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Create a Voxel Animation Variant

Overview

Section titled “Overview”

Add a variant to an existing rigged voxel asset-generation version (asset_kind = "voxel-animation", a sculpted, rigged model whose required animations are authored as F-curves). Creating a Voxel Animation Variant is the full procedure.

A variant varies the brief the model sculpts toward: a tighter palette, a stricter operation budget, a required technique, or an observable animation constraint. It may also declare its own [voxel] table, which replaces the case’s volume for runs of that variant. The asset_kind and the [model] animation contract are version-level, so every variant produces the same required animations under the same names. An asset-generation case declares no references, so resolution rejects a reference on the case or on any variant.

Steps

Section titled “Steps”
  1. Choose a consistent slug (armored) and display name (Up-Armored) naming the constraint the variant imposes. Favour one a reviewer can observe in a part preview or the posed viewer.
  2. Write specs/<slug>.md as an additive brief, stated as a delta against the common brief (“same subject and required animations, except …”) with precise, testable constraints. Say whether each applies to every part, to a named feature, or to the behaviour of a named animation. It may reference the common specs. It may not reference another variant’s spec.
  3. Create variants/<slug>.toml, a standalone TOML file whose top-level keys are the variant’s fields, and add its path to the variants list in test-case.toml. The first entry in that list is the default variant.
variants/armored.toml
slug = "armored"
name = "Up-Armored"
description = "Same subject and animations, with heavier chassis and turret plating."
spec = [{ source = "specs/armored.md" }]

A spec entry’s dest defaults to its source with any trailing .hbs removed. Spec entries are additive on the common specs, and within one variant two seeded entries may not share a dest. An asset-generation case is judged on one overall rating, so a variant declares no [[review_item]].

Varying the volume

Section titled “Varying the volume”

A variant that declares a [voxel] table runs at that volume in place of the case’s. Declare width, height, depth and background exactly as the case does. A brief that has to state its dimensions reads them from the spec-template context as {{voxel.width}}, {{voxel.height}}, {{voxel.depth}} and the inclusive maximum index on each axis, so one .hbs brief serves every size.

Validate

Section titled “Validate”
Terminal window
tcab seed   --test-case <slug> --version <version> --variant <new-variant>
tcab prompt --test-case <slug> --version <version> --variant <new-variant>

Seed and render the new variant, then repeat for the existing variants to confirm nothing else changed, the brief resolves self-contained, and the seeded rig.json still carries the version’s required animations.