• Products
  • Solutions
  • Made with Unity
  • Learning
  • Support & Services
  • Community
  • Asset Store
  • Get Unity

UNITY ACCOUNT

You need a Unity Account to shop in the Online and Asset Stores, participate in the Unity Community and manage your license portfolio. Login Create account
  • Blog
  • Forums
  • Answers
  • Evangelists
  • User Groups
  • Beta Program
  • Advisory Panel

Navigation

  • Home
  • Products
  • Solutions
  • Made with Unity
  • Learning
  • Support & Services
  • Community
    • Blog
    • Forums
    • Answers
    • Evangelists
    • User Groups
    • Beta Program
    • Advisory Panel

Unity account

You need a Unity Account to shop in the Online and Asset Stores, participate in the Unity Community and manage your license portfolio. Login Create account

Language

  • Chinese
  • Spanish
  • Japanese
  • Korean
  • Portuguese
  • Ask a question
  • Spaces
    • Default
    • Help Room
    • META
    • Moderators
    • Topics
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Badges
  • Home /
avatar image
0
Question by M1k4 · Sep 05, 2013 at 02:24 PM · 2dshader3dpixel artcartoon

How to make 3d models look like 2d pixel art?

After trying a lot to make a 2d pixel art game, i found out that i wasn't ready to draw every 2d image by myself, so i decided that making a 3d game with 2d looks would be easier since I'm used to blender and can do some basic stuff (which is what i need).

So, my question is, is it possible to make 3d models look like 2d pixel art? (using orthographic camera and some kind of cartoon shader)

Thanks in advance.

Comment
Add comment
10 |3000 characters needed characters left characters exceeded
▼
  • Viewable by all users
  • Viewable by moderators
  • Viewable by moderators and the original poster
  • Advanced visibility
Viewable by all users

2 Replies

· Add your reply
  • Sort: 
avatar image
1
Best Answer

Answer by DMCH · Sep 05, 2013 at 02:49 PM

Hi there,

Yes, this is possible. I'm not an expert in this area, but I'll offer what info I have.

1) Use 3d models in game, set the camera to ortho.

  • This will give you a 2d perspective on a 3d world

  • This approach will likely require more processing power.

2) Use a program like blender to capture images of the 3d models in motion (walking, attacking, etc). Then create sprite sheets and render these sprites on planes. Have a look at pre-rendered 3d.

  • This will be closer to an actual 2d environment, with one of the axes set to 0

  • This may not be a good idea if your characters have a lot of animations

There may be other options. I can confirm option 2 as viable, as I'm currently using it. One of the things you should consider when trying to pick between these 2 options is how many animations your characters will have. If it's an awful lot, you might be better with option 1, as option 2 could lead to the creation of enormous sprite sheets.

I strongly suspect that option 2 would require significantly less processing power, (rendering an image on a plane, rather than a model) but I haven't tried both techniques, so I can't be sure.

EDIT 1: Have a look here for some more info on pre rendering

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056984733

EDIT 2: Didn't realise when I was answering that the emphasis was to get a pixelated look. Some graphics programs have a pixelate plugin or function. You could try to pixelate the sprite sheets if you go for option 2, but it's hard to say if this will give you exactly the look you need.

Comment
Add comment · Show 2 · Share
10 |3000 characters needed characters left characters exceeded
▼
  • Viewable by all users
  • Viewable by moderators
  • Viewable by moderators and the original poster
  • Advanced visibility
Viewable by all users
avatar image M1k4 · Sep 05, 2013 at 03:59 PM 1
Share

Exactly what i was thinking, there are going to be a lot of animations and one of the issues was that the sprite sheets would be huge, I'll use a fully 3d world with some kind of shader to make it look close to 2d pixel art images.

avatar image DMCH · Sep 05, 2013 at 04:18 PM 1
Share

You could also look at rotoscoping or cell shading. Not sure if there's anything in the asset store that might help. Good luck with your game!

avatar image
1

Answer by tanoshimi · Sep 05, 2013 at 04:17 PM

If you're using Unity Pro, one way to get a pixelated look is to render a 3D scene onto a low-resolution rendertexture, and then scale that rendertexture up to fill the screen (make sure you use Point texture mode so it doesn't get soft edges when resampled). In the shader attached to the rendertexture you could also adjust the colour palette (posterise or dither, say), which would make it look more convincing.

Comment
Add comment · Show 1 · Share
10 |3000 characters needed characters left characters exceeded
▼
  • Viewable by all users
  • Viewable by moderators
  • Viewable by moderators and the original poster
  • Advanced visibility
Viewable by all users
avatar image M1k4 · Sep 05, 2013 at 04:20 PM 1
Share

That's really thinking out of the box, but unfortunately I'm using free.

Your answer

Hint: You can notify a user about this post by typing @username

Up to 2 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 524.3 kB each and 1.0 MB total.

Welcome to Unity Answers

The best place to ask and answer questions about development with Unity.

To help users navigate the site we have posted a site navigation guide.

If you are a new user to Unity Answers, check out our FAQ for more information.

Make sure to check out our Knowledge Base for commonly asked Unity questions.

If you are a moderator, see our Moderator Guidelines page.

We are making improvements to UA, see the list of changes.



Follow this Question

Answers Answers and Comments

17 People are following this question.

avatar image avatar image avatar image avatar image avatar image avatar image avatar image avatar image avatar image avatar image avatar image avatar image avatar image avatar image avatar image avatar image avatar image

Related Questions

How to make a 2d pixel art shader for a glass window that show outer space? 0 Answers

Blending 2d light sprites 1 Answer

2D pixel art looks darker when I import it 1 Answer

2D-3D graphics/Platfromer 2 Answers

Set Shader Rendering Mode to Fade via Code 1 Answer


Enterprise
Social Q&A

Social
Subscribe on YouTube social-youtube Follow on LinkedIn social-linkedin Follow on Twitter social-twitter Follow on Facebook social-facebook Follow on Instagram social-instagram

Footer

  • Purchase
    • Products
    • Subscription
    • Asset Store
    • Unity Gear
    • Resellers
  • Education
    • Students
    • Educators
    • Certification
    • Learn
    • Center of Excellence
  • Download
    • Unity
    • Beta Program
  • Unity Labs
    • Labs
    • Publications
  • Resources
    • Learn platform
    • Community
    • Documentation
    • Unity QA
    • FAQ
    • Services Status
    • Connect
  • About Unity
    • About Us
    • Blog
    • Events
    • Careers
    • Contact
    • Press
    • Partners
    • Affiliates
    • Security
Copyright © 2020 Unity Technologies
  • Legal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookies
  • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
  • Cookies Settings
"Unity", Unity logos, and other Unity trademarks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Unity Technologies or its affiliates in the U.S. and elsewhere (more info here). Other names or brands are trademarks of their respective owners.
  • Anonymous
  • Sign in
  • Create
  • Ask a question
  • Spaces
  • Default
  • Help Room
  • META
  • Moderators
  • Explore
  • Topics
  • Questions
  • Users
  • Badges