Pixelate is a Unity Editor tool that renders your 3D models and animations into pixel-art sprite sheets without leaving Unity. You get fully generated normal maps alongside every sprite sheet, which means your 2D characters can receive real-time directional lighting in the final game. No external software, no hand-drawn frames — just configure the capture settings, click Capture, and Pixelate produces the textures and materials you need.Documentation Index
Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.tomblack.ca/llms.txt
Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
Key features
- 3D-to-2D conversion — Renders any 3D model or animation directly into a tiled sprite sheet inside the Unity Editor.
- Automatic normal map generation — Every capture produces a matching normal map so your sprites respond to real-time 2D lighting.
- Three capture modes — Capture a single still image, a full animation sequence, or a particle system.
- Flexible color palettes — Use automatic palette reduction or supply your own custom palette for a consistent pixel-art look.
- Three lighting styles — Choose between Albedo & Normal, Cell Shaded, and Default Lit outputs to match your game’s visual style.
- Dithering support — Apply dithering to blend color transitions and achieve a classic retro appearance.
- Real-time frame preview — Drag the Current Frame slider in the Inspector to scrub through animation frames before you capture.
- Built-in and URP support — Works with both the Built-in render pipeline and Universal Render Pipeline.
What’s included
After importing Pixelate you have everything needed to start capturing:| Asset | Description |
|---|---|
| Capturing scene | A pre-configured Unity scene with a camera and lighting rig set up for pixel-art rendering. Drop your model in and capture immediately. |
| PixelateCaptureManager component | The main component attached to the capture camera. Exposes all capture settings: target model, source animation clips, FPS, cell size, lighting style, palette, and dithering options. |
| ToonLitSprite shader | A Built-in pipeline shader for rendering pixel-art sprites with a Diffuse Map and Normal Map in your 2D scene. |
| ViewSpaceNormal shader | An internal shader used during capture to bake view-space normal data into the normal map texture. |
| CellShadedRendering shader | An internal shader used during capture when the Cell Shaded lighting style is selected. |
| PixelateSettings ScriptableObject | A data asset that stores your capture configuration so settings persist across sessions and can be shared across projects. |
Render pipeline support
Pixelate supports both major Unity render pipelines:- Built-in Render Pipeline — Use the included
ToonLitSpriteshader for lit sprite materials. - Universal Render Pipeline (URP) — Use Unity’s built-in
Universal Render Pipeline/2D/Sprite-Lit-Defaultshader. The URP package must be installed before importingPixelateSRP.unitypackage.
Lighting only works with a Directional Light. Point lights and spot lights are not supported for normal-map-based 2D lighting.
Community and support
- Discord — discord.gg/ASkVNuet8K — the fastest way to get help and share your work.
- Email — tomblackbusiness@gmail.com
- GitHub — github.com/TomBlackOfficial/Pixelate