Generate or Upload

Every project starts here. Step 1 is the front door: you either bring your own 2D art — a PNG, a JPG, or a layered PSD — or describe a scene in words and let the AI generate one. Whichever route you take, Pixploder records the image you commit as the pristine original that every later step reframes without destroying, and it auto-detects whether your art is pixel art or smooth so the rest of the pipeline draws to match. You are done the moment a working image is loaded and the right panel flips to Source Art Review — the read-out that reports your source size and points you on to extending, segmenting, or a clean restart.

Bring in your own art

When no image is loaded, the left workspace is how you get one in without spending anything. There are two no-AI routes.

• Upload your 2D game art — the large dashed dropzone (Drag & drop or click to select a background or sprite-sheet image. PNG or JPG.). Drop a file or click to browse; Pixploder reads it entirely in your browser, sizes the canvas to the image, probes its style, clears any earlier elements, and lands you on Source Art Review.
• Or import a layered PSD — imports a Photoshop .psd or .psb. Each raster layer becomes a ready-made element, with its name, bounds, and alpha intact, and you jump straight to Step 5 · Mask Sprites, skipping Extend, Locate, and Segment. It runs entirely in the browser with no AI, so it works on the Free plan.

Generate a scene with AI

The right panel turns a text prompt into a brand-new scene. This is the only credit-spending action on the step, and results stack up so you can roll several before committing one.

1. Prompt box — opens pre-filled with an example (A cozy forest clearing with a small wooden cabin at sunset.). Replace it with your own scene in any art style; reset prompt restores the example, and an empty box shows the hint Describe the scene you want to generate — any art style….
2. AI model — the AI that generates the scene. Right now it offers a single option, shown with its per-image credit cost and a recommended badge; that cost is the price on the Generate button, and your selection is remembered in your browser. More scene models would appear here only if they get switched on.
3. Aspect — the output shape: 16:9 (default), 1:1, 4:3, 3:2, 9:16, or 21:9.
4. Generate · N credits — spends credits and generates one scene. It reads Generating… with a spinner while the left pane shows Generating your scene… and This usually takes 10–30 seconds. The result is added to Your generations and previewed. The button is disabled while a run is in flight, when the prompt is empty, or if scene generation is switched off — in which case an amber Scene generation is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later — we're on it. line appears above it.

Your generations

Every scene you generate stacks in a grid on the right, newest first, up to 24 kept. This is where you compare rolls and commit the keeper — all of it free.

• Thumbnail grid — click any thumbnail to preview it large on the left; a fuchsia border marks the selected one, and a green ✓ marks results already saved to your project.
• Restore this prompt — copies that result's prompt back into the box so you can iterate on it.
• Save (download + keep in project) — downloads the PNG and, when you are signed in on a save-capable plan, also keeps it in the project's saved images. Otherwise it just downloads.
• Use this image — under the large preview, commits the shown generation as the working image and switches the panel to Source Art Review. It is free; the credits were spent back when you pressed Generate.
• Upload a PNG / JPG — once at least one generation exists, an or upload your own divider adds a second upload button, so you can abandon the rolls and use your own file instead.

Pixel-art mode

Pixel-art mode · switch any time is one shared switch — it appears on both the generate panel and Source Art Review — that tells the whole pipeline whether your art is pixel art. Pixploder auto-sets it from a local grid detector on every intake (upload, generate, or PSD import). The mono line beneath shows the detector's verdict, or sets how the AI draws, keys and exports by default.

• On — new AI fills are drawn and keyed as hard pixel art, scaling goes nearest-neighbor, and the pixel-baking pass in Step 7 · Harmonize turns on.
• Off — new fills match your image's own smooth style with no pixel constraints, upscales stay smooth, and that pass turns off.

Flipping the switch only affects future fills; nothing already generated is rewritten — re-roll an old fill to redo it in the new mode. On a fresh Step 1 image the toggle flips instantly. Once downstream generated work exists, it asks first (Switch to pixel-art mode? or Switch pixel-art mode off?, with Switch from here to commit).

Source Art Review

Once an image is in — uploaded, or generated and committed with Use this image — the right panel becomes Source Art Review and the left pane shows your source on an alpha checkerboard.

• Dimensions — your source pixel size, as W x H px.
• Elements — the count of detected elements. It reads Uncalculated until Step 3 · Locate & Segment has run, so a fresh intake always shows Uncalculated.
• Pixel-art mode — the same toggle described above.
• Continue to Extend Canvas — advances to Step 2 · Extend Canvas.
• Skip — go straight to Locate & Segment — jumps past Extend to Step 3 · Locate & Segment. Use it when your scene is already framed the way you want.
• ↺ Replace image — starts the project over. This is the only replace-or-reset control in the app, and it lives only here.

With a working image committed and its style set, Continue to Extend Canvas carries the scene into Step 2 · Extend Canvas — or Skip straight to segmenting when the framing already fits.