DAYBUN PIXEL ENGINE
Real pixels. Real animation. Free.
Scenes, characters, items, tiles and sprite animations – pixel-perfect, from one sentence. Every image and every animation on this page came out of our pixel engine. Nothing was touched up by hand.
Everything here is free
No subscription, no credits, no watermark. The models are open, the workflows and the tool are open source (MIT). All you need is a GPU with 24 GB – then an image costs a few seconds of electricity.
- 50
- images on this page
- 85
- animations
- ≈ 20 s
- per scene (RTX 4090)
- $0
- license cost for the tool
01
Scenes
384 × 216 real pixels, 32 colours, every pixel on the grid. Krea 2 paints the picture, the H3 refiner forces it onto the exact grid. One sentence, about 20 seconds. Click to enlarge.
a fairytale castle with red roof towers on a rocky cliff above a calm mountain lake at sunset, pine forests, snowy purple mountains, a small sailboat on the lake, dramatic pink and golden clouds, reflections in the water
a rainy cyberpunk city street at night, glowing pink and cyan neon signs, tall buildings with lit windows, puddles reflecting the neon, steam from vents, a ramen stall, flying cars in the distance
a cozy village of small round cottages built into giant mushrooms in a sunny forest clearing, white bunnies with scarves walking on a dirt path, carrot gardens, lanterns, butterflies, soft morning light
a sunken temple ruin deep under the sea, colorful coral reefs, schools of glowing fish, god rays from the surface, a giant sea turtle swimming, kelp forests swaying, bubbles
a japanese mountain shrine with a red torii gate and pagoda in winter, cherry blossom trees with pink petals, snow on the roofs, stone lanterns, a misty valley and mountains behind, sunrise
a sci-fi space station orbiting a huge ringed planet, nebula clouds in purple and teal, distant stars, a small spaceship with glowing engines flying past, asteroids
a dark dungeon hall with stone pillars, burning wall torches casting warm light, a treasure chest full of gold, chains, cobwebs, a glowing blue magic portal at the end of the hall, stairs
ancient sandstone ruins and a palm tree oasis in a vast desert at dusk, a caravan of camels on the dunes, a huge orange sun setting, purple sky with first stars
a giant volcano erupting with glowing orange lava rivers flowing down, a red dragon flying in the smoky sky, dark basalt rocks, a small stone bridge, ash and embers in the air
an autumn forest with orange and golden trees beside a winding blue river, a wooden cabin with smoke from the chimney, a deer drinking at the water, falling leaves, distant blue hills
a cozy pirate harbor town at golden hour, wooden docks, a big pirate ship with white sails, colorful houses on a hill, seagulls, barrels and crates, a lighthouse
floating sky islands with waterfalls pouring into the clouds, a small windmill on top, hot air balloons, lush green grass, bright blue sky with fluffy clouds, birds
02
Animation from one sentence
A video model (Wan 2.2) invents the motion, Krea 2 re-draws every frame pixel-perfect, and all frames share one palette. It works for any character and any action – not just walk cycles.
rears its head back, spreads its wings and breathes a huge stream of orange fire forward to the right10 frames · 88 × 76 px · ≈ 4.5 min
spreads its wings, jumps and takes off, flying upward with big powerful wing beats10 frames · 86 × 65 px · ≈ 4.5 min
raises the sword high above his head and swings it down in a wide powerful arc to the front10 frames · 64 × 64 px · ≈ 3.5 min
raises the staff and casts a spell: a glowing blue magic orb with sparks grows at the crystal and shoots forward10 frames · 80 × 69 px · ≈ 3.4 min
spins around and waves the broomstick, casting swirling green magic sparkles8 frames · 80 × 66 px · ≈ 3.1 min
draws the katana in a flash and slashes diagonally with a bright white slash trail9 frames · 80 × 62 px · ≈ 4.6 min
winds up and throws a powerful rocket punch toward the camera, its fist glowing10 frames · 80 × 80 px · ≈ 3.5 min
raises both stone fists and smashes them into the ground, rocks and dust fly up8 frames · 80 × 64 px · ≈ 2.9 min
falls apart and collapses into a pile of bones on the ground12 frames · 72 × 66 px · ≈ 3.4 min
swoops up and down in a big wavy flight path, stretching and squashing, then sticks out its tongue10 frames · 51 × 63 px · ≈ 3.4 min
jogs on the spot with big bouncy energetic steps, swinging the arms, the green scarf fluttering8 frames · 55 × 63 px · ≈ 2.4 min
marches forward with big confident steps, the cape swinging7 frames · 63 × 63 px · ≈ 2.4 min
stomps on the spot with heavy mechanical steps, the big fists swinging, the cyan eyes blinking8 frames · 63 × 63 px · ≈ 2.4 min
03
Characters
64 × 64 pixels with a clean outline and hard alpha – ready for the game. Krea 2 with the k2-pixel64 LoRA, three seeds per character, the best one stays.
04
Already in our games
72 animations made with the same chain that run in our games: enemies, bosses, heroes. Each one reviewed by eye.
05
Items and icons
32 × 32 pixels, at most 12 colours. Made for inventories, shops and loot.
06
Seamless tiles
64 × 64 pixels, tileable by construction: the image is rolled by half its size and the seam is repainted. Each shown 3 × 2 times side by side – no seam in sight.
07
From “looks like pixels” to real pixel art
Image models paint a pixel look, not pixels: the “pixels” differ in size, blur and sit on no grid. Our grid step finds the grid and turns every art pixel into exactly one pixel with a fixed palette.
08
What about PixelLab? Retro Diffusion?
Both are strong, convenient browser tools with their own models trained on pixel art. If you have no GPU, or want rotations, tile sets and map editors ready in the browser, they are a good choice. The difference: with us you pay nothing, and you can see and change every step.
| DAYBUN pixel engine | PixelLab | Retro Diffusion | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $0 – open source, your own GPU | Free trial, then $12 / $24 / $50 a month | $0.03–0.18 per image, animation from $0.07 |
| Real pixels on a fixed grid | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Animation from text | Yes, any action (video model) | Yes (text, skeleton, templates) | Yes (walk, attack, custom action) |
| Runs on your machine | Yes (ComfyUI, 24 GB VRAM) | No, cloud | No, cloud |
| Open code and workflows | Yes (MIT) | No | No |
| Convenience | Set up ComfyUI, download models | In the browser, Aseprite plugin, API, MCP | In the browser, API, MCP |
Prices from the vendors’ websites on 8 October 2026. The models we use have their own licenses (for example the Krea Community License) – please check them before commercial use.
09
What the engine does
| Task | How | Result | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scene | Krea 2 → H3 grid | 384 × 216, 32 colours | ≈ 20 s |
| Character / enemy | Krea 2 + k2-pixel64 → H3 → outline, alpha | 16–64 px, 16 colours | ≈ 10 s |
| Item / icon | Krea 2 + k2-pixel32, icon trigger | 32 px, 12 colours | ≈ 8 s |
| Tile | Krea 2 + k2-pixel64, roll + repaint the seam | 32 / 64 px, seamless | ≈ 20 s |
| Change pose / view | Qwen-Image-Edit 2511, same grid and palette | same as the reference | ≈ 30 s |
| Animation | Wan 2.2 video → Krea 2 per frame → shared palette | up to 64 px, 6–12 frames | 2–5 min |
| Repair fake pixels | 7 grid methods, the best one wins | any | a few s |
Timings on one RTX 4090 with a warm model. The engine is built as an MCP server: any AI with MCP support (Claude, Codex, Cursor) can use it directly.
Try it yourself
The open-source package pixel-video-sprites contains the workflows and a small Python tool for scenes, sprites and animations. The models come straight from their authors; the links are in the guide.
pvs scene "a fairytale castle above a mountain lake at sunset" --out castle.png
pvs sprite "a heroic knight in silver armor with a blue cape, full body, side view facing right" --size 64 --out knight.png
pvs animate knight.png --action "swings the sword in a wide arc" \
--description "a knight in silver armor with a blue cape" --mode once --frames 8 --out knight-slashComing to the asset library
We are building the engine into the Daybun asset library: describe what you need and create images, sprites and animations right there – no GPU of your own needed.
Open the asset library →