# Generate meshes, textures and scenes without leaving Blender > The Layer add-on for Blender generates meshes, textures, images and video inside the 3D viewport, and its agent builds and changes the scene you have open. --- ## Why Layer and Blender work well together Blender is the most widely used open-source 3D creation suite, powering workflows from indie game development to film production. Its flexibility across modeling, texturing, animation and rendering means artists constantly need assets: base meshes to start from, textures for materials, reference images, environments and motion. Layer generates all of them, and the Layer add-on puts that generation inside Blender, working on the scene you already have open. The add-on is a native Blender extension. Its sidebar tab holds your account, your workspace and the session this file's work is filed under. Its tools and its agent open from a button in the 3D viewport, next to the work, and everything they make lands in the scene: meshes as geometry at the 3D cursor, textures as materials on the selected objects, images and clips on planes. Nothing is downloaded, unzipped and imported by hand. For [game artists](/for/game-artists) and [freelance artists](/for/freelance-artists) who use Blender as their main 3D tool, that removes the round trip between a browser and the viewport. For [indie game developers](/for/indie-game-developers) working solo or in small teams, it means production-quality base meshes and materials without leaving the file they are building. ## Mesh generation and the mesh tools Mesh generation creates a model at the 3D cursor from a description, from an image, or from several views of one subject. The result is real geometry in the scene, ready to select, edit and render like anything else in the file. The rest of the mesh tools work on the selected object. Retexture gives a mesh new textures from a description or a reference image. Remesh rebuilds its topology, UV unwrap lays out new UVs, and Segment splits it into separate parts. Rig gives a character mesh a skeleton, and Animate rigs a character and moves it from a description of the motion or a clip of it. A typical [character design](/use-cases/character-design) pass starts from a generated mesh for proportions and silhouette, retextures it until the materials read right, then rigs it for posing, all without exporting a file. Generated meshes make strong base geometry that artists refine with Blender's sculpting and modeling tools for production. ## Textures and materials The Texture tool generates a seamless texture from a description or a reference and applies it as a material to the selected objects. It works across Blender's render engines, and because the texture repeats without a visible seam it holds up across the large surfaces [environment art](/use-cases/environment-art) is made of: floors, walls, terrain, trim. Environment generates a panorama and sets it as the world's environment texture, so a scene gets sky and lighting that match its mood in one step. For look development, generate several texture variations for the same material, render each in the final lighting, and let an [art director](/for/art-directors) choose in an afternoon rather than a week of hand painting. ## Images, references and video in the scene Image generation puts an image on a plane at the 3D cursor, from a description, from references, or from the viewport itself. That makes concept art and modeling references part of the scene: generate a character sheet, model against it, and keep it in the file for the next artist. The image tools edit what is already there. Prompt edit changes the image on a selected plane by describing the change, Change camera angle shows its subject from another angle, and Upscale and Remove background work in place. Video generation creates clips from a description, an image or the scene camera's move, and Restyle render renders the scene's animation through the viewport and restyles the clip, which turns a blockout into a styled previs shot for [concept artists](/for/concept-artists) and [creative directors](/for/creative-directors). ## The agent in your scene The agent is Layer's assistant, working on the open scene. Ask it to put the chest on a stone floor and light it for dusk, and it reads the scene, generates the textures it needs, and builds the floor and the light through Blender's Python API. It can also search Blender's own documentation when it needs to know how something works. It asks before it changes anything, once per session for each kind of change, and every change goes onto Blender's undo stack. Each request's work goes into a collection of its own, so it is easy to find, keep or delete. The conversation stays with the session, so you can pick it up again later. ## Files, sessions and your pipeline Everything the add-on generates is filed under a session named after your .blend, the same sessions you see at layer.ai, so work started in Blender can be reviewed in the browser and the other way round. Which session a file uses is stored inside the .blend, so it survives renames, moves and version control. Generated files are saved beside the .blend in a layer folder, referenced by relative paths, and re-homed on the first save of a new file. When you need one self-contained file, pack everything into the .blend from the sidebar. For studios shipping to [Unity](/integrations/unity) or [Unreal Engine](/integrations/unreal-engine), Blender stays the authoring tool and exports as it always has. Studios that also use [Maya](/integrations/maya) or [Photoshop](/integrations/photoshop) share one Layer workspace, one catalogue of models and one pool of Creative Units across all of them. For batch pipelines, the [Layer API](/docs) runs the same generations headless. For models to bring into Blender, see [3D models from four views](/use-cases/four-view-3d-models), [PBR 3D models](/use-cases/pbr-3d-models) and [rigging 3D models](/use-cases/rig-3d-models). ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Does Layer have a Blender add-on? Yes. Layer for Blender is a native Blender extension for Blender 4.5 or later on macOS, Windows and Linux. Download the zip for your platform from this page, drop it onto Blender, and sign in with your Layer account. The account, workspace and session live in the 3D viewport's sidebar under the Layer AI tab, and the tools and the agent open from the Layer button at the bottom of the viewport. ### What can the Blender add-on generate? 3D meshes from a description, an image or several views of one subject; new textures for a selected mesh; remeshing, UV unwrapping, segmentation, rigging and animation; seamless textures applied as materials; world environments; images and video on planes in the scene; and edits, upscales and background removal on images already there. Every tool picks its model from Layer's catalogue, with a sensible default for each job. ### What does the agent do in Blender? The agent works on the scene you have open. Ask it to build, change or light something and it reads the scene, runs Layer's tools and edits the scene through Blender's own Python API. It asks before it changes anything, and every change it makes goes onto Blender's undo stack, so one undo puts the scene back. ### Where do generated files go? Next to your .blend file, in a layer folder named after the session, referenced by relative paths so the project moves between machines and version control intact. Meshes arrive as real geometry, not linked files. Packing everything into the .blend is one button in the sidebar when you want a single file. ### How much does the Blender add-on cost? The add-on is free with any Layer plan, including the free one. Generations use Creative Units the same way they do on the web, and the sidebar shows your workspace's balance. --- Bring Layer's models and agent into your Blender scenes. --- [View original](https://layer.ai/integrations/blender) | [All Integrations](https://layer.ai/integrations)