Blender Headless Mode

Claude can create 3D assets. Not by describing what you want to a human artist. By writing Python scripts that Blender executes headlessly to produce meshes, apply materials, and export files.

The invocation is simple: blender --background --python script.py. No GUI opens. The script runs. Output files appear. What would take hours of manual modeling completes in seconds.

Blender's Python API is comprehensive. Create primitives—cubes, spheres, cylinders. Apply modifiers—subdivision, bevel, mirror. Add materials—colors, textures, shaders. Animate—keyframes, armatures, constraints. Export—FBX, GLTF, OBJ. Everything you can do in the GUI, you can script.

The pattern for asset generation is predictable. Clear the default scene. Create objects using Python. Apply transformations and modifiers. Assign materials and colors. Export to the target format. Each asset type follows this structure with variations.

Procedural structures work especially well. A script that generates an abandoned house places walls, adds windows, creates a roof, applies weathered materials. Parameters control size, damage level, style. One script produces endless variations.

Character meshes require more sophistication but remain scriptable. Cylinders for limbs. Spheres for joints. Modifiers for smoothing. Armatures for animation. The results won't match hand-sculpted models, but for many game styles they're sufficient.

Terrain assets—rocks, boulders, debris—are particularly suited to procedural generation. Start with a primitive. Apply noise-based displacement. Add randomized scaling. Export multiple variations. The organic irregularity that makes rocks look natural is exactly what random parameters produce.

Materials apply through Blender's node system. For headless scripts, simple principled BSDF materials work well. Set base color, roughness, metallic values. For more complex materials, scripting the node graph is possible but verbose.

The FBX export format works well for Roblox pipelines. FBX preserves hierarchy, materials, and animations. Roblox's import dialog understands FBX. The workflow from Blender script to Roblox asset is straightforward.

Combining multiple scripts produces asset libraries. One script generates structures. Another generates animals. A third generates terrain details. A combining script merges everything into a single FBX for batch import. Dozens of assets flow from text files to game content.

Version control applies normally. Python scripts are text. Commit them, diff them, branch them. The generated assets aren't versioned (they're build artifacts), but the scripts that generate them are. Regenerating assets from scripts is deterministic.

Claude generates these scripts effectively. Describe the asset you want. Get a Python script that produces it. Run the script headlessly. Review the output. Iterate if needed. The feedback loop is fast because both the description and the implementation are text that Claude handles natively.

The technique extends to animation. Define keyframes in Python. Create walk cycles, idle animations, attack sequences. Export with animation data included. Complex characters come to life through scripts rather than timeline manipulation.

Blender's library of modifiers provides high-level operations. Boolean operations combine meshes. Array modifiers create repetition. Curve modifiers deform along paths. Using modifiers in scripts produces results that would require significant manual effort to achieve otherwise.

Batch processing becomes natural. A script that generates one rock can loop to generate a hundred rocks with varying parameters. A script that creates one building can produce a neighborhood. Procedural variation happens at the script level.

Integration with game engines completes the pipeline. Generate assets with Blender. Export to interchange formats. Import into Roblox, Unity, Godot. The 3D content that would require hiring artists or purchasing assets emerges from code.

This is what programmatic content creation looks like. Blender provides the capabilities. Python provides the interface. Claude provides the generation. Headless mode provides the execution. Assets flow from ideas to files without manual intervention.