---
name: Text-to-3D
slug: text-to-3d-4
category: Frontend
description: Turn a text prompt into a textured 3D model (GLB) with optional triangle budget and auto-rigging for characters. Generate game or web assets, batch process, and preview results locally.
github: "https://github.com/hec-ovi/text-to-3D-skill/tree/main/skills/text-to-3d"
language: C++
stars: 33
forks: 2
install: "npx degit https://github.com/hec-ovi/text-to-3D-skill/tree/main/skills/text-to-3d ~/.claude/skills/text-to-3d"
installs_to: ~/.claude/skills/text-to-3d
source_path: skills/text-to-3d/SKILL.md
collection_size: 4
category_size: 567
collection_url: "https://dirskills.com/collections/hec-ovi/text-to-3D-skill"
added: 2026-08-11T07:21:44.865Z
last_synced: 2026-08-11T07:21:44.865Z
canonical_url: "https://dirskills.com/skills/text-to-3d-4"
---

# Text-to-3D

Turn a text prompt into a textured 3D model (GLB) with optional triangle budget and auto-rigging for characters. Generate game or web assets, batch process, and preview results locally.

**Install:**

```bash
npx degit https://github.com/hec-ovi/text-to-3D-skill/tree/main/skills/text-to-3d ~/.claude/skills/text-to-3d
```

## README

# text-to-3d

Turn one described subject into one textured GLB, and a humanoid into a rigged one:

```text
prompt -> FLUX.2 klein (ComfyUI) -> PNG -> TRELLIS.2 (Vulkan) -> GLB
```

## Choose a capability

| id | Use it for | Section |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `init` | Start and verify the local harness | [Init](#init) |
| `generate` | Generate one static GLB | [Generate](#generate) |
| `budget` | Generate to a triangle budget | [Triangle budget](#budget) |
| `rig` | Give a generated character a skeleton and clips | [Rig](#rig) |
| `preview` | Inspect generated models | [Preview](#preview) |
| `batch` | Generate several models efficiently | [Batch](#batch) |

Never use Blender. The rig path does not need it, and the retargeting that a
Blender workflow implies is what puts a walk cycle in backwards.

<a id="init"></a>
## Init

Run init before the first generation in a session:

```bash
python3 scripts/init.py
```

The bundled launcher finds the toolkit from `--toolkit-dir`, `$TEXT_TO_3D_TOOLKIT`, or the current checkout. When it is installed as a standalone skill and no checkout exists, it clones the toolkit into `~/.local/share/text-to-3d-toolkit`.

Init is idempotent. It:

1. Verifies the ten TRELLIS.2 GGUFs and fetches missing files.
2. Starts the sibling `comfyui-strix-docker` Compose stack.
3. Builds and starts the resident Vulkan mesh engine and the rig service.
4. Starts the local preview server.
5. Waits for all health checks and prints one JSON result.

The first run may build both images, download about 20 GB of weights, and load the models. Do not report success until the JSON result says every service is `ready`.

Useful overrides:

```bash
python3 scripts/init.py --toolkit-dir /path/to/text-to-3D-skill
python3 scripts/init.py --comfy-dir /path/to/comfyui-strix-docker
python3 scripts/init.py --no-fetch --no-build
python3 scripts/init.py --no-rig            # meshes only; the rig holds 1.6 GB
```

<a id="generate"></a>
## Generate

Name one complete subject, its important parts, material, and style. The image prompt already supplies centering, a plain background, and even lighting.

```bash
python3 layers/pipeline/src/pipeline.py \
  --prompt "a brass diving helmet with round glass ports and copper fittings" \
  --out-dir out \
  --runner server
```

Use 1024 for full-body figures and 512 for compact props. Describe characters standing still, facing forward, with limbs visible. Do not ask for an action.

| Flag | Default | Change it when |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `--res 512\|1024\|1536` | 512 | A full figure needs more texture detail. |
| `--target-faces N` | 150K at 512 | The asset is for a game, web page, or real-time scene. |
| `--seed N` | Derived from prompt | The run must reproduce a prior asset. |
| `--no-texture` | Off | The caller will supply materials. |
| `--bg-removal birefnet` | Auto | Reflective highlights punch holes in the default matte. |
| `--drop-image` | Off | The intermediate PNG is not needed. |

The result is a schema-validated JSON envelope. The GLB path, checksum, byte size, triangle count, and stage timings come from the written file.

Inspect both the intermediate image and the GLB before reporting completion. A structurally valid model can still omit a requested part.

<a id="budget"></a>
## Triangle budget

A budget is a target, not a quality setting. The reconstruction runs at full
detail either way and the simplifier collapses the result to the count asked
for, with the texture baked afterwards onto the mesh that survives; measured at
4000 faces the shape quality is within a degree of the 138K version. So a
budget costs file size and nothing else, and asking for one never means asking
for a cruder model.

Set one for a game, engine, or web scene:

```bash
python3 layers/pipeline/src/pipeline.py \
  --prompt "a stylised red sports car" \
  --target-faces 12000 \
  --out-dir out \
  --runner server
```

Starting points:

- Small prop: 2K to 6K faces.
- Stylised full-body figure: 5K to 10K.
- Vehicle or hero asset: 20K to 50K.

Decimation runs before UV unwrap, so the texture is baked onto the simplified mesh.

<a id="rig"></a>
## Rig

Give a generated character a skeleton, skin weights and clips. Humanoids only.

```bash
python3 layers/rig/src/rig.py \
  --glb out/<character>-r1024.glb \
  --out-dir out
```

The result is `<stem>-rigged.glb`, carrying a Mixamo-named skeleton and `idle`
and `walk`. The mesh, its materials and its textures are untouched: skinning is
appended to the file, not rebuilt from it.

Requires the rig service, which `init` starts. A prop returns
`NOT_A_CHARACTER`; that is the correct answer, not a failure to work around.

| Flag | Default | Change it when |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `--no-animate` | Off | The caller brings its own clips and wants the skin only. |
| `--max-influences N` | 4 | A target engine reads fewer than four bones per vertex. |

<a id="preview"></a>
## Preview

Init starts the viewer at `http://127.0.0.1:8190/`. An asset id is its GLB file stem.

```text
http://127.0.0.1:8190/?id=<asset-id>
```

Resolve one id before handing over its link:

```bash
curl -fsS "http://127.0.0.1:8190/api/models?id=<asset-id>"
```

<a id="batch"></a>
## Batch

Generate every image first, then every mesh. Alternating stages can evict the image weights and make the next image reload take several minutes.

```bash
python3 layers/text2image/src/klein.py --prompt "..." --out-dir out
python3 layers/image2mesh/src/mesh.py --image out/first.png --out-dir out --runner server
```

The resident engine started by init avoids paying the TRELLIS model-load cost for every mesh.

## Failures

Read the outer `code`, then `cause.code` when present.

| Code | Action |
| --- | --- |
| `MODELS_MISSING` | Re-run init without `--no-fetch`. |
| `SERVICE_TIMEOUT` | Inspect the named endpoint and its Compose logs. |
| `TEXT2IMAGE_FAILED` plus `BACKEND_UNREACHABLE` | Re-run init and inspect the ComfyUI service. |
| `TEXT2IMAGE_FAILED` plus `MODEL_MISSING` | Check the ComfyUI models mount. |
| `IMAGE2MESH_FAILED` plus `NO_VULKAN_DEVICE` | Check `/dev/dri` and the render group id. |
| `IMAGE2MESH_FAILED` plus `GLB_INVALID` | Keep the output and report the engine bug. |
| `NOT_A_CHARACTER` | The subject is not a humanoid. Ship it static. |
| `MODEL_UNREACHABLE` from the rig | Re-run init and inspect the rig service. |

## Limits

- One subject, not a multi-object scene.
- Rigging is for humanoids. A prop is refused with `NOT_A_CHARACTER` rather than given a spine.
- Clips are generated, not hand-animated: they read as motion at gameplay distance and do not survive a close look. The skeleton is Mixamo-named, so an authored clip pack plays on it without retargeting.
- Faces hold up at gameplay distance, not as portrait assets.
- Vulkan GPU for the mesh, ROCm for the rig. The mesh engine refuses silent CPU fallback.