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AI tools for 3D artists: how to embrace AI without abandoning your workflow
AI tools for 3D artists often so significantly disrupt workflows and pipelines that embracing them becomes almost impossible. There's the process of having to learn new software, completely rethink the interface between applications, and the inevitable impact this all has on deadlines. The reality is that your clients are not paying to let you upgrade or make adjustments to your arsenal of tools.
If AI is good for anything, surely it should enhance our workflows and make the process of creating 3D art more streamlined and focused upon the creative elements of a project. It should slot neatly into our existing workflows and make the most of our laptops for 3D modelling, rather than disrupting them completely.
With a continuing wariness over the impact of AI within the creative industry, it will be the software developers who manage to slot themselves into existing workflows who become successful. With that in mind, I explore three AI tools that will fit effortlessly into your 3D workflow without skipping a beat.
Best for character animation: Reallusion AI Studio
Reallusion has long been at the forefront of the character animation industry. With iClone and Character Creator, the global brand has provided animators with ground-breaking tools that push the boundaries of what is possible within the character animation space.
With no desire to settle, Reallusion has been busy integrating AI functionality into its software packages. This includes AI-powered character creation, animation editing and even rendering. To add to this already impressive set of AI features, Reallusion has launched a new standalone tool called AI Studio, which is "built for 3D artists who want to streamline their workflow with authentic AI render and for AI creators seeking stronger consistency and more precise control with less trial and error".
What AI Studio does so well is to maintain a consistent character IP across workflows. It achieves this by taking your original actor designs and creating AI Actors with preserved likeness and enhanced realism, which can then be used across various different pipelines, including in film, TV, games, and visualisations.
That means no more issues with characters looking a little bit different across varying contexts and outputs. It also means that workflows are not just quicker but also far simpler. That leaves more headspace to storyboard, create, fine-tune, and generally apply your creative juices to the output you're going for.
One feature that sets AI Studio apart is that it allows 3D artists to use their own 3D model to easily turn it into a character sheet and maintain character consistency. This is one of the biggest benefits to 3D artists who want to adopt AI Studio into their workflow.
I took Reallusion's AI Studio for a spin by uploading a set of five quickly snapped images of my head before generating an AI Actor. From there I was able to generate a voice and apply this to my AI Actor. I couldn't believe how good the results were. Any AI character that you create can be used directly as references in 'Image Edit' and 'Video Generation' to achieve greater creative flexibility and "unmatched character consistency across every scene".
AI Studio offers a comprehensive solution for character creation and animation and with 3D export tools, is able to slot neatly into most existing 3D workflows. It is fast, flexible, and one of the best ways of harnessing AI in your character creation workflow.
2. Best for model creation: Meshy
Meshy came into existence in 2023. At the time, AI tools for 3D model generation were beginning to gain traction, but widespread adoption of this type of workflow has taken time. The reasons for this are complex and varied, but one of them has been that the technology hasn't been good enough to use in a production pipeline. This is no longer the case. In fact, an increasing number of people are trusting generative AI to enhance their 3D workflows.
Meshy is a fast and user-friendly generative AI tool for creating 3D models. It achieves this by turning a user-provided image or text description into a fully fledged downloadable 3D model. I've used it a number of times and have found it to be one of the most reliable tools for this type of thing on the market. I particularly like the fact that it can also generate high-resolution textures for a complete solution to model generation.
The web-based tool, now at version 7, is used by a large number of indie artists as well as some of the largest technology companies, including Nexon, NetEase Games, 37 Interactive Entertainment, Bambu Lab, Creality, Elegoo, FlashForge, and xTool. Its popularity across so many industries is largely down to its ability to create highly detailed meshes for 3D visualisation as well as smart topology for games. Whatever your workflow, Meshy slows neatly into it.
Once a 3D model has been created, it can be previewed, edited, and exported, which provides the necessary control to get the exact results required. This flexible workflow makes Meshy an ideal solution for a wide range of users and artists, including for game development, 3D printing, AR/VR, product design, education, and content creation.
3. Best for rendering: Rendair
After creating a 3D model in a package like Blender, ZBrush, or 3ds Max, it's time to add materials, throw in some lights, and create a render. In most applications, this requires not only a dedicated rendering engine but also a lot of specialist knowledge and expertise. The world of 3D rendering is not for the faint-hearted, and getting the results you want is often a labour of love.
But what if you're incredible at the modelling part of your workflow but not so good at the materials and lighting? Should you just give up and find another profession? Not necessarily. One thing you could do is swap out the rendering section of your workflow for a dedicated AI renderer such as Rendair. This web-based tool is able to create all types of rendering styles using images, sketches, and floor plans as a starting point.
I've only begun using Rendair recently, but I am already blown away by what it is capable of. With just a few simple text prompts and a base image, Rendair is able to create exactly what is required in a very short period of time. And if any part of the final image isn't to your liking, simply jump into the conversational edit feature to make targeted changes.
Another superb use for Rendair is to add people to your architectural visualisations. In traditional workflows, this step can often be expensive and time-consuming. Getting the right-looking people in the right positions is maybe one of the most difficult steps at the end of any visualisation project. With Rendair, it's now possible to take your render created either using a render engine or Rendair itself and populate the image effortlessly with a simple prompt.
Rendair offers a selection of different packages with varying numbers of credits attached to each. Serious users will need to part with a fair amount of cash, but if you only plan on using it a few times per month, then you might even be able to get away with using the free plan.
