Pixelcut
A stunning 16:9 pixel art landscape demonstrating expert shading. A large, stylized tree is illuminated by dramatic sunset lighting, with god rays filtering through its leaves. A calm pond perfectly reflects the vibrant sky and the tree. The intricate use of light, shadow, and dithering creates a deep, atmospheric, and magical scene.

AI Pixel Art Shading Generator

Trusted by 70 million people
171,800 Reviews
Developer API
Available on iPhone & Android

How to Add Shading to Your Pixel Art

  1. 1

    Upload Your Pixel Art

    Begin by uploading the pixel art file you wish to enhance. Our tool works with your existing PNG creations.

  2. 2

    Describe Your Lighting

    In the prompt box, tell the AI how you want to shade your art. For example, 'add a strong light from the top right' or 'apply soft, diffused shadows'.

  3. 3

    Generate Your Shaded Art

    With a single click, our AI will process your image and prompt, applying the described lighting and shadow effects to your pixel art.

  4. 4

    Download Your Creation

    Your newly shaded, high-resolution pixel art is ready to be downloaded watermark-free. Use it in your games, animations, or creative projects.

Instantly apply complex lighting to your pixel art without spending hours placing individual pixels. Our AI tool lets you define the light source direction, intensity, and quality through simple text descriptions. Whether you're adding dramatic shadows to a character sprite or soft, ambient light to a landscape, you can achieve the perfect mood and depth with minimal effort. This process automates the most tedious parts of shading, giving you more time to focus on your artistic vision and creativity.

Master Light and Shadow in Seconds

A detailed 16-bit pixel art rendering of a chrome sphere, demonstrating expert shading and dithering techniques with a strong light source creating highlights and shadows, set against a plain white background.
Experiment with a variety of shading techniques simply by describing them. Ask for classic dithering to blend colors smoothly, or request hard-edged cel shading for a bold, graphic look. Our AI can interpret different stylistic prompts, allowing you to quickly see how different shading methods impact your artwork. This flexibility is perfect for artists who want to explore new aesthetics or find the ideal style for their game or project without the commitment of manual redrawing. Your creativity is the only limit.

Explore Shading Styles Instantly

One of the biggest challenges in pixel art shading is choosing the right colors. Our AI helps by analyzing your art's existing palette and generating a consistent ramp of shades and tints for highlights and shadows. This ensures that the new lighting effects blend naturally with your original artwork, maintaining a professional and cohesive appearance. You no longer have to guess which colors will work best; just describe the lighting, and let the tool generate a palette that enhances your art beautifully.

Create Consistent and Cohesive Palettes

It’s Fast: Apply intricate shading and lighting effects in moments, not hours. It’s Intuitive: Forget complex tools and manual adjustments. Just describe the lighting you imagine. AI-Powered: Leverage advanced AI to interpret your text prompts and generate natural-looking shadows and highlights. Style Flexible: Experiment with dithering, cel shading, and more through simple instructions. Elevate Your Art: Add professional depth, dimension, and mood to your pixel art creations, from game assets to detailed scenes.

Why use Pixelcut's AI Pixel Art Shading?

A detailed pixel art sphere demonstrating advanced shading techniques, with clear highlights, shadows, and dithering patterns on a white background.
Game Assets: Quickly shade character sprites, environment tiles, and items to create a unified and immersive game world. Character Design: Give your pixel art characters more personality and presence by applying dramatic lighting that conveys mood. Animated Scenes: Generate keyframes with varying light sources to simulate dynamic effects like a day-to-night cycle or flickering lights. Concept Art: Rapidly iterate on lighting concepts for larger pixel art compositions, allowing you to finalize the look and feel of a scene much faster.

Pixel Art Shading Use Cases

A side-by-side comparison illustrating pixel art shading. On the left is a flat, 2D pixel art treasure chest, and on the right is the same chest with detailed shading, giving it a 3D appearance.

Frequently Asked Questions

Pixelcut is loved by over 2 million people

  • My favorite app

    Great app, easy to use. Helps our small business save time and money to create different marketing materials professionally. Thank you.
    Shaelyn D.
  • Best background remover

    I need a good background remover for my work and I've been through them all it feels like. This one is the best by far. It's so easy to use and the results always look amazing. Thank you Pixelcut!
    Kira H.
  • Love it

    It's amazingly easy and gives the perfect results for my bags and accessories. It looks like it was done by a professional photographer.
    Mary J.