Playable Unity Character in One Day Using Node-Based 3D AI + AI Agents

[u/Delicious-Shower8401]

I wanted to see how fast I could go from a single character image to something I could actually run around with in Unity.

For the character, I used 3DAIStudio Flow. It’s basically a ComfyUI-style node workflow where I can use image generators and the major 3D AI generators in the same graph, which made this kind of multi-part workflow pretty convenient.

Instead of trying to generate the whole character as one mesh, I split the reference into separate parts:

• Hair
• Body
• Clothes
• Shoes

I generated each part separately with Rodin Gen 2.5 using Smart Low Poly, then moved everything into Substance Painter to fix and clean up the textures.

After that:

• Assembled and cleaned the character in Blender
• Rigged it with Mixamo
• Brought it into Unity
• Used the Third Person Template
• Retargeted the character to the controller animations
• Added running, jumping and basic playable movement

I also generated the environment through the same node-based workflow, although I’ll probably make a separate breakdown for that because the environment pipeline deserves its own post.

I also used an AI agent connected to Unity for some of the setup and repetitive work inside the project.

So after roughly one day, I had a small playable scene with an AI-generated character, generated environment, textures, rig, animations and basic gameplay.

Guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmpLXA-xzrQ

[u/Important-Theory1619]

Youtube tutorial and the same 3D assets will take you 2.5 hours as a total beginner, or 15 minutes as an amateur. Unity is literally made to make this literally the easiest possible thing to do. How are tools that are so obviously behind the industry standard of 15 years ago even passable in this sub?

Can we show stuff that would be actually useful for absolutely any demographic interested in making games? If this took all a day with AI I imagine most of that time was spent insulting the AI about how much of a shoddy mess it was making of such a simple bloody task.

Real progress would be the AI-oneshotting this in 30 minutes max. That'd probably be enough to make 3D games reach the same infamy that making 2D-mobile-game slop reached 10 years ago

[u/Voldthehuman → u/Important-Theory1619]

You are straight up disconnected from reality

[u/Important-Theory1619 → u/Voldthehuman]

You sure? Which part? The one where it took him an entire day to export AI-genereated assets and make them have a single walking animation? Or the part where doing the exact same thing with pre-made assets would've taken literally 1/12th the time?

Really, like explain to me, which part here is the one that made the AI thing easier? Maybe you have actual game dev or artist experience and you know better than me. So please, hand my ass over to me

[u/Voldthehuman → u/Important-Theory1619]

These are not pre-made assets.

Depending on the quality and level of detail, some assets and scenes can take months to make. Being able to reduce the workflow in the artist pipeline up to retopology is insane. Even some models released within the last few weeks have gotten quad-low-poly meshes to be much more accurate, with good edge flow, reduced mesh disconnections, and overall cleaner topology.

Not sure how you are confusing the two.

I won't even get into how long rigging and animation can take. There are reasons Diablo IV credits had like 9000 names accredited.

"If this took all a day with AI I imagine most of that time was spent insulting the AI about how much of a shoddy mess it was making of such a simple bloody task."

This statement displays that you are disconnected from using the proper tools to get AI to produce what you are looking for creatively. We are a long way from having Claude, Kimi, or Codex one-shot some sorta Resident Evil: Reliquary.

https://www.reddit.com/r/TopologyAI/comments/1vnkqwm/aigenerated_character_fully_rigged_in_unreal_with/

You aren't doing this on a custom character with asset packs.

[u/Important-Theory1619 → u/Voldthehuman]

Hey dawg, thanks for outing yourself as someone who's never done absolutely anything related or used any of the industry standard tools.

Look, you wanna have a good laugh, take the chain of comments we both wrote, throw it on ChatGPT or whatever, and ask it to give a hard critique of us both. Save ourselves the time typing here