a later canvas resize.

3. Set the palette before drawing.

   palette op="preset" preset="pico8" replace=true

   Or build one: palette op="ramp" base="#c04030" steps=5 per material. See rules://01-palette-and-color.

4. Build the layer structure in one batch, so it is one undo step:

   layer batch=[
     {op:"create", name:"sketch"},
     {op:"create", name:"base"},
     {op:"create", name:"shading"},
     {op:"create", name:"outline"},
   ]

   For anything that will be animated, build the full character rig instead — see aseprite:rig. Splitting baked pixels apart later is real work.

5. Save immediately, so the user has a file and undo has an anchor:

   sprite_manage op="save_as" path="…/knight.aseprite"

   Ask where, or put it beside whatever project the user is working in.

6. Confirm what you made in one line: size, mode, palette, layers.

Then

aseprite:draw to block in the art.

Related

rules://01-palette-and-color, rules://06-layers-and-rigging.