Pixelary ASCII: Live ASCII art from images, video and 3D

Pixelary is a real-time ASCII art studio that runs entirely in the browser. Drop in an image, video, text, or even a 3D model, and it renders as ASCII art live — with adjustable effects and one-click export.

ASCII rendering is computationally heavy: every frame means sampling pixels, mapping luminance to characters, and redrawing — at interactive frame rates, in the browser, across media types as different as video streams and 3D geometry. The engineering problem was keeping it real-time without dropping frames; the design problem was making a technical tool feel like a creative studio.

15+ custom render engines — different character sets, densities, and styles, each producing a distinct visual signature

Multi-format input pipeline — images, video, text, and 3D models all normalized into a single rendering path

Real-time effects — live parameter tweaking with instant visual feedback

One-click export — take your output anywhere

Next.js, GSAP, Tailwind CSS

🔗 Live: https://www.pixelary.studio