SkelToJson 1.0.0

Convert Spine binary .skel files to JSON (Spine 4.2/4.3)

SkelToJson - Spine 2D Binary to JSON Converter

Convert Spine 2D binary .skel files to human-readable JSON — supports Spine 4.2.x and 4.3.x.

What is Spine 2D?

Spine is a 2D animation tool widely used in games, apps, and web content. It lets artists rig a skeleton of bones onto 2D images, then animate them with keyframes — producing smooth, lightweight character animations without frame-by-frame sprite sheets.

.skel vs .json — What's Inside?

Spine exports skeleton data in two formats:

.skel — Binary format (compact, not readable)

The .skel file is a binary encoding of the entire skeleton. It's optimized for size and loading speed, but completely unreadable — it's just raw bytes:

c2b3a848 2ee43256 07342e32 2e343300
c3160000 c3de0000 43960000 44610000
42c80000 00011f61 6e746963 69706174
696f6e ...

.json — JSON format (human-readable, editable)

The JSON export contains the same data in a structured, readable format. Here's the structure:

Section	Description
skeleton	Metadata: Spine version, hash, dimensions, reference scale
bones	Bone hierarchy — each bone has a name, parent, position, rotation, scale
slots	Slots attached to bones — define draw order and which attachment is visible
skins	Groups of attachments (images, meshes, bounding boxes) mapped to slots
ik	IK (Inverse Kinematics) constraints — bones follow a target
transform	Transform constraints — bones copy another bone's transform
path	Path constraints — bones follow a path curve
physics	Physics constraints — bones react to movement with inertia, gravity, wind
events	Named events triggered at specific times in animations
animations	All animations with keyframed timelines for bones, slots, attachments, constraints

Conversion Example

Input: anticipation.skel — 224 bytes of binary data

Output: anticipation.json — structured, readable:

{
  "skeleton": {
    "hash": "2ee43256c2b3a848",
    "spine": "4.2.43",
    "x": -150,
    "y": -444,
    "width": 300,
    "height": 900,
    "referenceScale": 100
  },
  "bones": [
    { "name": "root" }
  ],
  "slots": [
    {
      "name": "anticipation",
      "bone": "root",
      "attachment": "anticipationv2/anticipationv2_"
    }
  ],
  "skins": [
    {
      "name": "default",
      "attachments": {
        "anticipation": {
          "anticipationv2/anticipationv2_": {
            "y": 6,
            "width": 300,
            "height": 900,
            "sequence": { "count": 31, "start": 0, "digits": 2, "setup": 0 }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  ],
  "animations": {
    "animation": {
      "attachments": {
        "default": {
          "anticipation": {
            "anticipationv2/anticipationv2_": {
              "sequence": [
                { "mode": "loop", "index": 0, "delay": 0.03333 },
                { "time": 1, "mode": "loop", "index": 0, "delay": 0.03333 }
              ]
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

This is a simple skeleton with 1 bone, 1 slot, and a sequence-based attachment animation. Real game skeletons will have hundreds of bones, complex mesh deformations, IK chains, physics simulations, and dozens of animations.

Installation

pip install SkelToJson

CLI Usage

# Convert a single file
skel-to-json skeleton.skel

# Convert with custom output path
skel-to-json skeleton.skel -o output.json

# Convert all .skel files in a directory
skel-to-json skeletons/

# Convert directory with custom output directory
skel-to-json skeletons/ -o output/

Python API

from SkelToJson import convert_skel_to_json, convert_directory, SkelConverter

# Convert a single file
convert_skel_to_json("skeleton.skel", "skeleton.json")

# Convert all .skel files in a directory
convert_directory("skeletons/", "output/")

# Low-level: convert raw bytes to dict
converter = SkelConverter()
result = converter.convert(skel_bytes)

Supported Formats

Version	Status
Spine 4.2.x	✅ Fully supported
Spine 4.3.x	✅ Fully supported

License

MIT