Saved Pixel Blog: Guides on Stylized 3D, Texturing & Blender Workflows

Practical, teaching-first articles on gradient texturing, low-poly game art, retopology, and Blender workflows, written by the makers of Palette Grid and RetopoSketch.

All articles

Why Your Low-Poly Colors Look Bland: 6 Palette Fixes Tested in Blender: One bland low-poly Blender scene fixed six ways by changing only its palette image. Real before/after renders, the numbers behind each fix, and a free .blend. (Guide, 14 min read, updated September 25, 2026)
UV Unwrapping in Blender for Low-Poly Game Art (2026 Guide): Every Blender 5.x unwrap method measured on the same mesh, what Smart UV Project really does, the gradient-direction mistake on curved assets, how much margin islands need before mipmaps bleed, and the full palette UV workflow. Figures built from real Blender 5.2 scenes and measured UV data. (Tutorial, 17 min read, updated September 25, 2026)
Steam Next Fest Visual Checklist: Capsules, Screenshots and Trailers for Stylized Indie Games: Get your store page ready for Steam Next Fest (October 19 to 26, 2026): real wishlist benchmarks, official capsule and library asset sizes, key art that survives every crop, demo art rules, a five-screenshot order, a muted-autoplay trailer storyboard, and UTM tracking. (Guide, 20 min read, updated September 25, 2026)
Friendslop Art Style: How to Make PEAK-Style Game Assets in Blender: What makes the friendslop look of PEAK, R.E.P.O., Lethal Company and Content Warning work, and how to build it in Blender: readable silhouettes, a strict color hierarchy, one shared palette texture, and a cheap engine pass. (Guide, 18 min read, updated September 25, 2026)
Superhive Summer Sale 2026: The Blender Addon Deals Actually Worth Buying: The Superhive Summer Sale 2026 runs August 4 to 10 with 25% off. A working buyer's guide to the Blender addons worth buying: what each tool is genuinely for, what it costs after the discount, and how to avoid the classic sale mistakes. (Buying Guide, 13 min read, updated August 4, 2026)
Gradient Texturing in Blender: The Complete Guide: Learn gradient texturing in Blender from scratch: what palette textures are, why they make stylized 3D art dramatically faster, the full manual workflow, and how to automate it. Includes engine export for Unity, Unreal, and Godot. (Tutorial, 12 min read, updated July 19, 2026)
How to Texture Low-Poly Game Assets Fast (Unity, Unreal & Godot): A practical workflow for texturing low-poly game assets in minutes instead of hours: palette textures, one-material scenes, and engine import settings for Unity, Unreal Engine, and Godot. (Tutorial, 10 min read, updated July 19, 2026)
Trim Sheets vs Texture Atlases vs Palette Textures: Which Should You Use?: Trim sheets, texture atlases, and palette textures solve different problems. This guide explains how each works, compares memory cost, reuse, and workflow speed, and shows when to combine them in a game art pipeline. (Comparison, 9 min read, updated July 19, 2026)
The 10 Best Blender Addons for Stylized & Low-Poly Game Art in 2026: A curated, honest list of the Blender addons that actually speed up stylized and low-poly game art in 2026 (texturing, retopology, UV work, baking, and hard-surface modeling), with what each one is best for and real website screenshots of each tool. (Roundup, 11 min read, updated July 19, 2026)
Blender Retopology: Methods, Addons, and Faster Workflows: Everything about retopology in Blender: when you actually need it, manual retopo with built-in tools, automatic remeshing, the best retopology addons in 2026, and where sketch-based retopology is heading. (Guide, 12 min read, updated July 19, 2026)
How Palette Textures Cut Draw Calls and Texture Memory in Stylized Games: A performance-focused guide to palette textures: why one small texture and one material can batch an entire stylized scene, real memory math vs PBR texture sets, and the mipmap and bleed gotchas to avoid. (Optimization, 9 min read, updated July 19, 2026)

Saved Pixel App and free browser tools

Saved Pixel App is the browser platform for free Palette Grid companion tools. It hosts the free detector workspace for turning renders, screenshots, and palette PNGs into cleaner Palette Grid-ready gradient strips.

Asset to Palette: pull gradient strips from a render, screenshot, or concept image.
Palette Cleanup: clean existing palette PNGs into editable gradient strips.

AI-readable app summaries: https://app.savedpixel.com/llms.txt and https://app.savedpixel.com/llms-full.txt.