Creating Custom 2D Assets

I’m going to show you step-by-step how to convert 3D art into 2D assets.

Our model will be this great looking Space Fighter:

We’ll need a few images of our model in various positions against a transparent background. I’m using the Transparent Background Screenshot Recorder script, but there are plenty of other ways to get these images:

Once we’ve got our images we are ready to start building a sprite sheet in Photoshop. Start a new project 2048x2048 pixels and add each image as a new layer:

Select all the image layers and Rasterize them, which converts any vector art to pixels:

Use the Slice tool to slice the entire image, then right click the image to divide it:

Divide the image into 4 x 4:

Resize each image and position them in individual slices:

Turn off the background layer and save the spritesheet as a png. Add it to the Unity assets collection:

Working with our spritesheet in Unity, turn on Alpha Is Transparency:

And Apply to get:

Set Texture Type to Sprite (2D and UI) and Set the Sprite Mode to Multiple (install the 2D Sprite package if not already installed):

Select Sprite Editor and under the Slice dropdown, select Type Grid By Cell Count and set it to 4 x 4 and select Slice:

Then Apply the changes. Now our sprites are segmented into their owns containers, and in our Project tab we can see each sprite:

Now to have a little fun with our new sprites. Drop the first sprite into the scene and then select Create in the Animation window. Select all the sprites and drop them into the animation. Separate them by .5 seconds each in the animator and add the first sprite to the end of the animation. Turn on the Animator and hit play: