Creating Sprite Animations on the Canvas

For billions of years, sprite sheets have been used to simplify how you can define 2d visuals for video games and (more recently) web sites. Sprites can be used for displaying just a single visual, but they can also be made up of many visuals that you sequentially play back to create an animation. You see sprite sheets all the time, and you probably never even notice.

Take a look at the following sprite sheet: