Character Design builds an original character you can reuse: a locked identity, the sheets that describe it, a 2D puppet that moves, and a rigged 3D model you can export. Pick the Character Design tile in the Creative group when you create a project and describe who you want.
The project opens on a character page instead of a plain preview. The header shows the name, the style and whether the face is locked, with Open folder, Export pack and Open rig editor. Five tabs sit below it: Concept, Sheets, Sheet poster, Puppet and 3D studio.
Lock the face first
Everything starts from a concept image. Review and lock face asks you to pick the canonical references, 1 to 12 images. After the lock those references are immutable, and every sheet is generated from them, so the turnaround and the expressions are drawn from the same face.
To change a locked face, use Fork character. The fork starts from the current state and the original stays as it was.
Build the sheets
Build the sheet plans the set: turnaround, expressions, mouth chart, eye chart, story poses and alternate appearances. The Sheets tab counts progress, for example Sheets · 0/17 on a new character.
Each job waits for you before it runs. Open it to edit the title and output items and to set 1 to 3 candidates per item; the cost estimate updates before you press Start job. You can also drop the job. When candidates arrive, Choose candidates shows them together, Use this candidate saves the keeper into the character folder, and Reject with reason records why the others missed as a knowledge proposal for the project. Completed batches get a separate consistency review, and confirming the identity stays your call.
Images come from the image connection you choose: a discovered tool on one of your MCP connections, or the Director runtime's own image tool.
Bible, rights and provenance
The character bible, style lock, delivery status and rights live beside the artwork. Each asset records where it came from, and the licence is a file in the character folder. Until you record terms, the page shows Licence unknown.
Rig the puppet
The Puppet tab opens the Character rig editor. Start from the concept image, or Import PNG layers if you already have named parts.
- Pose drags the character to turn and tilt the head and body; Deform moves lattice handles.
- Split face parts marks the eye and mouth regions and cuts them into layers for blinks and talking shapes; Re-split face parts redoes it.
- Add warp and Add pivot add deformers, Move up and Move down change the layer order, and the inspector sets opacity, blend mode and clipping masks.
- Add parameter creates a control; the Parameters grid stores a keyform per value.
- Doctor checks the rig. Edits support undo, redo and saved checkpoints.
Test drive plays the rig live, with Follow mouse and Mic lip-sync (driven by your microphone's volume).
Make a 3D version in the 3D studio
The 3D studio tab turns the character into an original, rigged 3D starter. It needs Blender on your machine: 1DesignTool finds it on your PATH, in the macOS Applications bundle, under Program Files or as a flatpak, and never installs it for you. Without Blender the rest of the workspace keeps working.
Create 3D starter runs a bundled Blender recipe in the background. You get a
stylized adventurer in the character's palette with clothing, accessories, a
22-joint body rig, blink morphs and three looping motions: idle, walk and wave.
The editable .blend source, the GLB, the rig metadata and studio renders are
saved into the character pack. Review the identity in Blender before you treat
the starter as your canonical character.
Once the starter exists the tab reads Make it your own:
- Palette recolours the outfit with Original, Forest, Midnight, Sunset or Frost.
- Parts & materials: click a part on the model or choose it from Selected part, then set Part color, Roughness and Metalness, or untick Show selected part. Reset selected part undoes one piece.
- Shape offers Head size, Scarf length and Backpack size on starters that support them.
- Look & effects changes the preview only: Shading (Original PBR, Flat, Clay or Unlit), Outline, Wireframe, Dither, Underwater, Wobble and a Pixelate slider.
- Stage sets Background, Exposure and Light intensity, with Show ground and Auto rotate.
Under the viewport, the clip buttons switch motions, Play motion and Speed control playback, Pose time scrubs to an exact frame and Show skeleton draws the bones. Front, Three-quarter, Side, Back, Reset camera and Fullscreen frame the view.
Edits are remembered on this device for each project and model. Save
customized GLB writes 3d/customized.glb into the character pack with your
colours, materials and proportions, the full rig, blink morphs and all clips.
Hidden parts are left out, and preview effects stay in the viewer.
Reset to original clears every edit.
Export and reuse
Export puppet writes a portable HTML puppet or runtime JSON after the rig
passes validation and a keyform reload check. With FFmpeg installed you can
record a transparent WebM. Export pack bundles the character, rig and puppet
files into one .charpack you can import elsewhere; forks keep the pinned
identity. Agents you grant access can read registered characters through
read-only MCP tools.
This is the first rig editor. PSD and Inochi2D import and export are not available yet.