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This guide walks you through a complete first capture: importing a 3D model, configuring the PixelateCaptureManager, generating the sprite sheet, and optionally setting up a lit material or animation clip. You can stop at the end of any step depending on what your project needs — the three outcome paths are described at the bottom of this page.
1

Import your 3D model

Drag your 3D model file (.fbx, .obj, or similar) into the Unity Project window to import it.Pixelate renders directly from the 3D geometry, so the material setup on your model affects the output:
  • Unlit flat colors produce the cleanest pixel-art results because there are no lighting gradients to resolve during capture.
  • Textured models work too. If you use textures, open the texture’s import settings and reduce Max Size (for example, to 512 or 256). Oversized textures at capture resolution can introduce unwanted detail that reads as noise in the final sprite.
2

Import your 3D animations

Import the animation files for your model. These can be separate .fbx files containing animation clips, or clips embedded in the same file as the mesh.
Don’t worry about the framerate of the source animation at this stage. You control the output FPS inside Pixelate in step 5, so a high-framerate source just gives you more frames to sample from — it won’t bloat your sprite sheet automatically.
3

Open the Capturing scene and add your model

Open the Capturing scene located at Assets/Scenes/Capturing.Drag your imported model from the Project window into the scene Hierarchy. Then delete the placeholder character that came with the scene — it is only there as a reference for positioning.Position your model so it sits in the center of the capture frame. The camera in the Capturing scene is already configured for pixel-art rendering; do not move or resize it.
4

Configure the PixelateCaptureManager

In the Hierarchy, select the PixelateCaptureManager GameObject. Its component settings appear in the Inspector.Assign two values:
  • Target — drag your model’s GameObject from the Hierarchy into this field.
  • Source Clip — drag the animation clip you want to render into this field. If you want to capture multiple clips in one session, you can assign them to the Source Clip list one at a time and run a separate capture for each.
5

Customize FPS, cell size, and preview

Set the capture parameters to match the look you want:
  • Frames Per Second — controls how many frames are sampled from the animation. Lower values (8–12 FPS) give a classic chunky pixel-art feel; higher values (24+) produce smoother motion.
  • Cell Size — the pixel dimensions of a single frame in the output sprite sheet (for example, 32×32 or 64×64). Choose a size that captures enough detail without excess empty space.
To preview how the animation looks at your chosen settings, drag the Current Frame slider in the Inspector left and right. The scene view updates in real time so you can check poses before committing to a full capture.
6

Set the export location and capture

In the PixelateCaptureManager Inspector, click Change Sprite Export Location and choose a folder inside your project (anywhere under Assets/). The selected path is shown below the button.Then click the Capture button. Pixelate renders and exports two texture files: the sprite sheet and a matching normal map.
Save the output inside your Unity project folder (anywhere under Assets/). Unity automatically re-imports the textures so you can use them immediately without a manual import step.
The export folder must be inside the project’s Assets/ directory. Pixelate validates this and will not allow capture if the path is outside the project.
7

Install the 2D Sprite package

Before slicing the sprite sheet into individual frames, confirm that the 2D Sprite package is installed.
  1. Open Window > Package Manager.
  2. Set the source to Unity Registry.
  3. Search for 2D Sprite and click Install if it isn’t already present.
Once installed, select your captured sprite sheet in the Project window, set Sprite Mode to Multiple in the Import Settings, and use the Sprite Editor to slice it into individual frames.You can stop here if you don’t need lighting. Your sprite sheet is ready to use as a static sprite or with a basic unlit material. See Path A below.
8

(Optional) Create a lit material

To use the normal map for real-time lighting, create a material and assign both the sprite sheet and normal map textures.
  1. In the Project window, right-click and choose Create > Material.
  2. In the material’s Inspector, set the Shader to ToonLitSprite.
  3. Assign your captured sprite sheet to the Diffuse Map slot.
  4. Assign the captured normal map to the Normal Map slot.
Apply the material to a Sprite Renderer component on your character GameObject.
Lighting only works with a Directional Light. Point lights and spot lights will not interact correctly with the normal maps generated by Pixelate.
When flipping a character to face the opposite direction, rotate the GameObject 180 degrees on the Y axis instead of setting the X or Y scale to -1. Negative scale inverts the normal map’s lighting response and breaks the lighting entirely.
9

(Optional) Convert the sprite sheet to an animation clip

To drive your sprite sheet as a Unity animation, you need to create an Animation Clip that steps through the individual sprite frames.Select all the sliced sprite frames in the Project window (from the sprite sheet you sliced in step 7), then drag them onto the GameObject in the scene. Unity will prompt you to save a new animation clip — name it and save it inside your project.For a detailed video walkthrough of this step, see the sprite animation setup guide.

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Outcome paths

Depending on your project’s needs, you can stop at different points:
PathStop afterResult
A — Sprite sheet onlyStep 7A sliced sprite sheet with no lighting. Suitable for unlit games or further manual editing.
B — Sprite sheet with lightingStep 8A sprite sheet and normal map wired to a lit material. Characters respond to a Directional Light in your scene.
C — Full animated spriteStep 9Everything from Path B, plus a Unity Animation Clip that plays back the captured frames.