# Meet Layout Manager 

The Browser-Based Canvas Built for Game Artists & AI Pipelines

By RUN.team · August 6, 2026

![Meet Layout Manager ](https://res.cloudinary.com/venusseriesai/image/upload/v1785986969/upload_o26fi4.webp)

https://youtu.be/9uupgHcvfeY

Creating and organizing game assets—especially sprite sheets and layered character gear—often requires bouncing between heavy photo editors, specialized sprite tools, and custom scripts. Then Barker made **Layout Manager**, a lightweight, open-source canvas application that runs entirely in your web browser. Styled with the intuitive drag-and-drop feel of modern layout tools like Canva, Layout Manager is tailored specifically for indie developers, game artists, and AI creators who need precision, speed, and seamless pipeline integration.

## Key Features at a Glance

# **1. Smart Canvas & Sprite Sheet Layouts**

Whether you are building a simple UI layout or organizing complex sprite animations, Layout Manager gives you full control over your canvas.

- **Precise Alignment:** Use grids, snapping, rulers, and hotkey alignments (similar to PureRef) to organize dozens of assets instantly.

- **Pixel-Art Ready:** Toggle between *Bicubic* and *Nearest Neighbor* scaling on the fly so pixel art remains crisp.

- **Non-Destructive Editing:** Crop, rotate, add strokes, paint masks, or adjust color settings without permanently modifying your source files.

# **2. Animation & Flipbook Extraction**

Import MP4 videos or GIF animations to extract frames directly into memory or disk. Preview animation loops with the built-in player, select keyframes, and arrange them into production-ready sprite sheets complete with automated batch-renaming.

# **3. Spatial Metadata & Rig Parenting**

One of Layout Manager’s standout features is its ability to handle **parent-child element relationships**.

- Link paper-doll accessories (like hats, weapons, or armor) directly to character bases.

- Define **Base** and **Offset** positions with custom pixel masks.

- Export full layout metadata as structured **JSON (**`page_info`**)**, allowing game engines or AI models to understand exact spatial positions and asset relationships without manual trial and error.

# **4. Private, Local-First AI Workflows**

Layout Manager integrates modern AI capabilities directly into your browser workspace without locking you into proprietary platforms:

- **In-Browser Background Removal:** Powered by ONNX Runtime and IS-Net, process background removal locally with zero server lag, total privacy, and no API keys required.

- **ComfyUI Integration:** Connect directly to your local ComfyUI instance to execute custom image-to-image or background-removal nodes right from your canvas.

- **Multimodal Chat Helpers:** Attach canvas elements to local LLMs or GPT APIs to automatically generate prompts or analyze visual layouts.

### Getting Started

Layout Manager runs on your own computer, in your browser. You need to do two things once: install [Node.js](https://nodejs.org/en), and [download this project.](https://github.com/series-ai/run-workshop/tree/main/games/layout-manager)