Rig BakeRig Bake › Features › Turn 3D models into pixel art
Turn 3D models into pixel art
A real-time pixel-art pipeline: pixelation, palette quantization with classic and custom palettes, dithering and cel shading — baked into crisp spritesheets.
Open Rig Bake — free, in your browserNo sign-up. No upload — models stay on your machine. Works in any WebGL 2 browser.
The pixel-art post-processing stack renders your animated 3D model as if it were hand-pixelled: choose a pixel size, snap colors to a palette, add ordered dithering, and combine with toon shading and outlines for authentic retro sprites at any resolution.
Palettes
Built-in palettes include Posterize, DawnBringer 16, PICO-8, NES, Game Boy and CGA. You can also import any custom palette from a GIMP .gpl file, a plain .hex list, or directly from a Lospec palette URL — so your sprites match your game's exact color script.
The full retro stack
- Pixelation with adjustable pixel size.
- Palette quantization with color-level control and dithering.
- Toon/cel shading with adjustable band count.
- Per-object outlines, bloom, tone mapping (ACES, AgX, Neutral and more), sharpen and vignette.
- Drag-to-reorder the post-processing chain — pixelate before or after toon shading for different looks.
From look to asset
Because the pixel-art look is a render effect, every animation frame is consistent — no per-frame hand cleanup. Bake 4-direction or 8-direction spritesheets, and save the whole look as a shader preset (-shader.json) to reuse across models.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use my own color palette?
Yes — import GIMP .gpl files, .hex lists, or paste a Lospec palette URL and Rig Bake fetches the colors.
Will animations stay consistent frame to frame?
Yes. The pixelation and quantization are deterministic render passes, so a walking animation stays coherent across all frames and directions.
Can I get an 8-direction isometric pixel character from an AI model?
Yes — import the model, apply the pixel-art stack, pick the isometric preset and bake; you get 8 directions of palette-perfect sprites in one sheet.