How to Make SpongeBob SquarePants Hideout Art in Path of Exile

SpongeBob is a perfect fit for hideout art: a square silhouette, a single bold body colour and a face made of simple shapes. Those big eyes and the buck-toothed grin survive the conversion to decorations remarkably well, which makes him a great first project.

The original and the in-game version

Drag the slider to compare the original image with the version rebuilt from Path of Exile decorations. Every piece on the right is a real decoration at its real in-game size, position and rotation.

Why SpongeBob SquarePants works so well as hideout art

Cartoons are made of thick outlines and a handful of flat colours, which translate almost one to one into decorations. The outline becomes a continuous chain of dark pieces and each colour area becomes one decoration type.

This SpongeBob SquarePants uses 705 decorations of 4 types, with Arcane Astronomy Tool doing most of the work. That fits inside Path of Exile's 750-decoration hideout limit, so the complete artwork imports in one go.

Decorations used for SpongeBob SquarePants

These are the exact decorations in this artwork, sorted by how many pieces each one contributes. The generator picks them by colour, texture and size, so large flat areas use big pieces and details use small ones.

Decoration	Pieces	Share	Used for
Arcane Astronomy Tool	432		Main fill
Excavated Brick	158		Outline and line art
Cathedral Tiles	65		Colour area
Ancient Books	50		Details and edges

How the colours were matched

Path of Exile decorations come in mostly earthy, stone and metal tones, so each colour in the SpongeBob SquarePants image is matched to the closest decoration family while keeping light and dark areas in the right order. Here is how each colour of the original was translated:

How to make SpongeBob SquarePants in your hideout

1. Open the generatorGo to the POE Hideout Art Generator and choose Path of Exile 1 or Path of Exile 2.
2. Pick your hideoutSelect the hideout you live in. The .hideout file only imports into the same hideout type.
3. Upload your SpongeBob SquarePants imageDrop a SpongeBob SquarePants picture with a clear outline and a plain background. PNG, JPG and WEBP all work.
4. Use these settingsArt size 56 units, 8 max colours, outline and line art on. This is what produced the result on this page.
5. Generate a free previewIn a few seconds you see the art built from real decorations at their in-game size.
6. Download and importUnlock the .hideout file, then in game open Edit Hideout, choose Import and select it.

SpongeBob SquarePants in Path of Exile 2

The same image in Path of Exile 2 uses 726 decorations of 4 types (+21 compared with PoE 1). PoE 2 has its own decoration set, so the generator only uses pieces that exist in PoE 2, led by Arcane Astronomy Tool.

Choose Path of Exile 2 in the generator and pick your PoE 2 hideout: the art is rebuilt from PoE 2 decorations automatically, with the same outline and colour matching.

Tips for the best SpongeBob SquarePants

• Keep the default outline on: it is what makes cartoon characters instantly recognisable in game.
• Six to eight colours is the sweet spot for most cartoons.
• Front-facing poses read better from the hideout camera than side views.

Importing the .hideout file

Go to your hideout, open Edit Hideout, choose Import and select the downloaded file. Make sure you import into the same hideout type you chose on the website. Back up your current layout with Export first if you want to keep it.

SpongeBob SquarePants hideout art FAQ