---
title: "Vector Art Files"
package: "@phaser-ae/vector-art"
tier: Free
version: 3.0.0-3
released: 2026-10-14
updated: 2026-10-20
description: "Loads line-art sprites from a file of named vector shapes, with strokes, glows, fills, ramps and simple motion, and puts them on the vector layer."
url: https://phaser.io/packs/vector-art
site: Phaser - https://phaser.io
---

# Vector Art Files

Line-art sprites as data. The ship, the rocks, the enemies and the pickups of a vector game live in one file of named
shapes, drawn once by hand, by a tool or by a model, and the game loads them onto the vector layer as ordinary shapes.

## What it does

The file is the vector layer's own shape call written down, field for field, so it cannot describe anything the
renderer cannot draw. A shape is a list of parts in draw order. Each part is an outline, either a list of points or a
named primitive built by the renderer's own factories, with its own stroke, glow, dash, ramp, fill and place within
the shape; anything a part does not set falls back to the shape's style. Because the art is data, a tool can open it,
change it and save it again.

A shape also says how big it is meant to be in the world, its `gameSize`. That matters because a stroke's width is in
world units and does not scale with the shape, so the file carries the weight its lines were designed at and `addArt`
draws them at that weight without being told a size.

Parts can move on their own: spin, pulse, blink and a colour cycle round the outline, all as data. Nothing moves
until the game calls `animateArt` with its clock. The reader is lenient and capped: unknown fields are dropped, numbers
written as strings are read, a part with nothing drawable is skipped rather than failing the set, and no file holds
more than 256 shapes, 64 parts a shape or 512 points a part.

## Features

- **Named shapes in one file** — sprites keyed by name, each with a style, fill, pivot, facing, role and tags.
- **Eleven primitives** — `circle`, `ellipse`, `rect`, `roundedRect`, `polygon`, `star`, `triangle`, `capsule`,
  `cross`, `chevron` and `arc`, built exactly as code would build them.
- **Styling per part** — colour, a second colour per segment, a ramp along the whole outline or `'rainbow'`, alpha,
  width, glow, dash, beam dwell and depth.
- **Fills** — a flat colour, a list of stops, or a ramp at an angle or radial, per part or for the whole shape.
- **Motion as data** — `spin`, `pulse`, `blink`, `cycle` and a `phase` so a row of lights can chase, run by
  `animateArt` from the game's clock.
- **Sizes in world units** — each shape's `gameSize` keeps line weights as designed; `size` or `scale` draws it at
  any other size.
- **Placement helpers** — `artBounds` for a shape's box and collision radius, `artScale` for a size in the world, and
  `artRotation` to point it along a heading whichever way it was drawn facing.
- **Lenient reading** — `parseVectorArt` drops what it cannot use and lists what it dropped.
- **Round trips** — `serializeVectorArt` writes the canonical file back, numbers rounded and defaults left out, for an
  editor to save.

## Good for

- **Vector arcade shooters** — the ship, rocks, saucers and shots of a game in the style of Asteroids, as one file.
- **Line-art games with many sprites** — enemies, pickups and bosses that would be tedious as point arrays in code.
- **Games with an art pipeline** — sprites drawn in a tool or generated by a model, then loaded by the game.
- **Art and level editors** — read, change and write the same file a game loads.

## Make it yours

The look lives in the file: colours, widths, glows, dashes, fills, ramps and motion, per shape and per part. Where and
how big is the game's call: `addArt` takes `x` and `y`, a `rot` or a `heading`, a `size` in world units or a `scale`,
screen `wrap` ghosts, and multipliers for `glow` and `alpha`.

Two quite different uses: an arcade game that loads one file of a dozen sprites at start, places each ship and rock
with `addArt`, turns them along their headings with `artRotation` and takes their collision radii from `artBounds`;
and an art tool that reads a file with `parseVectorArt`, shows the warnings, lets the artist move points and recolour
parts, and saves it back with `serializeVectorArt`.

## A quick look

Load a file, add the ship, and keep it pointed along its heading with its motion running:

```ts
const art = await game.vectorArt.load('art/vectors.json');
const ship = addArt(game.vector, art, 'ship', { x: 400, y: 300, size: 40 });
const shipArt = artShape(art, 'ship');
game.step('ship', dt => { t += dt; ship.rot = artRotation(shipArt, heading); animateArt(ship, shipArt, t); });
```

## Works with

- `vector-2d` — required: the line renderer the shapes go on; its own shape factories suit outlines generated at run
  time, such as a terrain or a random asteroid.
- `core-vector` — includes this pack with the rest of the vector kit, so most vector games have it already.
- `vector-hit` — point-in-outline and distance tests against the shapes.
- `vector-hull` — convex pieces from a drawn outline, when it has to become a physics collider.

## Good to know

- A file is read once: editing the returned object does not change shapes already on the layer; add them again, or
  restyle them.
- `animateArt` matches motions to parts by index, so give it the shape `addArt` made from the same art.
- A colour cycle re-packs the layer each time it steps. A handful cost nothing worth measuring; a field of hundreds
  should cycle on a timer of their own.

---

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