Dynamic Grid Tile

Overview

Dynamic Grid Tile EFX is a sequence-based effect used to optimize the rendering of animation frame sequences. The feature divides each frame into a grid of small tiles and reuses tiles that remain unchanged between consecutive frames.

Instead of rendering the entire frame repeatedly, only tiles containing updated pixel data are rendered while unchanged tiles are reused from the previous frame. This method improves rendering efficiency and reduces processing overhead.

Dynamic Grid Tile EFX is particularly useful for animations that contain large static regions or minimal changes between frames.

Working Principle

When an animation sequence is used with Dynamic Grid Tile EFX, the rendering process follows these steps:

Each frame is divided into a grid based on the configured Tile Width and Tile Height values.

For every frame in the sequence, tiles are evaluated against the corresponding tiles from the previous frame.

Tiles that remain unchanged are reused from the previous frame.

Only tiles containing updated pixel data are rendered.

This tile-based reuse mechanism improves animation efficiency, especially when most parts of the frame remain static.

Creating a Dynamic Grid Tile EFX File

To create an EFX - Dynamic Grid Tile file, right click on images ->New -> Project. In the dialog, select Sparklet EFX option. Now select EFX type as Dynamic Grid Tile and click Next.

EFX - Dynamic Grid Tile

Then the Wizard asks for File Name. Once entered, the EFX file is created as below.

EFX - Dynamic Grid Tile after creation

Place the exported sequence of images in the “sequences” folder under the “images” folder. Now click on the Add, select Sequence Base Type as “ Image Sequence” from the drop-down list and then click on the Base value. Select the initial image in the sequence and click Ok. Now the sequence of images with frame values has been included and sequences can be played in the preview section.

After adding the sequence, the following properties can be configured.

Tile Dimensions

Tile dimensions define how each frame is divided for tile-based reuse.

Property	Supported Values
Tile Width	8, 16, 32, 64, 128 pixels
Tile Height	8, 16, 32, 64, 128 pixels

Tile Size Selection

Smaller tiles (8 or 16) provide more detailed change detection.

Larger tiles (64 or 128) reduce tile processing overhead when large areas change.

Selecting appropriate tile sizes helps balance performance and efficiency.

Mask Image

A Mask Image can be applied to define the visible region of the animation.

The mask controls which regions of the base animation remain visible. Areas outside the mask region are clipped in the rendered output.

Mask images can be used to create:

circular animation regions

custom UI animation shapes

restricted animation areas within a frame

Constraints and Limitations

The following constraints apply when using Dynamic Grid Tile EFX:

A single sequence folder can contain up to 300 images.

All images in a sequence must have identical dimensions.

Tile Width and Tile Height must use supported values: 8, 16, 32, 64, or 128.

JPEG images must have width and height values that are multiples of 16.

Mask images must be provided in A8 format.