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Author a Blender Character Test Case

Scope

Section titled “Scope”

Scaffold an asset-generation test case of asset_kind = "blender-character": a model builds a rigged, animated, skinned character in headless Blender by editing a starter build.py and running tcab-blend, which exports a skinned glTF character.glb plus a model.png preview. Read Authoring a Blender Character Test Case for the full procedure; Blender cases is the authoritative schema.

Choose blender-character when the subject needs real topology, a hand-built armature, or IK. When a signed-distance field is enough, the sibling kind is Author a Skinned Character Test Case.

Layout

Section titled “Layout”

A version lives at test-cases/asset-generation/<difficulty>/<slug>/<version>/. A version with runs recorded against it is frozen; revise a case by adding a new version.

test-cases/asset-generation/<difficulty>/<slug>/<version>/
  test-case.toml         # manifest: type, asset_kind, voxel, tool, output, model
  variants/              # one standalone TOML file per variant
  prompt.hbs             # rendered into the harness instruction; not seeded
  changelog.md           # required per-version entry; not seeded
  description.md         # site blurb; not seeded
  specs/brief.md         # the character and tool behavior; seeded
  specs/build.py         # the starter Blender script the model edits; seeded

A run gets headless Blender and tcab-blend on PATH plus a seeded blender.config.json carrying the bounding box, the authoring axes (+Z up, facing -Y), the emitted glTF and preview paths, the build-script path, the required animation names, and any required caller joints. The skeleton and binding are the model’s to invent. Core emits character.glb and model.png, so the manifest names neither, and the case declares no [[reference]].

Steps

Section titled “Steps”
  1. Pick a catalog slug, the character, and a version of the form vX.Y.Z. Choose a body whose credibility rests on real topology and rigging, readable at the bounding box from silhouette and palette alone.
  2. Write specs/brief.md: silhouette, proportions, and orientation, with the character built +Z up and facing -Y; gear baked into the mesh; the exact opaque #rrggbb palette; the weapon_socket rule, an empty hand-parented bone with no vertex influence, where the weapon itself stays out of the mesh; each required animation and how it reads as continuous-skin deformation; and that all authoring runs through build.py and tcab-blend. Keep the brief self-contained.
  3. Write specs/build.py: a runnable-shaped, well-commented starter that loads blender.config.json, clears the scene, and leaves TODOs for build_body_mesh(), build_armature() including weapon_socket, bind_skin_weights(), and author_animation(name), ending by calling tcab_blend_export.export(config).
  4. Write prompt.hbs. It renders in strict mode against {{variant.*}}, {{#each specs}}, {{workspace}}, {{time_limit_hours}}, and {{voxel.*}}. Point the model at the brief and build.py, and state the hard rules: build and rig only through Blender, bake the gear, keep weapon_socket empty, author every animation, and run tcab-blend before returning.
  5. Write test-case.toml: metadata, the required changelog, type = "asset-generation", asset_kind = "blender-character", and the variants list.
  6. Declare [voxel] as the character’s bounding box plus a background, and [tool] with binary = "tcab-blend" and preview = "model.png", a single file with no {part} token. Declare [output] with actions = "build.py", the recorded authoring trace that is re-run for provenance.
  7. Declare [model] with one [[model.animation]] per required animation, carrying a name, a loop flag, and an auto_play flag. Add a [[model.joint]] for each caller DOF a game drives at runtime, such as aim_pitch, fixing its name, kind, axis, and min, max, and rest limits in degrees for a rotation. The bones, weights, and F-curves are the model’s.
  8. Declare both seeded files as [[spec]] entries. specs/build.py seeds to build.py with kind = "script".
  9. Declare the single overall [[domain]]. The character is judged as a whole against its brief on that one rating, so the case declares no [[review_item]] checklist, no [build], no [[check]], and none of the per-kind [canvas], [sheet], [ui], [material], [particle], or [audio] tables.

siege-rifleman is the flagship worked example.

Validate

Section titled “Validate”

Run these for every variant.

Terminal window
npm run lint:specs
tcab prompt --test-case <slug> --version <version> --variant <variant>
tcab seed   --test-case <slug> --version <version> --variant <variant>

prompt catches strict-mode template and manifest errors, including a stray {part} token and a missing required table. seed writes the seeded repository under tmp/, where you confirm the brief, build.py, and blender.config.json are self-contained.

Next steps

Section titled “Next steps”