Blender Add-on · Illustration Render EngineFree + Pro

Illustration Station

Render your Blender scenes as illustrations and manga backgrounds: clean or sketchy ink lines, screentone, solid blacks and crisp cast shadows — from the active camera or live in the viewport. Fifteen styles, one click each, and every part of a look stays yours to change. Built for comic and manga artists, illustrators, technical and archviz artists — anyone who wants the drawing, not the render.

Get Pro → Download Free Read the docs
15
One-click styles
< 1 s
Per still render
Live
In the viewport
One Paris café corner rendered by Illustration Station in three styles, split diagonally: Color, Line + Tone (ink lines and screentone) and Blueprint
Real-Time

See the drawing while you work.

Switch any 3D Viewport to Rendered shading and Illustration Station draws live. Orbit, pan and zoom with the final look on screen; in camera view, lines, tone and pattern size match what F12 renders.

// rendered viewport, live — sketch style on the café scene

The idea

A render engine that draws.

Illustration Station isn't a modifier stack or a compositor recipe. It's a complete render engine — it draws the scene itself on the GPU and turns it into line art and tone. Pick it in Render Properties, press F12, and get an illustration back.

Watch It

See it in motion.

// illustration station overview

What It Is
Illustration Station logo mark ILLUSTRATION STATION

Your scene, inked.

Illustration Station renders the active camera and the Rendered viewport as ink lines, screentone, solid black, cast shadows and ambient occlusion. Stills render in a fraction of a second, animations render frame by frame like any other engine, and the viewport shows the same look while you work — no Freestyle, Line Art modifiers or Grease Pencil to set up.

Styles

Fifteen styles. One café. One click each.

The Style picker shows every look on the same scene. Click one, press F12.

The same café street rendered in all fifteen Illustration Station styles, from Line + Tone to Sketchy Shaded

// all fifteen styles on the same scene

The café scene in four steps: Lines Only, then Pattern set to Dots, then Surface set to Shaded Color, then Line Style set to Sketchy

Four choices make every look.

Every style is a starting point that fills in four choices, each at the top of its own panel. Change any one and the style keeps its name with a * — pick it again to go back.

  • Line Style — Off, Clean or Sketchy
  • Surface — Paper, Flat Color, Shaded Color, Clay, White Bands, Greys or Comic Bands
  • Pattern — Off, Dots, Lines, Cross Hatch, Sand or Flat Grey
  • Color Set — Paper & Ink, Blueprint, Sketch or Comic
The café street in the Sketchy Lines style — wobbly ink lines drawn twice, overshooting at the corners // sketchy lines

Lines that look drawn by hand.

Set Line Style to Sketchy in any style that draws lines. Wobble, Wobble Size, double Strokes, cross lines that overshoot at corners and heavier Endpoints — the silhouettes are found on the GPU every frame.

The café street in the Color + Line + Tone style — flat colors inked with lines, screentone and solid black // color + line + tone

Color under the ink.

Flat or shaded material colors with ink lines, screentone dots and solid black on top. Textured materials get a fallback color in one click — Predominant picks each material's most common color for you.

Features

Everything an illustration needs.

Lines, tone, shade and color — drawn by one engine, tuned from one panel.

01

Screentone patterns

Dots, Lines, Cross Hatch, Sand and Flat Grey, anchored to the screen or to objects, with per-material Tone and Black Bias.

02

Solid black and cast shadows

The darkest areas fill with solid black; cast shadows match an orthographic or perspective camera at any zoom.

03

Thick and thin lines

Thick Lines for silhouettes, Thin Lines for inner edges, a Line Art-style Crease, and Screen Space for the same weight everywhere.

04

Light Threshold and Shading Steps

Two clean tones instead of a gradient, or a set number of stepped bands — cel-shaded looks without a single node.

05

Scene Lights

Use the scene's sun, a custom direction, or up to eight of its own lamps — Sun, Point, Spot and Area — with falloff and spot cones.

06

Live Rendered viewport

Orbit, pan and zoom with the final look on screen. In camera view, lines, tone and pattern size match what F12 renders.

07

Transparent PNGs

Transparent Paper puts the line work and tone on their own layer; Transparent Background works with every surface.

08

Fallback colors

Image-textured materials render in one flat color. Predominant or Set Colors from Materials picks it from the texture for you.

09

Animation-ready

Renders frame by frame like any engine. Object-anchored tone moves with objects and shadow edges don't flicker.

Free and Pro

Start free. Upgrade when you want more.

Both editions run the same engine with the same panels. Free shows every Pro setting with a padlock, so you can see exactly what Pro adds.

Free
Pro
Both editions
Sketch Style — clean lines over pencil greys
✓
✓
Thin Lines, Thick Lines, Screen Space and Crease
✓
✓
Light Threshold and Select Sun
✓
✓
Rendered viewport, F12 stills and animation
✓
✓
Pro only
The other fourteen styles
–
✓
Sketchy lines
–
✓
Screentone patterns and solid black
–
✓
Every surface and Color Set, custom colors
–
✓
Light source, shadow and ambient occlusion controls
–
✓
Transparent PNG output
–
✓

// upgrading installs Pro over Free — your settings and files are kept

Common Questions

Does it use my image textures and shader nodes?

No. Textures and node trees aren't evaluated at render time; a textured material renders in one flat fallback color. Predominant and Set Colors from Materials pick each material's most common color in one click.

Does it create Grease Pencil strokes or vector lines?

No. Illustration Station renders images, like EEVEE and Cycles. Use Transparent Paper to get the line work on its own layer.

Do I need Freestyle or Line Art?

No. It's a complete render engine with its own Lines panel — Line Art's material settings have no effect on it.

Does it render depth of field or motion blur?

No. The render is one Combined image; you can still run it through the compositor.

Does it work on macOS?

It draws through Blender's own GPU drawing. It's tested on Windows with OpenGL and Vulkan; macOS (Metal) hasn't been tested yet.

What happens when I upgrade from Free?

Install the Pro .zip the same way as Free. It replaces Free, and your settings and files are kept — scenes saved in a Pro style render in their own style again.

Learn It
DOCS Full documentation → CHAT Support on Discord →
Who This Is For

The drawing, straight out of Blender.

If you model in 3D but deliver in ink, Illustration Station renders the page for you.

Comic and manga artists

Backgrounds in line and screentone, with solid blacks and crisp shadows.

Illustrators

Clean or sketchy line art to paint over, on its own transparent layer.

Technical and archviz artists

Lines Only, Blueprint and Line + White for drawings that read at a glance.

Concept and layout artists

Clay and Sketch Style for checking composition and light, fast.

Animators

Frame-by-frame renders with tone that sticks to objects.

Toolmaker

Designed by a toolmaker.

Designed by Chipp Walters — a 30-year industry veteran and the creator of KIT OPS and Simple Sketch Pro. Proven experience. Stellar support. Built for artists like you.

15
Styles
4
Choices per look
< 1 s
Per still render
What You Get$35 · Yours to keep

Everything you need — nothing you don't.

One charge, nothing auto-renews: Illustration Station Pro is yours to keep forever, with a full year of updates and developer support. Renew later for just $10/year, only when you want the latest.

Illustration Station Pro — Blender 4.5+ extension with all fifteen styles and every setting
A full year of updates and developer support
Documentation — full manual with annotated screenshots
Want to try it first? Illustration Station Free renders Sketch Style, and Pro installs over it, keeping your settings and files
Requirements
Blender4.5 LTS or later (Extension)
GPUAny GPU that runs Blender's viewport — OpenGL or Vulkan backend
TestedWindows (OpenGL, Vulkan) · macOS (Metal) not yet tested
EditionsFree (Sketch Style) · Pro (all fifteen styles)
LicenseGPL-3.0-or-later
Support

Support that actually answers.

This isn't a fire-and-forget asset drop. It's backed by first-class support for Blender customers since 2019 — an active Discord where a human answers, and a catalog of tools trusted by artists worldwide.

2019
Supporting Blender artists since
6K+
Members in the Discord community
140K+
Product downloads across the catalog

Your scene, inked.

Fifteen styles, live in the viewport, a fraction of a second per still.

Get Illustration Station Pro on Superhive → Get it on Gumroad Download Free