Blender Game Assets

Build Blender game assets

Read shared context, the ready preferences and repository contracts. Use the local Blender workflow for executable discovery, background Python, the macOS startup workaround, renders and export checks. Use the supplied asset references, intended gameplay camera and project-specific budgets.

Establish the source and export contract

Inspect references and existing sources before building. Match their silhouette, proportions, feature placement, palette and material response as closely as the delivery allows. Infer concealed forms consistently and record consequential assumptions. When no references are supplied, work from the brief and saved art direction; do not require a new reference-generation round unless it is needed or requested.

Own a dedicated collection, source file or isolated build and preserve unrelated objects and unsaved work. Resolve units, forward/up axes, origin, ground contact, bounds, material/texture budgets, collision ownership and animation/root-motion expectations from the existing contract and task. Ask only about consequential missing choices. Run Blender locally through repeatable bpy scripts; a third-party Blender MCP is not a dependency.

Model and surface workflow

1. Start with primitives, curves or simple custom meshes for the major forms. Render front, side, rear and intended gameplay views and compare against available references before fine detail. Preserve simple primitive construction where it fits the design; join, reshape or retopologize organic forms where the reference requires smooth anatomical transitions.
2. Use parameterized builders, modifiers, Geometry Nodes or supported particle/simulation systems when procedural construction makes the asset easier to author or revise. Keep meaningful dimensions and variation editable, and follow the shared cache and export rules for stateful results.
3. Build topology that supports the intended deformation around joints, face and attachment points. Close exposed surfaces, including eyes and mouths, and inspect them from multiple angles. Remeshing can unify a sculpt, but its topology and density still need review for deformation and export.
4. Create usable UVs and materials that match the reference. Add base-color, roughness, normal and other texture maps where needed for markings and surface detail. Solid-color materials are appropriate when the art calls for them. Inspect texel density, seams, stretching, normals and tangent behavior under representative lighting.
5. Treat base-color paint as color data and normal/roughness maps as non-color data. Avoid applying gamma conversion twice. Verify exported vertex colors are enabled and not unintentionally multiplied by a tinted material. Bake unsupported procedural shading to suitable maps on the final UV layout and keep texture dependencies portable.
6. Reduce material splits and geometry against the configured budgets while retaining silhouette and articulation. Reinspect the textured and deformed result after optimization. For Blender-rendered sprites, keep camera, projection, lighting and framing fixed across directions and animation frames; coordinate with game-sprites.

Rig and animate when required

Give characters a usable rest pose, skeleton and skin. Place joints for the anatomy and required motion, including fingers, tails or other movable appendages where relevant. Separate authoring controls from deform bones; provide IK, FK and facial shape keys or controls appropriate to the task. For other articulated assets, choose bone, object or constraint controls that suit their construction. Static props do not need a character rig.

Bind the visible geometry, normalize weights within the target influence limit and check for unweighted vertices. Inspect extreme poses for collapsed joints, stretching, disconnected surfaces and face/appendage clipping. Verify vertex movement and facial deformation, not only bone transforms. Retain the editable rig in the source when baking constraints for export.

Use game-animation for requested clips, readable timing, planted contacts, secondary motion and loop behavior. Render a short clip from the actual model and inspect continuous playback before a large animation batch or a user review of animation.

Export and review

Save the editable .blend, builder and required textures. Export an engine-supported format such as glTF/GLB with the actual selected asset objects, required textures, skin and clips. Exclude the review studio unless it is part of the requested asset. Apply transforms deliberately; record orientation after import instead of assuming Blender and Godot agree. Verify the selected export mode preserves named clips, baked constraints and facial morphs without accidentally combining unrelated actions.

Run the bundled scripts/asset_audit.py for structural GLB metadata when useful. Follow the shared fresh-import checks, then perform a Godot import and actual visual review for game delivery. Check texture/material response, eyes/face readability, ground contact and articulated deformation. A rotating skeleton is not enough if vertices are not weighted to it.

Keep .blend sources and builders outside the engine import tree. Record output hash, dimensions, triangles, surfaces, rig/clip metadata and review evidence. Do not call a source render an in-engine capture, or call an export optimized for mobile before profiling the target workload.