Aeion Spatial + Blender
Blender is the dominant open-source 3D modeling + sculpting + animation + rendering tool — free, powerful, used by indie devs to AAA studios. Aeion integrates Blender through its native glTF 2.0 exporter/importer: model in Blender, export to glTF/.glb, and Aeion's asset pipeline takes over — real polygon decimation and LOD generation on the uploaded .glb. The glTF round-trip is the supported path between Blender and Aeion.
Why Blender + Aeion
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glTF Pipeline (Recommended)
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What Doesn't Round-Trip Through glTF
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Common Workflows
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FAQ
Aeion supports Blender 2.83+ (current LTS line + new releases). glTF exporter has been excellent since 2.8. Newer Blender versions add features that may or may not roundtrip cleanly.
No. Geometry Nodes is procedural; glTF exports the result mesh (after applying modifiers). For procedural generation in Aeion, use Aeion's own geometry node graph instead.
Cycles renders happen in Blender itself (locally or on your own render farm) — Aeion doesn't run Blender server-side. Export the rendered result (baked textures, or the animated glTF for Aeion's own real-time renderer) once you're ready to bring it into a scene.
Eevee runs in Blender on your GPU; Aeion's web rendering runs in browser via WebGL/WebGPU. Different engines; comparable quality for most use cases. Eevee has more features (volumetrics, etc.) but is desktop-only.
Aeion's asset library is separate from Blender's Asset Browser; there's no plugin syncing them today. Export from Blender's Asset Browser to glTF, then upload to Aeion's library.
Yes. Blender's Auto-Rig Pro or similar handles retargeting. Aeion supports Mixamo skeleton convention.
Blender's texture paint mode works well. Export textures via glTF; Aeion compresses to KTX2.
Use Blender's Python API to automate any workflow; export results to glTF for Aeion.
Blender doesn't support native multi-user. Workarounds: Blender Cloud / Git LFS / Aeion's CRDT collaboration AFTER scene is in Aeion. Pure-Blender multi-user not yet realistic.
Most users on tight budgets / open-source preference: Blender. Studios with Maya licenses + animator workflows: Maya. Aeion supports both equally well.