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Creating and Refining 3D Models

Turn any image into a 3D model, then re-texture its surface and convert it to a clean quad mesh — all inside Layer.

Layer can turn a flat image into a 3D model — and then refine that model with 3D-specific tools: re-texturing its surface and remeshing it into a clean quad mesh. Here's the whole flow, start to finish.

📘 3D takes a little longer. 3D generations use more Creative Units than images and take a few minutes to render (you'll see a "Forging 3D" status on the board). They run in the background, so you can keep working while they finish.

Turn an image into a 3D model

  1. On the board, click an image asset to select it (it shows as a "Selection · 1 item" chip).

  2. On the bottom toolbar, click Generate 3D to open the generation form.

  3. Click Add Source Image to attach your selected asset — this is what the model is built from. (No source image means there's nothing to model from, so don't skip this step.)

  4. Pick a 3D model — different models trade speed for detail (a lighter model finishes faster; a heavier one captures more detail).

  5. If you need a specific level of detail, set the Face Limit to control how many faces the generated mesh has — lower for a lightweight, mobile-friendly model, higher for finer surface detail.

  6. Click Forge to generate.

The result renders on the board as a .glb and saves to your Library like any other asset.

💡 Garbage in, garbage out. A clean, well-lit source image with the subject fully in frame (and ideally a plain background) gives the best 3D result.

Open your 3D model

Double-click the finished model to open it in the lightbox ("Editing 3D"). You get full 3D controls to inspect it:

  • Orbit, pan, and zoom, plus camera presets (Front, Top, Left, Right) and auto-rotate

  • Render modes — Textured, Solid, Normals, and Wireframe (great for checking the mesh topology)

  • Lighting, floor, and shadow toggles

You can also export the model here (Download, or Download as…) — see Viewing, editing & exporting assets for the full export options.

Re-texture the surface

The Retexture tool repaints your model's surface from a text prompt — without changing its shape:

  1. Open Retexture in the panel.

  2. Describe the new texture — e.g. "weathered bronze statue finish, dark patina."

  3. Generate. Layer applies the new surface and saves it as a new version of the model.

Convert to a quad mesh

The Remesh tool rebuilds your model's topology into a clean quad mesh — the kind of geometry that DCC tools and game engines prefer for rigging, animation, and hand-editing:

  1. Open Remesh in the panel.

  2. Generate the mesh. Layer retopologizes the model into a quad mesh and saves it.

📘 One tool at a time. Re-texture and remesh run on a model one at a time — while one is processing, the other is paused until it finishes.

Rigging and animation

For supported models, you can add a skeleton and apply motion to a finished 3D model directly from the lightbox:

  • Rig the model to add a skeleton it can be animated with. Bipedal characters use a standard humanoid rig; non-bipedal models (like quadrupeds) are supported too, using a more generic bone structure suited to their shape.

  • Animate the rigged model by picking from the available animation presets (for example, a walk cycle).

💡 Rigging and animation quality depends heavily on how closely your model's shape matches what the rig expects — a clearly posed, well-proportioned source model gives the most reliable results.

What's next

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