Question 1

What does Zetta 3D actually do?

Accepted Answer

It turns descriptions, photographs and reference views into 3D models, then gives you the tools to finish them — rebuilding the geometry, laying out UVs, repainting surfaces, splitting a model into parts, and rigging characters and creatures. The output is a real mesh you download and use, not a render or a preview. See text to 3D and image to 3D for what each input is good at.

Question 2

Do I need to know 3D modelling to use it?

Accepted Answer

To generate something, no. To ship it into a game or a product, some — a generated mesh is a starting point, and the finishing work is skilled work. The knowledge base exists for exactly this: it explains what each step is for in plain terms, including the ones the studio does for you.

Question 3

What can I do without a paid plan?

Accepted Answer

Most of it. A verified account gets a one-time credit grant and can generate from a prompt or a single image with Zetta N1, run every finishing tool on the result — retopology, texturing, segmentation, rigging — upload its own models, and generate 2D images. Nothing above is time-limited or watermarked. Five things need a plan: Zetta N2.5 and Zetta Np1 — the two paid engines. N2.5 carries the widest option set; Np1 is low-poly with 8K textures. Multi-view input. Without a plan a generation takes one image; a plan adds reference views, two on the entry tier and up to eight higher up. Choosing the polygon count. Every generation without a plan uses the model's own default of 500,000 — you cannot raise or lower it. With a plan you name the number, and how high it can go is the model's own limit rather than your tier's — Ultra detail is the one rung that starts at Basic. Low-poly generation and quad meshes, as an output of generation itself. Retopology, which rebuilds any mesh at a density you choose, is available to everyone. Image editing, and with it the AI-derived PBR channels. The pricing page lists tier by tier which is which.

Question 4

What is the difference between the engines?

Accepted Answer

There are four. Three of them build meshes and one rebuilds them. Zetta N1 takes every input — a prompt on its own, a sketch, one image, or four reference views — and produces geometry-only, textured or low-poly output at a polygon count you choose. It is on every plan, including without one, and it is the only engine that will work from words alone. Zetta N2.5 has the widest option set: quad topology on any base, a mesh that arrives already split into parts, an Ultra density band, and low-poly that is built rather than decimated. It takes a picture rather than a prompt. Paid plans. Zetta Np1 is low-poly all the way down — every mesh within a budget you name, up to 20,000 faces — and the only engine that writes 8K textures. That combination suits a small mesh carrying its detail in the surface. Paid plans. Zetta R1 does not generate at all. It rebuilds the topology of a mesh you already have, to an exact polygon count rather than a band. The short version: N1 accepts anything including a bare prompt, N2.5 gives you the most control, Np1 is small meshes with large textures, and R1 is the one you send a finished mesh to. See the feature pages for the capability-by-capability version.

Question 5

Which one should I use?

Accepted Answer

Use N2.5 as the default on a paid plan. It is the more detailed of the two and takes every output option, from one image or from several views. Use N1 when you are generating from a prompt alone — N2.5 needs a picture, and the studio will make one from your prompt first — or when you have no paid plan. It is the one that accepts every kind of input. If you are unsure, start with N2.5.

Question 6

What file formats do I get?

Accepted Answer

GLB by default. Convert & Export writes glTF, FBX, USDZ, OBJ, STL and 3MF, so the format is whatever the thing at the other end reads — USDZ for Apple's AR, 3MF for a printer that can use colour, FBX for animation packages. GLB carries geometry, PBR materials and textures in one file and is what most engines and viewers want — see choosing a format.

Question 7

Can I use the models in a commercial game or product?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Models you generate are yours to use commercially, including in shipped games, applications and products. Two caveats worth knowing. First, what you put in matters: generating from a reference image you do not have rights to is a question about your input, not about our output. Second, recognisable trademarks and likenesses carry their own restrictions regardless. See licensing and rights.

Question 8

Why does the back of my model look wrong?

Accepted Answer

Because nothing showed it. Single-image reconstruction infers everything it cannot see — for a symmetrical object that guess is usually good, and for anything with a distinct rear it is invention. The fix is multi-view: supply a back view and the guess becomes an observation. It needs a paid plan, and every engine that generates takes it.

Question 9

Why is the text on my model gibberish?

Accepted Answer

Text-to-3D writes an image before it builds a mesh, and image models produce letter-shaped marks rather than actual letters. Reconstruction then bakes those marks into the texture. Generate the object without the lettering and add text as a decal or as separate geometry.

Question 10

Can I upload my own model and use the tools on it?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Upload a GLB and it becomes a library item like any generated one, with every tool available — retopology, segmentation, texturing and rigging.

Question 11

Why is the polygon count so high?

Accepted Answer

Reconstruction density is a by-product of the algorithm rather than a decision, so it bears no relationship to what your project needs. Retopology is the fix — it keeps the shape and rebuilds the geometry at a density you choose.

Question 12

How do credits work?

Accepted Answer

3D credits pay for generation and post-processing jobs — each operation has a fixed price, shown before you run it. Working in 2D costs no credits: generating, editing and composing images are not metered at all. A credit is only spent when you turn a look into 3D. Not metered is not the same as unrestricted, though. Generating images is open to every account; editing them, the 4K size and the Pro model need a paid plan.

Question 13

Why did one operation cost more than I expected?

Accepted Answer

Usually a format conversion. Segmentation, texturing and rigging need FBX, and every generated model is GLB — so those jobs include a conversion step, priced as its own line and included in the quoted total. The quote you see before running includes it. Nothing is charged that was not shown.

Question 14

Am I charged if a job fails?

Accepted Answer

No. A failed job returns its credits, so a failure costs you nothing.

Question 15

Do credits expire?

Accepted Answer

Monthly allowances reset with your billing period. Purchased and bonus credits carry over rather than evaporating at the month boundary.

Question 16

What does retopology do, and do I need it?

Accepted Answer

It rebuilds a mesh with cleaner, more even geometry at a density you choose, keeping the shape. You need it if the model will be animated, subdivided, textured properly, or shipped into a performance-sensitive target. You can skip it for a static render or a quick visualisation.

Question 17

Why will my character not rig?

Accepted Answer

Almost always because the body plan is wrong. Rigging asks which kind of body it is looking at — humanoid, four legs, bird, snake, fish, six legs or eight legs — and that choice also picks the engine underneath. A quadruped rigged as a humanoid produces joints where the animal does not bend. The second cause is the pose. A humanoid wants a T-pose: arms straight out to the sides, legs straight, facing forward. An A-pose, with the arms angled down toward the hips, looks perfectly riggable and is not — the joints land in the wrong places. See T-pose versus A-pose. The studio checks the model against the plan you chose before charging you, and tells you what it found rather than producing a bad skeleton. Vehicles, props and machines have no body plan here. Those are a segmentation job — split the parts and move them — rather than a rigging one.

Question 18

What is AI segmentation for?

Accepted Answer

Splitting one mesh into separate named parts — a chair into seat, back and legs. Useful for separate materials, independent movement, and selective editing. One thing to know: the pieces meet exactly where the surface was cut, so there is no hidden geometry behind a join. A segmented drawer has no back face where it met the cabinet.

Question 19

Why does my texture look flat?

Accepted Answer

Almost always missing channels. A colour map alone has no roughness and no normal, and under real lighting that reads as flat plastic. The other common cause is lighting baked into the colour — if the reference image had strong shadows, those shadows are now painted onto the surface and will fight whatever lighting you put it under.

Question 20

Can I generate the other PBR channels?

Accepted Answer

Yes, on a paid plan. From a base colour map, the studio derives normal, roughness, metalness, emissive and ambient occlusion, each generated at the source texture's own resolution so it lines up pixel for pixel. Without a plan you can still upload maps you already have — it is generating them that a plan adds.

Question 21

What is generation genuinely bad at?

Accepted Answer

Worth being direct about: Exact specifications. Anything that must match concept art line for line, or hit a dimension. Thin repeated structures. Chain links, wire mesh, railings, spokes — these reconstruct as fused masses. Interiors. An unseen cavity is an inferred cavity, so mugs come back solid and boxes do not open. Text and logos, as above. Transparent and reflective objects. What the camera recorded is not the surface. Mechanical parts that must fit other parts. Approximation and tolerance do not mix. See common generation failures for what each one is caused by and whether it is fixable.

Question 22

Is this going to replace 3D artists?

Accepted Answer

It replaces a stage, not a role. Generation occupies concept and high-poly — producing a detailed shape. Everything downstream of that shape is unchanged: retopology, UVs, baking, materials, rigging, LODs, engine integration. In practice it moves effort from producing geometry to judging and finishing it, which rewards technical-artist skills over modelling throughput. Where AI fits in a pipeline sets out the honest version.

Question 23

How good is it compared to a human modeller?

Accepted Answer

For volume work with low individual stakes — set dressing, background props, kitbash pieces, forty crates that each need to be plausible — it is genuinely competitive, and much faster. For a hero asset with a fixed specification, a modeller wins, and correcting an approximation toward an exact target can cost more than hitting the target directly. Knowing which category an asset falls into before you start is most of the skill.

Question 24

Are my models private?

Accepted Answer

Yes by default. Every generation is private to your account, and files are served through signed, expiring URLs rather than public links. You can share an individual model with a link, which you can revoke by setting it back to private.

Question 25

What happens to my models if I delete them?

Accepted Answer

The record and its files are removed from storage. It is not a soft flag — the files go, and the operation cannot be undone, which is why the studio asks before doing it.

Question 26

Is there an API?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The same generation and post-processing operations available in the studio are available programmatically, which is what makes catalogue-scale and pipeline-integrated use possible.

Frequently asked questions

Getting started

Models and output

Credits and usage

The tools

Limits and expectations

Account and data