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Comment by agentifysh | Hacker News Reader

I wonder if there is something similar but for creating isometric sprites? I burned through $30 yesterday realizing that I can't just get image gen to give me isometric static/animated sprites with consistency....even the best image gen cannot do this and im just baffled how difficult isometric sprite is compared to 3d mesh gen

I'm at a crossroad , do I opt for 3d mesh isometrics with more hardware requirements for mobile phones or stick to isometric sprite which nobody seems to be generating via AI reliably (happy to be corrected here if anybody does find a way)

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You're better off creating a 3D model and then taking image-grabs of it facing different directions/doing different poses from an isometric perspective to get your isometric sprites, with the genAI tools of today without a skilled 2D artist at hand.

If you aren't ready to rig and adjust model poses in a 3D tool, you might be better off generating each movable model part as a separate mesh and just arranging them in space before doing the above.

yeah 3D comes up often but the economics don't work for the large scale I am trying to do.

> I'm at a crossroad , do I opt for 3d mesh isometrics with more hardware requirements for mobile phones or stick to isometric sprite which nobody seems to be generating via AI

Just find an artist or learn to draw

I had a similar experience recently while helping my 5 year old daughter vibe code a sandcastle-themed tower defense game (https://sandcastles.finley.lol).

I ended up thinking it might be easier to generate rigged models, animate them, and capture from an iso perspective, then do some kind of pixel art style transfer on the masked sprite sheet. Eventually I realized my kid didn't really care too much about the visuals so I didn't get too far with it.

That's a cute looking game! I have considered using 3D mesh models but to generate a highly detailed, textured 3d mesh it still costs quite a bit especially when you need to do this at scale

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