Model Assets 101

The shortest path to assembling small mesh parts, texturing them with 2D images, and producing both a GLB and an HD-2D image from the same model. The sample is model_asset_c1.ppl in this folder.

The basic graph

Model Box -> Model Transform --+
                              +-> Model Group -> Model Set Material -> Model GLB Export
Model Box -> Model Transform --+                         |
                                                         +-> Model Render -> Surface post-processing

2D Image -> PBR Material -------------------------------> Model Set Material

1. Create parts one at a time with model_box and friends. Generator nodes output a Model and a Texture Layout together.
2. Set position, rotation, and size with model_transform. The 3D stage gizmo writes back to the same values.
3. Bundle the parts into one Model document with model_group. Overlapping parts are fine.
4. Build images with ordinary 2D nodes and declare their roles with pbr_material.
5. Assign materials with model_set_material, to the whole model or to regions like top / side / cap.
6. Check the 3D stage, then set the destination and Save Mode on model_gltf_export.

Fitting textures to faces

Connect a generator's Texture Layout to model_texture_layout.

• Guide: UV island borders — an underlay to draw on top of
• Region Map: face regions as a color-coded mask
• Recommended width/height: the image size that satisfies the texel density

Run the finished image through texture_layout_dilate before wiring it into the PBR material. A gutter of 1px or more suppresses color bleeding at mipmap and atlas boundaries. model_texel_density_check measures effective density per triangle and reports faces outside the target range.

One model, both GLB and pixel art

• 3D game asset: model_gltf_export
• HD-2D asset: model_render → Surface shading / outline / palette processing

model_render's normal output is a screen-space map for post-processing — it is not the tangent-space normal you would put on a GLB.

Batch production

Promote dimensions, colors, and camera angles as usual and swap them with Variant Snapshot / Variant Range. Use Batch Render to lay out image sets. For GLBs, vary the destination per variant and evaluate. Models share mesh/material data via Arc, so model_array and grouping never deep-copy image or vertex data.

What this lane does not do

• Boolean holes, mesh booleans, vertex welding
• Hand-editing vertices, edges, or faces
• Hand-editing UV islands
• Skinning or weight painting

Shapes that need holes or smooth fusion belong in the Solid lane — build them there and capture them as pixel art.