The Official M&L3 Ripping Project *WARNING CONTAINS SPOILERS*

[Garamonde]

Technically, while you could include all this information, people are usually just going to use them how they want anyway.
Although I'm not an expert on this game's animations (I only ripped Kylie, an NPC), so you should depend on Ridge's or A.J.'s opinion/s more.

[A.J. Nitro]

Honestly, I think that should be up to you. If you think that would be easier, go for it.

[Raccoon Sam]

This isn't going to work.
Setting up emulation is a hassle, not to mention the mixed mash of experts and beginners taking this project up.
Did I also mention the ROM was released less than a week ago?

WELP

fanTASTIC work everyone

[puggsoy]

Honestly, I think that should be up to you. If you think that would be easier, go for it.

I think I might label them but if it's not necessary I probably won't say which are reversed and which aren't. It's just I'm always afraid of people getting confused (with other sheets too), but if I go over the top in trying to make it clear it could make the sheet even more confusing

Anyway just wanted to know if there was a specific preference about this, but if not I'll just go with what looks best. Getting the sprites is what really matters, after all.

[Ridge Troopa]

Looking good so far, but I have a few major nitpicks, one of which you should be sure to fix.
Please leave the shadows with the sprite, don't erase them. This really goes for anyone ripping anything from this game. There is absolutely no sense in taking them out (actually takes more work to do so!), and as I've already expressed when dealing with my own rips, they are completely essential for correctly animating battle sprites.
The second thing is how you arrange your animations. Maybe it's strange that I'm pointing this out, but I just have a really hard time understanding how it's supposed to work based on how you arrange the frames. I think you can find a more straightforward arrangement that doesn't require some sort of explanation as to how to animate them. Visual context is much preferred, as this is artwork we're dealing with.

EDIT: I'm not sure because of how you've placed them on the sheet, but some animations (at least Mario's idle) seem to be missing several frames. I've ripped some of his battle myself and what I have seems to be multiple times longer than some of yours, so just make sure you haven't left out frames anywhere.

[puggsoy]

Include shadows? How should I go about that? Mario's shadows are transparent so they're mixed with the background. I can probably get them properly, but then should the sheet have a transparent background or not?

Also, what about when he jumps? Should I keep the shadows then? Should they be in the same relative positions? There are also quite a number of places (such as landing on enemies) that I don't think it's possible to capture shadows.

I will double check about the number of frames. I have not included the entire idle animation though, only first half, because the second half is simply the same, reversed. I did use AnimGet though, is that a bad choice? Should I just advance frames manually and capture them?

And yeah, my sheet's completely unorganised. I haven't made an effort to organise the frames, I'll do that properly once I've got them all. I'll try and show how to animate them more simply and visually. Should I try and show which frames are reversed though?

[Ton]

Personally, I'd ditch the shadows. I'm sure the "pure" sprites don't have shadows attached.

[puggsoy]

This is what I thought. The "pure" battle sprites from PiT don't have them in any case (checked in YM). To be honest, battle shadows appear to be either 1) dynamically drawn or 2) separate sprites that are dynamically resized.

[Ridge Troopa]

Personally, I'd ditch the shadows. I'm sure the "pure" sprites don't have shadows attached.

You and Puggsoy are both correct when you say that shadows dynamically resize and are drawn separately. While this is true, they are still necessary as an animating tool/guide.

For one thing, it's pretty inconsistent to ditch shadows now when almost every other sheet on the archive has been ripped with shadows.
For another, I don't see how it's a benefit to get rid of them. You literally cannot animate properly without using them as a guide to place frames in a bounding box. Trust me, it's incredibly aggravating when you try animating Mario, Bowser, or any enemy without shadows as he'll just spaz all over the damn place. While it is entirely true that people will use these sprites as they see fit, it's still extremely helpful and looks nice when shadows are included.
As one who has worked with this style and its mechanics for years, I can assure you that it's better not to erase shadows. During idle and walking animations, for example, sprites can and will shift horizontally from the shadow sometimes. Leaving the shadow there indicates the movement of the character, as the shadow itself is always static unless there is actual translation of the character across the screen.

Why do you think I'm bothering to rip Bowser's overworld in bounding boxes? And not battle? Shadows.

Puggsoy, I don't know if you're doing this, but you can disable layers in DeSmuMe. This will leave your shadow one color and it's easy to capture. As for jumping, you can look at any sheet with jumping or flying poses on the archive.
EDIT: Right, you also asked about arranging animations. For things like battle idles, it's better to make a full loop so there isn't any confusion as to how it animates. If you need to indicate how a 'quirk' (when Mario stands taller and raises his front arm in his idle, for example) fits in, just add a small note saying what frames to replace every x loop.
EDIT 2: As an example, here's what I have ripped. Feel free to use or whatever if you want, I never planned to finish.

Ridge's small Mario battle rip

Partners in Time shadows are the same deal. Jumping shadows were different in that style, though (they get bigger and alpha out as real shadows do) but in BIS the cartoon approach of the shadow getting smaller is used.

[Garamonde]

I wonder why the overworld sprites in PiT and BIS don't have shadows?

[puggsoy]

@Ridge: Guess I'll keep the shadows then. Not only because of the animation but because I hate inconsistency
I do disable layers, so yeah it's not that hard to get them properly (GIMP has a colour to alpha tool). They will blend in with the sheet's background though.

So I'll show whole animations then, it's just that most of my sheets only contain one of each frame so repeating frames is unusual for me. No problem though.

And thanks for that sheet! What method did you use to get them though? I've been having real trouble with some when jumping on an enemy. Specifically, I don't know how to get that final stance when he straightens up after landing: his feet are partly obscured by dust clouds. A lot of other frames are difficult to get too but I managed to stick pieces together: this one seems impossible to rip. I can't get a non-rotated version of him flipping in midair before his second hit either.

[A.J. Nitro]

I wonder why the overworld sprites in PiT and BIS don't have shadows?

The shadows were only visible when the characters jumped.

[Ridge Troopa]

Given that your emulator is at the correct frame skip value and speed, you should be able to capture any frame you need.
Sometimes Mario and Luigi will jump higher and the rotations are slightly different from more accurate action commands, so try that. If you can't find it, feel free to grab it from mine.

[puggsoy]

Are you sure? My framerate is normal and I don't skip any frames, but his feet are always obscured by clouds when he lands... oh well, at least you have it so I'll just use that.

[AgentPaint]

Hi I want to help with this project, and I decided too rip a toad that was not ripped yet.

This is my very first rip.
Also, you can add this to the toad sprite sheet already on the site, beacause there's no real name for this character.