⚡ 3D to 2D | Sorceress Wiki | Sorceress

Open 3D to 2D

3D to 2D converts animated 3D models into game-ready 2D pixel-art sprites. Load a model, choose camera views, tune pixel-art settings, convert animations into sprite sheets, preview the result, test movement and lighting, then export sprite sheets, GIFs, normal maps, individual frames, and metadata for common game engines.

What it does

3D to 2D renders your 3D model from one or more camera angles, captures the selected animation frames, converts the render into pixel art, and packs the frames into sprite sheets. It is useful for:

Turning a 3D character into top-down, isometric, RPG, strategy, or side-scroller sprites.
Creating multi-direction walk cycles from a single animated model.
Exporting one sprite sheet per camera view.
Generating companion normal-map sheets for 2D lighting.
Batch-converting multiple animation files while keeping character scale consistent.
Producing metadata for engines, web projects, and AI-assisted coding workflows.

Supported input files

You can upload:

FBX
GLB
GLTF

Drag files into the tool or click the upload area to browse. Multiple model files can be uploaded at once; each model is added to the batch queue.

Textures

GLB is recommended when you want textures embedded with the model. FBX files may reference separate texture images. If an FBX is missing external textures, the tool shows an External Textures Required warning with the number of missing textures and, when available, the expected folder or file names.

To fix missing textures:

Find the texture image files on your computer.
Click Upload Texture Files in the warning panel.
Select the required image files.
Check the 3D preview again.

Accepted texture uploads include common image formats such as PNG, JPG/JPEG, TGA, and BMP. If textures still do not appear, re-export the model as GLB, or re-export the FBX with embedded textures enabled in your 3D software.

Basic workflow

Open 3D to 2D.
Drop in an FBX, GLB, or GLTF model, or click the upload area.
Confirm the model appears correctly in the 3D Model tab.
If the model includes animations, choose a clip and preview it.
Rotate the model if it is facing the wrong way.
Choose a view preset, or clone a preset to customize your angles.
Set resolution, render size, canvas scale, palette, dithering, smoothing, and enhancement options.
Choose the character anchor and frame padding.
Click Convert to Pixel Art for the loaded model, or use Convert in the batch queue.
Review the result in 2D Preview.
Use Test Drive to test movement, direction selection, backgrounds, shadows, and lighting.
Sign in with Pro access to download/export finished assets.

3D model preview

The 3D Model tab shows the uploaded model in an orbitable 3D viewport. Use it to verify orientation, scale, animation, materials, lighting, and camera angles before conversion.

When no model is loaded, the center panel shows a tutorial video for the tool.

Camera presets

Quick camera buttons are shown along the bottom of the 3D viewport:

Front
Back
Left
Right
¾ Left
¾ Right
Top-Down
Isometric

These are preview camera shortcuts. They are useful for checking whether the model faces the expected direction before you render a full sprite set.

Manual camera angles

The lower-left camera readout shows editable angle fields:

Az: azimuth, or horizontal rotation around the model.
El: elevation, or vertical tilt angle.

Type values directly and press Enter or leave the field to apply the angle.

Enable Snap to constrain camera rotation to fixed angle increments. Available snap increments are:

1°
5°
10°
15°
30°
45°

The Reset button in the same panel returns the preview camera to the Front preset.

Model rotation

If the model imports sideways, upside down, or facing the wrong direction, open Rotate in the lower-right of the 3D viewport. Each click rotates the model by 90°:

Tilt Forward / Tilt Back
Turn Left / Turn Right
Roll Left / Roll Right
Reset to remove manual rotation

Set model rotation before conversion so every exported view is aligned correctly.

Lighting modes

The preview and render can use these lighting modes:

Unlit: flat texture/color display. This is usually best for clean sprite extraction and consistent colors.
Simple: ambient plus directional lighting.
Standard: fuller lighting with an additional colored directional light.

Use Unlit for stable pixel-art colors. Use lit modes when you want shading baked into the sprite output.

Animation controls

If the model contains animation clips, the Animation section appears below the 3D viewport.

Available controls include:

Clip: choose which animation to preview and convert.
Play / Pause: preview the selected clip in the 3D viewport.
Lock Root: keeps horizontal root motion from drifting across the output frames. This is helpful for walk cycles that should animate in place.
Preview FPS: controls playback speed in the 3D preview.
Frame Count: controls how many frames are captured from the selected clip.
Convert every N frames: keeps every source frame, every 2nd frame, every 3rd frame, and so on. Higher values reduce the number of frames but make motion choppier.

If a model has no animation clips, the tool can still render a static one-frame sprite from the selected view or view preset.

View presets and custom angles

The Views panel in the top-right of the 3D viewport controls which camera angles are rendered. Each enabled view creates its own sprite sheet.

Built-in presets include:

Standard 4-Dir
Standard 8-Dir
Isometric 4-Dir
Isometric 8-Dir
Isometric 8-Dir 50°
Isometric 16-Dir 50°
RPG ¾-View 4-Dir
RPG ¾-View 8-Dir
Top-Down
Top-Down 4-Dir
Top-Down 8-Dir
Strategy 4-Dir
Side-Scroller
Front Only

Built-in presets cannot be edited directly. Click Clone to Customize to make an editable copy.

Custom view editing

For custom presets, you can:

Create a new empty preset.
Clone a built-in preset.
Rename or delete a custom preset.
Add the current camera angle as a new view.
Enable or disable individual views.
Click a view name to move the preview camera to that angle.
Edit a view’s azimuth and elevation.
Click the Azimuth or Elevation column header to set that value for all views.
Remove individual views.

Custom view presets are saved in your browser, so they remain available later on the same device and browser.

Resolution and output sizing

Output Resolution

Output Resolution sets the pixel-art resolution before canvas scaling. Width and height can be edited independently or locked together.

Quick square presets:

The numeric fields allow values from 8 to 256.

3D Render Size

3D Render Size controls the high-resolution 3D render captured before pixel conversion. Quick options are:

256
512
1024

You can also enter a custom value from 64 to 4096. Higher render sizes preserve more detail before pixelation, but they can take longer and use more memory.

Canvas Scale

Canvas Scale enlarges the final canvas without changing the underlying pixel-art detail. Options:

For example, a 128×128 sprite at 4x exports as a 512×512 canvas while preserving 128×128 pixel detail.

Palette and pixel-art settings

Palette mode

Choose how colors are reduced:

Auto: extracts a palette from the rendered frames.
Preset: uses a fixed palette.

When using Auto, choose the maximum number of colors. Quick options are:

You can also type a custom value from 2 to 256.

Palette presets

Preset palettes include:

PICO-8 (16)
SWEETIE-16
Endesga 32
Game Boy
CGA
NES (54)
Grayscale (8)
1-Bit

Dithering

Dithering controls how colors are distributed when reducing the palette:

None: clean flat color reduction.
Ordered: patterned dithering.
F-S: Floyd-Steinberg style error diffusion.

When dithering is enabled, Dither Intensity controls strength from 0 to 1.

Mode Downsample

Mode Downsample is useful for tiny sprites and animation stability. It pre-quantizes high-resolution source pixels to the palette, then chooses the most common palette color for each target pixel block. This can improve sharp edges and reduce frame-to-frame color shimmer.

When enabled, set Source Res Cap from 256 to 2048 pixels. Higher values sample more detail before downsampling but use more processing time.

Temporal Smoothing

Temporal Smoothing reduces single-frame pixel color flicker across animation frames. It is enabled by default and is especially useful for small sprites or limited palettes.

Generate Normal Maps

Enable Generate Normal Maps before conversion to create companion normal-map frames and sprite sheets. Normal maps can be previewed directly and used for 2D dynamic lighting.

When normal maps exist, the 2D Preview and Test Drive can show:

Color
Normal/Normal Map
Lit Preview/Lit

Enhancements

Edge Enhancement

Edge Enhancement sharpens detected edges. Enable it and adjust Strength from 0 to 200.

More Enhancements

The More Enhancements section includes:

Outlines: adds edge-based outlines.
- Threshold controls which detected edges qualify.
- Opacity controls outline visibility.
Contrast: adjusts contrast from -100 to 100.
Brightness: adjusts brightness from -100 to 100.

Use strong enhancement settings carefully. Extreme outlines, contrast, or brightness can make animations flicker or reduce readability.

Anchoring and frame padding

The Character Anchor grid chooses where the character is positioned inside each frame:

Top-left
Top
Top-right
Left
Center
Right
Bottom-left
Bottom
Bottom-right

For characters, bottom is usually the best anchor because it aligns the feet and helps prevent visible jumping when switching animations.

Frame Padding adds extra space around the character, from 0% to 50%. Increase padding if weapons, hair, effects, or limbs are clipped.

2D Preview

After conversion, the 2D Preview tab shows the generated frames.

Preview features include:

Play/pause animation playback.
Frame scrubber.
Preview FPS slider from 1 to 60.
Mouse-wheel zoom from 0.25x to 16x.
Zoom in/out buttons.
Middle-mouse panning while zoomed.
View tabs when multiple camera views were rendered.
Frame strip thumbnails.
Delete-frame button that removes the selected frame from all views.
Color, Normal Map, and Lit Preview modes when normal maps exist.

In Lit Preview, click and drag inside the sprite preview to move the light source.

Test Drive

The Test Drive tab lets you try converted sprites in a simple movement sandbox. It automatically selects the closest available rendered view based on movement direction.

Controls:

Left-click in the sandbox to move the character toward a target.
Use WASD or arrow keys for keyboard movement.
In Lit mode, move the mouse to control the light when Follow Mouse is selected.
In Lit mode, scroll to adjust light intensity.

Test Drive options include:

View: Color, Normal, or Lit. Normal and Lit appear only when normal maps are available.
BG: Grid, built-in Scene, or a Custom uploaded background image.
Scale: 1x, 2x, 3x, 4x, 8x, or 16x.
Shadow: toggles a simple ground shadow.

Lit Test Drive controls

When using Lit, a lighting panel appears with:

Source: Follow Mouse or preset positions: Top-Left, Top, Top-Right, Left, Center, Right, Bottom-Left, Bottom.
Style: Soft, Balanced, Dramatic, or Spot.
Intensity: light brightness, from dim to bright.
Falloff: distance-based dimming, from none to tight.
Normal Depth: strength of normal-map influence, from flat to full.
Light background: applies lighting to the selected background when a background image is active.

Batch queue

Every uploaded model is added to the Batch Queue, even if you upload only one file. The queue is the main place to convert, preview, requeue, remove, and download completed outputs.

Batch controls include:

Convert: converts queued models.
Stop Batch: stops an active batch run.
Requeue: puts completed or errored jobs back into the queue for reconversion.
Requeue all completed/errored: available from the batch controls when applicable.
Remove: removes a queued, completed, or errored job.
Clear Completed: removes completed and errored jobs from the list.

Clicking a queued job loads that model in the 3D preview. Clicking a completed job can load its 2D output for preview, or load its 3D model depending on the current tab.

Consistent Sizing

When more than one queued job exists, Consistent Sizing can be enabled. This helps keep the character’s apparent size consistent across multiple animations and sprite sheets.

For best results, upload all animations for the same character together and process them in one batch. If you later add a new animation, re-add the previous animations and process the full set again so the shared sizing remains consistent.

Export and downloads

Downloading/exporting assets requires a signed-in Pro account. Users without Pro access can still load models, configure settings, convert, preview, and test outputs, but download actions prompt sign-in or upgrade.

The File name field controls the base download name. Downloads use the base name plus view names and descriptive suffixes.

Download options include:

Sprite sheet PNGs for all completed views.
Normal-map PNG sheets when normal maps were generated.
Download Everything for sprite sheets, normal maps when present, and metadata.
Metadata in the selected engine format.
Animated GIFs from More export options.
Individual frame PNGs for the currently previewed output.

When the tool is embedded in WizardGenie, completed sprite sheets can also be dragged into the WizardGenie Explorer.

Engine metadata formats

The Engine format (metadata) selector controls what metadata is downloaded or copied. Use How to use under the selector for format-specific guidance inside the UI.

Universal JSON

A general-purpose metadata file containing frame dimensions, frame count, sheet layout, animation FPS, loop setting, anchor/pivot information, view angles, and individual frame rectangles. Use this for custom engines, tools, or AI-assisted coding.

Phaser 3

Exports texture atlas metadata for each sprite sheet, including frame rectangles and pivot information.

Godot 4

Exports a SpriteFrames resource for AnimatedSprite2D workflows. The generated data includes animation entries and notes for offset-based anchor alignment.

Unity

Exports an editor import helper that configures sprite sheet textures as multiple sprites with pixel-art-friendly import settings and pivots.

Unreal Engine

Exports Paper2D-compatible sprite data for sprite-sheet import workflows.

CSS / HTML5

Exports CSS animation classes and a commented JavaScript helper for browser-based sprite animation.

AI Prompt

Copies a text prompt to your clipboard. It describes the generated sprite sheets, including frame size, layout, FPS, anchors, and direction-mapping notes, so you can paste it into an AI coding assistant.

Direction mapping note

For directional exports, view names describe camera position, not necessarily the character’s movement direction.

For example, a view named W means the camera is west of the character. In that view, the character may appear to move right on screen. When mapping player input to directional sprites, the horizontal direction often needs to be flipped:

Movement N → View N
Movement S → View S
Movement E → View W
Movement W → View E
Movement NE → View NW
Movement NW → View NE
Movement SE → View SW
Movement SW → View SE

The Universal JSON and AI Prompt exports include this warning when directional view names are detected.

Tips and troubleshooting

My model imports without textures

Use GLB when possible. For FBX, upload the missing texture image files when prompted, or re-export the FBX with embedded textures enabled.

The character is clipped

Increase Frame Padding, increase 3D Render Size, or choose an anchor that gives more room in the clipped direction.

The animation jumps between frames

Try Lock Root, use a bottom anchor, and keep Temporal Smoothing enabled. For multiple animations of the same character, process them together with Consistent Sizing enabled.

The sprite flickers between frames

Keep Temporal Smoothing on. Try Mode Downsample, reduce dither intensity, or use a larger palette.

The sprite is too small or too large

Adjust Output Resolution and Canvas Scale. For multiple animations, upload them together and use Consistent Sizing.

The model faces the wrong direction

Use the Rotate panel to turn, tilt, or roll the model in 90° increments before converting. You can also clone a view preset and customize the camera angles.

The exported direction feels backwards in-game

Remember that directional view names are camera positions. For E/W movement, you may need to use the opposite horizontal view when mapping input to sprites.

GIF export looks different from PNG frames

GIFs are limited compared with PNG sprite sheets. Use GIFs for quick previews and sharing; use PNG sprite sheets for final game assets.

FAQ

Can I make top-down or isometric sprites?

Yes. Use the Top-Down, Top-Down 4-Dir, Top-Down 8-Dir, Isometric, RPG ¾-View, or Strategy presets.

Can I export multiple directions at once?

Yes. Enable multiple views in the Views panel. Each enabled view produces its own sprite sheet.

Can I customize view angles?

Yes. Clone a built-in preset or create a new preset, then add the current camera angle, edit view names and angles, enable or disable views, and save the custom preset in your browser.

Can I convert multiple animations at once?

Yes. Upload multiple model files and use the batch queue. Use Consistent Sizing when converting multiple animations for the same character.

Can I generate normal maps?

Yes. Enable Generate Normal Maps before conversion. Normal map sheets can be downloaded and previewed with dynamic lighting.

Can I test the sprite before downloading?

Yes. Use 2D Preview and Test Drive after conversion.

Do exports require Pro?

Yes. Downloading/exporting assets requires a signed-in Pro account. You can still load, convert, preview, and test before export.