# \[Release\] SCMLParser: Spriter (.scml) Animation Support for Defold **URL:** \ **Category:** The Defoldmine\ **Created:** [June 9, 2025, 12:02am UTC](https://forum.defold.com/t/release-scmlparser-spriter-scml-animation-support-for-defold/80673 "2025-06-09T00:02:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ertocosta](https://forum-defold.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/forum.defold.com/ertocosta/32/15070_2.png) [@ertocosta](https://forum.defold.com/u/ertocosta)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2025, 12:02am UTC](https://forum.defold.com/t/release-scmlparser-spriter-scml-animation-support-for-defold/80673/1 "2025-06-09T00:02:02Z")
Hi everyone, I’d like to share a new extension we’ve been working on: SCMLParser. It adds support for Spriter .scml animation files in Defold. [Video tutorial](https://youtu.be/f2lc-fGAcvs?si=eBnr74UOiKkR5hmf) We made this because we needed a lightweight way to use bone-based animations from Spriter in our Defold projects, and we didn’t find any existing solution. So we built one and decided to open-source it. GitHub: [https://github.com/EVEVGames/SCMLParser](https://github.com/EVEVGames/SCMLParser) What it does: Loads and plays .scml animations Supports bones, sprites, charmaps ---
**Author:** ![Eren](https://forum-defold.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/forum.defold.com/eren/32/42870_2.png) [@Eren](https://forum.defold.com/u/Eren)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2025, 2:23am UTC](https://forum.defold.com/t/release-scmlparser-spriter-scml-animation-support-for-defold/80673/2 "2025-06-09T02:23:07Z")
Hello, First of all, thank you very much for this extension. It looks like it will be very helpful in my projects. However, I couldn’t get it to work properly. I’m a beginner game developer, so I might have made a mistake somewhere. ![1](https://forum-defold-uploads.b-cdn.net/original/3X/1/8/18bebb33fe675f958359a47e8f9e0c06b5ea98f8.png) ![2](https://forum-defold-uploads.b-cdn.net/original/3X/a/0/a084d2aa2f6c270f067ecd4fbcce1dbd6d4fdff3.png) [Spriter deneme.zip](https://forum.defold.com/uploads/short-url/7TBaFR74Uxo5QYOLvkTvfQYoLNv.zip) (676.1 KB) ---
**Author:** ![ertocosta](https://forum-defold.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/forum.defold.com/ertocosta/32/15070_2.png) [@ertocosta](https://forum.defold.com/u/ertocosta)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2025, 1:27pm UTC](https://forum.defold.com/t/release-scmlparser-spriter-scml-animation-support-for-defold/80673/3 "2025-06-09T13:27:23Z")
Hello, thank you for the feedback. Could you please let me know which error occurs in the console? We’re still working on the project — this first version might have some bugs. ---
**Author:** ![Eren](https://forum-defold.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/forum.defold.com/eren/32/42870_2.png) [@Eren](https://forum.defold.com/u/Eren)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2025, 1:57pm UTC](https://forum.defold.com/t/release-scmlparser-spriter-scml-animation-support-for-defold/80673/4 "2025-06-09T13:57:45Z")
![4](https://forum-defold-uploads.b-cdn.net/original/3X/7/e/7e0bba0fbc31602f97b01c82beaf7145a0145198.jpeg) I’m getting an error like this. The sprite is also not loading properly on the screen. I’m also sharing the project files in case you want to check them. I’m using the character and animation set provided by Spriter Pro. [Spriter deneme.zip](https://forum.defold.com/uploads/short-url/xLPF6Wy7AjvhNgD9ttsnTqKnNps.zip) (676.2 KB) ---
**Author:** ![ertocosta](https://forum-defold.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/forum.defold.com/ertocosta/32/15070_2.png) [@ertocosta](https://forum.defold.com/u/ertocosta)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2025, 2:24pm UTC](https://forum.defold.com/t/release-scmlparser-spriter-scml-animation-support-for-defold/80673/5 "2025-06-09T14:24:33Z")
Thanks! I ran your project locally and got the same error. We’ll look into it and update this thread once we find something. ---
**Author:** ![EVEVGames](https://forum-defold.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/forum.defold.com/evevgames/32/39918_2.png) [@EVEVGames](https://forum.defold.com/u/EVEVGames)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2025, 1:47pm UTC](https://forum.defold.com/t/release-scmlparser-spriter-scml-animation-support-for-defold/80673/6 "2025-06-10T13:47:30Z")
Thank you for testing. I was able to confirm it’s a bug 🕷 (I’ll fix it and let you know here). There’s also an issue with the scale and how the bones are referenced ---
**Author:** ![EVEVGames](https://forum-defold.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/forum.defold.com/evevgames/32/39918_2.png) [@EVEVGames](https://forum.defold.com/u/EVEVGames)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2025, 9:08pm UTC](https://forum.defold.com/t/release-scmlparser-spriter-scml-animation-support-for-defold/80673/7 "2025-06-14T21:08:08Z")
I was able to reproduce the same issue here. In Defold (and other engines as well), when a parent game object has non-uniform scaling, it will distort rotated child sprites (as seen with the spider). To fix this, I created a `fix_scale` function that applies the scale directly to sprites and recalculates their position accordingly. ---
**Author:** ![ertocosta](https://forum-defold.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/forum.defold.com/ertocosta/32/15070_2.png) [@ertocosta](https://forum.defold.com/u/ertocosta)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2025, 11:27pm UTC](https://forum.defold.com/t/release-scmlparser-spriter-scml-animation-support-for-defold/80673/8 "2025-06-15T23:27:44Z")
Congrats!! I tested it with 200 collection instances and it works fine. ---
**Author:** ![antidotdev](https://forum-defold.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/forum.defold.com/antidotdev/32/40008_2.png) [@antidotdev](https://forum.defold.com/u/antidotdev)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2025, 3:12am UTC](https://forum.defold.com/t/release-scmlparser-spriter-scml-animation-support-for-defold/80673/9 "2025-06-16T03:12:31Z")
Good job, I made an account just for this haha, I’m considering using Defold for a project and spriter is my main animation software in haxe. I’m wondering if you’re planning to support character maps like these [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5nq8Weam7s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5nq8Weam7s) Or any way to swap parts? That’s a pretty important feature for me but I don’t know if you guys need it too, cheers. ---
**Author:** ![EVEVGames](https://forum-defold.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/forum.defold.com/evevgames/32/39918_2.png) [@EVEVGames](https://forum.defold.com/u/EVEVGames)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2025, 3:18pm UTC](https://forum.defold.com/t/release-scmlparser-spriter-scml-animation-support-for-defold/80673/10 "2025-06-16T15:18:50Z")
It seems to be a useful feature. I’ll try to implement it during my next free days. I saw that it’s a Spriter Pro feature. I might need to purchase a license to test it. ---
**Author:** ![antidotdev](https://forum-defold.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/forum.defold.com/antidotdev/32/40008_2.png) [@antidotdev](https://forum.defold.com/u/antidotdev)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2025, 6:13pm UTC](https://forum.defold.com/t/release-scmlparser-spriter-scml-animation-support-for-defold/80673/11 "2025-06-16T18:13:10Z")
I sent you a steam spriter pro key via dm if you need to test it, cheers. ---
**Author:** ![EVEVGames](https://forum-defold.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/forum.defold.com/evevgames/32/39918_2.png) [@EVEVGames](https://forum.defold.com/u/EVEVGames)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2025, 10:18pm UTC](https://forum.defold.com/t/release-scmlparser-spriter-scml-animation-support-for-defold/80673/12 "2025-06-16T22:18:27Z")
I really appreciate the key. I’ll be implementing this feature soon. ---
**Author:** ![EVEVGames](https://forum-defold.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/forum.defold.com/evevgames/32/39918_2.png) [@EVEVGames](https://forum.defold.com/u/EVEVGames)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2025, 3:51pm UTC](https://forum.defold.com/t/release-scmlparser-spriter-scml-animation-support-for-defold/80673/13 "2025-07-12T15:51:40Z")
After fixing some bugs, I finally implemented the character maps 🎉. The code is available in the [repo](https://github.com/EVEVGames/SCMLParser). I also changed the project name to **SCMLParser**. You can now also install it as a dependency in `game.project`. ---
**Author:** ![antidotdev](https://forum-defold.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/forum.defold.com/antidotdev/32/40008_2.png) [@antidotdev](https://forum.defold.com/u/antidotdev)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2025, 2:52am UTC](https://forum.defold.com/t/release-scmlparser-spriter-scml-animation-support-for-defold/80673/14 "2025-07-13T02:52:51Z")
Thank you so much for your hardwork! I haven’t tested it yet as I’m swamped with work but this will be very useful to us. 👍 ---
**Author:** ![Jay\_Cee](https://forum-defold.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/forum.defold.com/jay_cee/32/34527_2.png) [@Jay\_Cee](https://forum.defold.com/u/Jay_Cee)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2025, 2:53am UTC](https://forum.defold.com/t/release-scmlparser-spriter-scml-animation-support-for-defold/80673/15 "2025-12-28T02:53:22Z")
This is great as many of my animations for my platformer game was made in Spriter → exported to PNG. This might allowed smoother animations for my games!