Spine Character Dolls

Characters can use Spine skeletal animations instead of static layered images. This provides smooth idle animations, dynamic poses, and attribute-driven skin swapping – all baked into the Spine file.

Setting Up

In the engine editor, open a character template and fill in the Spine section:

Atlas – the .atlas file
Skeleton – the .json or .skel skeleton file
Default Animation – animation name to play on creation (e.g., idle)

When a character has spine configured, CharacterDoll component automatically renders the Spine animation instead of static image layers.

Skin Mapping (Convention-Based)

Character attributes drive which Spine skins are active. Each attribute's current value is used directly as a Spine skin name. Multiple attributes combine into a multi-skin.

Attribute	Value	Spine skin activated
`outfit`	`leather`	`leather`
`hair`	`red_ponytail`	`red_ponytail`

The artist names Spine skins to match the attribute values defined in the engine editor. Attribute values that don't match any Spine skin are silently ignored.

Changing Animations

From Content (No Code)

Use the char action with the animation type:

{char: "mc.animation=idle"}

Animations are driven by character attributes. Name spine animations using attributeKey_value convention (e.g. belly_0, face_ahegao). When the attribute changes, the matching animation plays automatically on its own track.

From Scripts

const mc = game.getCharacter('mc');

// Change belly animation (plays belly_2 on its dedicated track)
mc.setAttribute('belly', '2');

// Change face expression (plays face_ahegao on its dedicated track)
mc.setAttribute('face', 'ahegao');

// Check if animation exists
if (mc.hasSpineAnimation('belly_2')) {
  mc.setAttribute('belly', '2');
}

API Reference

Method / Property	Description
`character.isSpineCharacter()`	Returns `true` if spine atlas and skeleton are configured
`character.isSpineForView(view)`	Returns `true` if spine exists for the given view (e.g. `"back"`)
`character.getSpineTrackAnimations(view?)`	Get current track-to-animation map based on attributes
`character.hasSpineAnimation(name, view?)`	Check if animation exists in the skeleton. Returns `false` if not loaded yet
`character.getSpineSkins()`	Returns array of Spine skin names from current attributes
`character.setAvailableSpineAnimations(view, names)`	Register animation names and build groups (called by engine on load)

Editor Support

All three character editor popups support spine preview:

Art Manager (face picker) – position the face crop rectangle on the animated spine
Item Slot Picker – drag item slot positions onto the spine character
Scene Slot Editor – preview spine characters with scene transforms and animations