What's new in Bake3D.

A changelog, on the site and in the app#

Every change we ship, in plain words, here and under What's new in the app. The app marks what changed since your last visit, and you can follow along by RSS.

A rig with legs always gets a walk#

A walk is no longer held back because of torn skin alone. It plays at full size where the tear covers almost none of the character on screen, otherwise at the largest size that keeps it that small, and the studio names the spot in a note.

Large bakes recover at once from a memory limit#

When a step of a large bake runs out of memory, it now starts again straight away in a fresh run, without a wait and without using up one of its retries.

Your character arrives first; the game-ready copy follows#

A bake no longer waits at the very end for its game-ready quad copy. The rigged character is delivered as soon as it is ready, and the copy is made afterwards in a job of its own, so a slow quad service can no longer hold a finished character back.

Every limb is checked on its own skin#

The rig check now reads each arm, leg, tail and wing on its own surface. A limb that would crumple when it bends is repaired, simplified or named in the bake's warnings, and never passed as clean.

Described animations are checked in about half the time#

The checks that run on a motion you describe now measure each clip once instead of several times. They reach the same verdicts, about twice as fast.

Truer colours in the studio viewer#

The studio now shows models through a tone curve that keeps each colour's hue, so light and colourful characters keep their colour instead of washing out.

Pictures that hide the face get extra drawn views#

When your picture shows the subject from the side or the back, we draw the views it is missing and build a second mesh from them. The second mesh is delivered only when it wins our comparisons against the first.

Described motions are judged on what they add#

A motion you describe is now judged on what it adds to the character's rest pose, so contact that is already there at rest no longer counts against it. When a limb passes into the body during the motion, the animation is delivered with a note instead of being refused.

Fewer bakes stuck near the end#

When a heavy step runs out of computing time, it now starts again straight away in a fresh run, instead of waiting on a retry that could hang for minutes. A rescue step that crashes keeps the rig found so far instead of failing the bake.

• A step that is refused keeps its own message, so the bake tells you the real reason.

Hems and sashes move with what they hang from#

The hem of a tunic and the loose end of a sash now follow the part they hang from instead of being pulled along by a nearby limb. No animation is made smaller to work around them.

Cleaner joints where limbs meet the body#

A limb, tail or ear no longer takes skin from the body where it attaches. Rigs also measure where each limb starts and flag limbs whose first joint sits too low, and the rig review now looks closely at these roots.

Nods, shakes and looks lead with the head#

Head motions now lead with the head wherever it has room to move. A look stops short of any pose the rig check would flag, instead of pushing through it.

Game-ready mesh: full detail plus a rigged quad copy#

Choosing the game-ready mesh no longer swaps your character for a lighter one. You keep the full-detail character and also get a rigged quad copy made from it.

• The copy has 50K quads at Standard and High quality, so small forms like a muzzle survive.
• It is rigged with your character's own skeleton, so the same animations play on both.

Retopologise works again, and checks its result#

Retopologise now runs on a new quad service. The clean quad mesh faces the right way, keeps the original texture and is checked before it is offered to you. If the service fails, the action pauses itself until it is fixed.

A face the mesh lost is rebuilt#

If your picture clearly shows a face and the generated mesh lost it, the mesh is now rebuilt on our next 3D engine.

Rigs follow the body's own centre and symmetry#

Rig plans are now read against the body's own centre line rather than the centre of the picture, and paired limbs are measured against the body's mirror symmetry. Subjects that sit off-centre in a photo get more even left and right sides.

The free intro animation falls back less#

Every rigged bake comes with an introduction animation. It now falls back to a simpler motion less often, and when it must, it falls back to a lively walk fitted to your rig.

bake3d.ai/check, a short link to the free check#

An easy address to share that leads straight into the free readiness check, where you find out whether a picture will make a good character before you pay.

A help center with short, official answers#

The help center answers the questions we hear most, from what a character costs to which file formats you can download, each in a few sentences with links to go deeper.

• Every answer and guide is also plain markdown for AI assistants, and the whole site is in one file at /llms-full.txt.

Named gestures land where their name says#

A gesture aimed at a part of the body now places the hand on that landmark, and is checked before it is stored. If a described animation cannot be kept exactly as written, we keep its intent.

• Skin that rests on the head, such as hair or a hood, now follows a head turn wherever the rig check measures no worse.

The Bake tab shows the options you chose#

The Bake tab now shows the quality and mesh layout you picked for a project, instead of always showing Standard.

A clearer quote that fits a laptop screen#

The quote you see before a bake now fits on a laptop screen and shows the larger packs with their price per character.

Direct it: describe a motion on the free demo#

On the demo you can type a motion in your own words and watch a sample character perform it. It is free with a verified account, up to 3 a day, and takes about a minute.

Described animations finish even if you close the page#

Animations you describe now run as background jobs, so a heavy rig or a closed tab no longer leaves a paid animation unfinished.

Fourteen new free tools that run in your browser#

Viewers, converters and 3D printing tools, all free. They work inside your browser, so your files are never uploaded.

• Viewers that show the skeleton and play every animation: 3D viewer, GLB, glTF, FBX and OBJ.
• Converters that keep the rig: FBX to GLB, OBJ to FBX, glTF to FBX and DAE to FBX.
• For 3D printing: STL repair, a 3D text generator, SVG to STL and STL to 3MF.
• For texturing: a normal map generator.

Free rigged and animated 3D models#

Download rigged, animated characters made with Bake3D for free, under the CC BY 4.0 licence. Use them in games, videos and prototypes, and credit Bake3D.

Fair storage: rebuilt files no longer count#

Files we rebuild for you no longer count against your storage. Credit buyers get 10 GB, and when storage is full a clear dialog explains what you can do.

Ten new guides, and four old claims corrected#

New guides on UV mapping, sketch to 3D, bobbleheads and miniatures from a photo, AI models in Roblox, free 3D modeling and animation software, and fair comparisons of other AI 3D tools.

• We re-read our comparison guides against the other tools' own pages and corrected four claims that had gone out of date.

Softer jumps and natural shoulders#

Jumps now crouch only as deep as the character's skin allows. Pictures we re-pose for rigging keep their own pose, so lowered arms no longer bloat the shoulders.

The first-character guarantee#

Not happy with the first character you bake after buying your first credit pack? Ask within 14 days and we refund that pack in full.

The quote shows the price in dollars and a finished example#

After the free check, the quote shows what your character costs in dollars, exactly what you get, our promises, and a finished example.

Checkout works on phones#

Buying credits on a phone no longer gets stuck before payment.

Content rules are checked before you pay#

Pictures with nudity or sexual content are now declined before any credits are charged. When a 3D engine declines a picture under its own content rules, the bake says so plainly and explains what that means for the rig.

A big round of motion fixes across body types#

We measured 1,888 animation clips on 205 rigs, grouped the faults we found and fixed the most common ones.

• Seated characters move their whole body, and crouched hind legs hop.
• Trotting feet leave and land moving with the ground.
• Head turns no longer shear eyes or jaws out of shape.
• Limbs joined to each other are delivered moving as one piece instead of being refused.
• Motions on a limb that rests on the body play on the free side, or are held back with the reason.
• Saved animations are re-checked when you open them, with an honest notice if one no longer fits.
• Small, timid motions play larger wherever every check stays clean.

A faster site and studio#

Pages start faster, your session needs one database read instead of several, and project lists load small thumbnails. A page left open during an update now reloads itself once instead of breaking.

New bake: set it up first, pay at the end#

If you have no credits yet, New bake now lets you set up your character first and shows the price and checkout at the end.

Rig critiques finish even when the page reloads#

A rig critique you paid for now finishes and keeps its answer even if the page reloads in the middle. A rig that tears at rest still gets its intro animation.

The demo plays only clean, fitted motions#

Every clip on the free demo is fitted to its character and checked for motion faults, and a permanent test fails any demo clip that shows one.

Hands and forearms stay out of the body#

Motions that would push a hand or forearm into the body are caught before they reach you, and arm positions are corrected during playback wherever that measures better.

Try before you buy: free demo, free check, packs from $5#

Play with rigged sample characters on the demo and check whether your own picture will work, both free, before you spend anything. When you are ready, credit packs start at $5.

• Your first pack comes with 25% extra credits when you buy it within 72 hours of signing up.

Props stay in hand, plates hang right#

Held props such as swords and staffs ride with the hand that holds them and stay above the floor when the arm swings. Plates and skirt panels that only touch a limb go back to the part they hang from.

• Figures moulded into a flat backing are delivered as a relief or a rigid object instead of being refused.

Wheels, rotors and hinges turn on their real axes#

Machines now move like machines. Wheels, rotors, steering and hinges are posed and driven about the mechanical axes we measure on the mesh, and wheeled vehicles face the way they roll.

• Tyres are read from the surface around each wheel.
• Cables and hoses follow the surface they lie on.

Runs, jumps and footsteps that respect the ground#

Runs spring without knee snaps, and jumps crouch, push off, fly and land smoothly. Feet lock in place while they carry weight and bend to keep the sole above the floor.

• Arms, wings and tails are kept out of the body while they move.
• Sprawling legs, like a lizard's or an insect's, walk, run and jump at their drawn height.
• Separate pieces of a mesh are bound to the bone they touch.

Relaxed arms and planted four-legged walks#

Arms drawn in a T or A pose now hang relaxed in every motion, for any body with arms. Four-legged walks stand up, step out and swing with their feet planted on the ground.

Retopologise: clean quads, texture kept#

A new action in the studio rebuilds your model as a clean quad mesh and keeps its texture, ready to edit in Blender or use in a game engine. It costs 20 credits.

A game-ready quad mesh option#

New bake can ask for a game-ready quad mesh at the same price. The quads are kept in the rigged FBX, and a triangle mesh is the fallback when the quad mesh fails.

Faithful face for human-like characters#

An option on High quality builds human-like faces closer to your picture, for 14 extra credits. If it does not apply to your character, those credits are refunded.

A more natural human walk#

Humanoid characters now walk with lowered, swinging arms, a chest that turns against the hips, and a level head.

Texture download and standard bone names#

Download your model's base colour, normal, roughness and metallic maps as one zip, free. Two-armed, two-legged characters can also export with Mixamo, Unity or Unreal bone names.

Busy services make jobs wait, not fail#

When a service we rely on is busy, a paid job now waits and tries again, within limits, instead of failing. Requests that stall fall back to another route sooner.

Rigs repair themselves before they are refused#

A rig that fails its check now goes through a short, bounded repair loop, and a repaired rig must measure clean before it is used. When a rig still cracks, it is delivered with a warning that says where.

• A re-rig first re-solves your earlier plans with the current engine.
• A project never shows a rig built for a different mesh, and a failed re-run keeps your previous result.

High-quality rigs animate and export as FBX again#

Characters baked at High quality can be animated again and downloaded as FBX. Animated FBX files no longer sink into the floor when they play.

Contact support from the app#

A Contact support button in the app sidebar opens a short form, and we reply by email.

Walks with planted legs and heel-to-toe feet#

Walking characters keep their planted leg as drawn, fold their knees along the direction of travel and roll each foot from heel to toe, with longer, more natural strides.

• Legs with three or more segments fold as one shape, with no flips or backward bends.
• The hip sway is planned over the whole clip, so loops are smooth.

No more mirrored rigs#

Which way a character faces is now read separately in each view, so its left and right are never swapped in the rig.

Closed seams and separated limbs#

Cracks that could open along seams when a character moved are fixed at their root. Limbs that the mesh fused together are cut apart and capped at rig time.

High quality keeps up to 500K triangles#

Every step of a bake can now handle meshes of half a million triangles, so High quality is back to its full 500K.

Pose prep: a rig-ready picture before the mesh#

Before we build the 3D model, your picture is turned into a clean, rig-ready pose of the same character and checked. The model is built from that, so limbs come out separate and easy to rig.

• The main subject is picked out of character sheets, scenes and screenshots.
• Parts that touch, such as arms against the body, are separated before the mesh is made.
• The pose in your picture becomes the character's first animation.

A new main 3D engine, with a backup#

Characters are now built on a new main 3D engine that gives upright characters a T or A pose for rigging, with a second engine as backup. When an engine is out of capacity, bakes move to the other one.

Rate your models, rigs, motions and exports#

Tell us what worked and what did not, right where you see it in the studio. Each rating is tied to the exact model it is about, so we can find it and fix it.

An email when your character is ready#

Every finished job sends you an email, so you can close the tab during a bake and come back when it is done.

Bake inside Unity, Unreal, Godot and Blender#

Editor plug-ins let you generate, rig, animate and import characters without leaving Unity, Unreal Engine, Godot or Blender. An API and MCP tools let your own code or an AI assistant do the same.

• The Export tab prepares each download for Unity, Unreal Engine, Godot or Blender, with import notes for each.

A free GLB to FBX converter that keeps the rig#

Convert a GLB to FBX in your browser and keep its skeleton, skin weights and every animation.

Eighteen researched guides#

Plain-language guides on rigging, animation, file formats and 3D printing, checked against our own engine and the other tools' own documentation.

Your 3D files load faster#

Stored models are cached close to you and sent compressed, and the studio loads a lossless viewer copy that shows the geometry first and the textures after.

Characters look where they go, and gaits fit each rig#

Motions now carry a gaze, so characters look where they are going, and walk cycles are fitted to each rig's own proportions. Feet stay planted and wheels roll about their measured axles.

A sturdier studio viewer#

Loading a model in the studio can be cancelled and recovers from errors, and a saved rig that fails to load is no longer mistaken for a failed bake.

• A rig critique reviews clean candidates instead of failing the bake.
• Small stretching is delivered with a warning; only clear defects are refused.

FBX export and pictures from more than one side#

Download any rigged, animated character as FBX as well as GLB. You can also give a bake more than one picture of your character, such as the front and the side, for 10 extra credits.

Motion presets fitted to your rig#

The studio's ready-made motions are fitted to each rig, with strides scaled to its legs, and ranked by how well they fit. Saved animations are checked again whenever you make a new rig.

Sign in with a link sent to your email#

Enter your email address and sign in from the link we send you, no password needed.

Armour, tools and machine parts stay solid#

Rigid parts such as armour plates, held tools and machine panels are found as whole pieces and kept solid when the character moves, while the soft surfaces next to them still blend.

Repeat and replay in the studio player#

Repeat, replay and the timing at the ends of a clip now work as expected in the studio preview, and the studio keeps working after a motion or graphics error.

Every rigged bake comes with an animation#

A rigged character arrives with an introduction animation made for its own body, so you see it move the moment the bake finishes, in the studio and in your editor.

See how your rig bends before you animate#

Each rig is measured for how its surface stretches when posed, and the Rig tab shows that evidence with the rest pose and a test pose side by side.

A free lithophane maker, and sturdier converters#

Turn a photo into a lithophane you can 3D print, free in your browser. The other free converters were tightened up at the same time.

One rigging engine for any body#

Bake3D rigs characters in-house, whatever their shape: two legs, four, none, tentacles, fins, wings or wheels. Each rig is planned, checked in a test pose and planned again when it falls short, and the cleanest one is kept.

• The surface picks the skinning: solid parts for machines and armour, a shell for insects, smooth blends for flesh.
• Long, low bodies such as snakes and fish are judged by their length, not their small height.
• Skin weights are smoother, with rough edges down 3 to 20 times on real rigs.

Walks play in place in the studio#

Walks and runs play in place by default, so your character never leaves the frame while you watch it.