Actually... Once they're in sprite form, they are "pre-rendered" or similar to it. After all, Donkey Kong Country took CGI models and made them into 2D frame-by-frame sprites. And that's essentially what he's doing. He's taking the model and turning it into a 2D frame-by-frame sprite.
A sprite doesn't always have to be something made pixel-by-pixel. Primal Rage was done in clay!
A sprite doesn't always have to be something made pixel-by-pixel. Primal Rage was done in clay!