PinFrame

Project Overview

PinFrame is a distinctive tool for frame sequences. It is not built for creating frame animation from scratch but for previewing and fine-tuning existing sequences: pulling a pile of mixed-size assets and sprite sheets into one project, especially AI-generated material.

Outside the animation context it is also a very capable GIF tool, handling decomposition, cropping, merging, resizing, reordering, speed changes and frame removal. The project is AI-driven in development and open source under GPL-3.0.

Item	Value
Platform	Windows (packaged builds)
Stack	Python 3.11+ with PyQt6
Form	packaged build on Releases, or run from source
License	GPL-3.0

It will not draw your animation from nothing, but it excels at turning a pile of assets into one coherent animation.

Key Features

• Precise transforms: per-frame pan, scale, rotation and mirroring with independent XY factors
• Multiple anchors: canvas center, image center, custom canvas position and image-following modes keep every transform center under control
• Onion skinning: transparent overlays of neighboring frames for checking animation flow
• Reference frames: lock any frame as a foreground or backdrop reference, mutually exclusive with onion skins
• Sprite sheet handling: a built-in slicer recovers sequences from sheets and exports sheets directly
• GIF processing: decompose, crop, merge, resize, reorder, retime and drop frames
• Professional export: custom frame ranges and background color, exporting PNG sequences, packed sheets or GIF
• Lossless projects: projects store only JSON, never duplicating assets or losing resolution, with portable project packing

Target Audience

• Creators working with AI-generated frame sequences
• Pixel artists and animators previewing and tweaking frames
• Indie game developers organizing sprite sheets
• Meme and GIF enthusiasts who regularly拆 or reassemble animations

Quick Start

1. Download the packaged Windows build from Releases, or install dependencies and run main.py
2. Drag frame sequences, GIFs or sprite sheets into the project
3. Check positioning and timing with onion skins and reference frames
4. Apply per-frame transforms or batch edits as needed
5. Export finished work as PNG sequences, sheets or GIF

Core Advantages

• Lossless assets: the JSON project records coordinates and parameters only, originals are neither copied nor recompressed
• Tweaking first: per-frame transforms and previews go far beyond ordinary image viewers
• Friendly entry: packaged builds run out of the box, source runs with just Python
• Open and hackable: GPL-3.0 licensed, forks and tweaks welcome

System Requirements

Item	Requirement
OS	Windows
Runtime	Python 3.11+, PyQt6, Pillow (source runs)
Packaged build	from Releases, no Python needed

Notes

• No layers: layers are deliberately omitted to keep the timeline simple, the goal is tweaking rather than compositing
• No pixel editing: it is a sequence organizer, not a drawing app
• Video support pending: video import and export are planned but not implemented due to size growth