def create_seq(character, action_metadata, direction, length=8, start=0):
  """
  """
  sprite_start = (action_metadata[0]+direction) * FRAME_SIZE
  sprite_end = (action_metadata[0]+direction+1) * FRAME_SIZE
  sprite_line = character[sprite_start:sprite_end, ...]

  # Extract 64x64 patches that are side-by-side in the sprite, and limit
  # to the actual number of frames for the given action.
  frames = tf.stack(tf.split(sprite_line, 13, axis=1))  # 13 is a hack
  frames = frames[0:action_metadata[1]]

  # Extract a slice of the desired length.
  # NOTE: Length could be longer than the number of frames, so tile as needed.
  frames = tf.roll(frames, shift=-start, axis=0)
  frames = tf.tile(frames, [2, 1, 1, 1])  # 2 is a hack
  frames = frames[:length]
  frames = tf.cast(frames, dtype=tf.float32)
  frames.set_shape([length, FRAME_SIZE, FRAME_SIZE, CHANNELS])
  return frames