A 3D asset pipeline is the series of steps that turns a source — a picture, a scan, a sketch — into an asset you can actually use: generated, cleaned up, laid out for textures, textured and rigged. Every studio has one, written down or not. Building it as a recipe means the same steps, in the same order, with the same settings, run on every input instead of being repeated by hand.
Why build a pipeline instead of running tools one by one?
- Consistency. Every asset gets the same polygon budget, the same UV settings, the same texture quality. Assets that will sit side by side in a game should not each reflect how someone felt that afternoon.
- Time. A generated model typically needs four or five operations before it is usable. Running them by hand means waiting for each, then clicking the next.
- Scale. A recipe runs on fifty product photos as easily as on one.
- Fewer mistakes. Steps run in an order that works — retopology before UVs, UVs before texturing — rather than the order someone remembered.
What is a recipe, and what is a run?
The distinction matters, and Zetta 3D keeps them apart:
- The pipeline is the recipe. Its steps, how they connect, and each step's settings. It holds no models.
- A run is the recipe applied to one starting asset — a picture or a model. Each run keeps its own copy of the steps, so editing the recipe never changes a run already going, and every run stays in the list to come back to.
What does a Zetta 3D pipeline contain?
Steps are grouped by what they do, and each connection is typed — a picture, a set of pictures, or a mesh — so the editor refuses a connection that cannot work:
- Starting points: a picture — uploaded or one of your images — or a model from your library.
- Picture steps: remove the background, AI edit, draw the missing views, and Isolate Parts.
- Making the model: Generate 3D (Zetta N1 or N2.5) and Generate Smart 3D (Zetta Np1 or Np1.5).
- Refining it: retopology, segmentation, AI texturing, Smart UV and AI rigging.
Every step is the full Studio tool: its engine and every setting the Studio offers for it, with the same limits, plan rules and prices. Pipelines themselves are open to every account; a step that needs a paid plan in the Studio needs one here too.
Does a pipeline keep running if I close the tab?
Yes. Runs are carried out on Zetta 3D's servers, so closing the browser does not stop one. Every model a step makes is an ordinary model in your library, tagged as coming from a pipeline and grouped with the rest of its run.
Read next: the order to put steps in, and Auto or Manual.