BrainDead Blender Tools

Comprehensive mesh processing and character pipeline tools for Blender stylized character creation, mesh decimation, vertex color support and UEFN mannequin rigging and export support. Used in our games and pipeline at the studio and hopefully helpfull to others.

🧠 BrainDeadGuild

Don't Be BrAIn Dead Alone

Games | AI | Community

🎯 About BrainDead Blender

An interanlly used blender extension pack for Biloxi Studios designed to help with character, story, 3d and AI generation for next generation UGC game and TV pipelines. We also have an ComfyUI node pack that uses many of these functions for full automated support in workflows []

Requirements

• Blender 5.0 (also compatible with 4.2+)
• Python 3.11+ (bundled with Blender)

Features

• Mesh Decimation - Stylized low-poly reduction with color preservation
• Vertex Color Transfer - BVH-based color transfer between meshes with solid face support
• Vertex Color Painting - Paint colors on selected faces with favorites palette
• Remeshing - Sharp (octree), Voxel, and Quadriflow methods
• Mesh Cleanup - Hole filling, internal geometry removal, manifold fixes
• Normal Operations - Fix inverted normals, verify orientation
• UEFN Support - Character pipeline tools for Fortnite/UEFN

Installation

From GitHub Releases (Recommended)

1. Download the latest braindead_blender-x.x.x.zip from Releases
2. In Blender 5.0: Edit > Preferences > Add-ons
3. Click Install from Disk and select the downloaded zip
4. Enable "BrainDead Blender Tools"

From Source

1. Download or clone this repository
2. In Blender 5.0: Edit > Preferences > Add-ons
3. Click Install from Disk
4. Navigate to braindead_blender/ folder and select it
5. Enable "BrainDead Blender Tools"

Development Install (Symlink)

Windows (Run as Administrator):

mklink /D "C:\Users\YOUR_USER\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\5.0\extensions\user_default\braindead_blender" "A:\Brains\Tools\BrainDeadBlender\braindead_blender"

PowerShell (Run as Administrator):

New-Item -ItemType SymbolicLink -Path "C:\Users\YOUR_USER\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\5.0\extensions\user_default\braindead_blender" -Target "A:\Brains\Tools\BrainDeadBlender\braindead_blender"

Usage

Blender UI

After installation, find the BrainDead tab in the 3D Viewport Sidebar (press N).

Panels

Panel	Description
Decimation	Stylized decimate, planar/collapse decimate, sharp edges
Remesh	Sharp, voxel, quadriflow remeshing
Cleanup	Fill holes, remove internal geometry, fix manifold
Normals	Fix and verify normals
Vertex Colors	Transfer, bake, paint, solidify, smooth
UEFN Pipeline	Character conversion tools
Texture Project	Project images to UV/texture
Mask Colors	Generate RGBA masks for Unreal

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Vertex Colors

Transfer Vertex Colors

Transfer colors from a high-poly mesh to a low-poly mesh using BVH nearest-point lookup.

Workflow:

1. Click the source mesh (with colors)
2. Ctrl+click the target mesh (receives colors)
3. Select Transfer Mode:
   • Face (Solid) - Each face gets ONE solid color (recommended)
   • Vertex (Blended) - Per-vertex colors, blended across faces
   • Corner (Per-Loop) - Each face-corner sampled independently
4. Enable Apply Flat Shading for solid face colors to display correctly
5. Click Transfer Vertex Colors

Paint Colors (Edit Mode)

Paint solid colors on selected faces with an 8-slot favorites palette.

Workflow:

1. Enter Edit Mode (Tab)
2. Select faces (Face Select mode: press 3)
3. Pick a color or use Eye Dropper to sample from a face
4. Click Paint to apply color to selected faces
5. Save colors to favorites for quick access

Features:

• Paint Color - Current color to paint
• Eye Dropper - Sample color from selected face
• Paint - Apply color to selected faces
• Favorites (1-8) - Quick color palette
• Save to - Save current color to a favorite slot

Adjust Colors (Object Mode)

Operation	Description
Solidify	Make all face colors solid (no blending)
Smooth	Blend colors across the mesh
Apply Flat Shading	Required for solid face colors to display
Convert Domain	Switch between Corner (per face-corner) and Vertex (per vertex)

Adjust Colors (Edit Mode - Selected Faces)

Same operations but only affect selected faces:

• Solidify Selected - Solidify only selected faces
• Smooth Selected - Smooth only selected faces
• Flat/Smooth Shading - Change shading on selected faces

Color Domains

Domain	Description
Corner (CORNER)	Each face-corner has its own color - allows solid face colors
Vertex (POINT)	Each vertex has one color shared by all faces - always blends

Use Convert Domain to switch between them.

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Decimation

Stylized Decimation Pipeline

1. Planar Decimate - Merge coplanar faces (angle threshold)
2. Collapse Decimate - Reduce to target face count
3. Mark Sharp Edges - Detect color boundaries as sharp edges

Settings:

• Target Faces - Final polygon count
• Planar Angle - Threshold for merging coplanar faces (degrees)
• Sharp Angle - Angle threshold for sharp edge detection

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Remeshing

Mode	Description
Sharp	Octree-based, preserves thin geometry (fingers, ears)
Voxel	Creates watertight mesh, destroys thin geometry
Voxel High	High-resolution voxel then decimate
Quadriflow	Clean quad topology

Settings:

• Octree Depth - Resolution for Sharp remesh (6-10)
• Voxel Size - Size for Voxel remesh
• Target Polys - Target for auto voxel size calculation

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Cleanup

Operation	Description
Fill Holes	Fill open boundaries
Remove Internal	Remove hidden/internal faces
Fix Manifold	Fix non-manifold geometry
Triangulate	Convert n-gons to triangles
Smart Cleanup	Configurable multi-step cleanup (loose geo, islands, merge, holes, normals, embedded faces, n-gons)

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Edge Marking

Mark edges for subdivision/remeshing or shading control.

Operation	Description
From Colors	Mark edges where vertex colors differ (color boundaries)
From Angle	Mark edges based on face angle
Sharp→Crease	Convert sharp edges to edge crease
Crease→Sharp	Convert edge crease to sharp edges
Clear Marks	Remove all sharp/crease marks

Mark Types:

• Crease - Affects subdivision and remeshing geometry (recommended)
• Sharp - Affects shading/normals only
• Both - Apply both crease and sharp

Note: Uses Blender 5.0/4.0+ compatible API (bm.edges.layers.float['crease_edge'])

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Normals

Operation	Description
Fix Normals	Recalculate normals to point outward
Verify Normals	Check and report normal orientation

Methods:

• Blender - Topology-based (default)
• Direction - Center-based
• Both - Try Blender first, then Direction if needed

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Mask Colors

Generate RGBA mask channels from existing vertex colors for Unreal Engine material customization.

Channel Mapping

Channel	Color	Unreal Usage
BASE	(0,0,0,0)	Unmasked - uses base parameter
PRIMARY	R=1	Designer-customizable primary color
SECONDARY	G=1	Designer-customizable secondary color
ACCENT	B=1	Designer-customizable accent color
EMISSIVE	A=1	Glow/emissive intensity

Modes

Mode	Description
Analyze	Report color distribution (no changes)
Auto Mask	K-means cluster colors, assign channels by cluster size rank
Manual	Pick a color + tolerance, assign to a specific channel
Material	Map material slots to channels by index order

Auto Mask Workflow

1. Ensure mesh has a "Color" vertex color layer (from VertexColors/Paint)
2. Set Clusters (number of color groups to find)
3. Enable Face Based for contiguous mask regions (recommended)
4. Set Channel Ranks (0=largest cluster, 1=second largest, etc. -1=skip)
5. Click Auto Mask - creates "Mask" color layer with R/G/B/A channels
6. Debug Material auto-created for viewport preview

Manual Mask Workflow

1. Switch to Manual mode
2. Pick the Color to match (use eye dropper or enter values)
3. Set Tolerance (how close colors must match, 0-1)
4. Choose target Channel (Primary/Secondary/Accent/Emissive/Base)
5. Click Assign Color - only matched loops are updated, existing assignments preserved
6. Repeat for each color group

Settings

Setting	Default	Description
Input	"Color"	Source color layer name
Output	"Mask"	Output mask layer name
Clusters	4	Number of color groups for auto-mask
Face Based	On	Contiguous face regions (recommended)
Method	Dominant	How to pick face color (Dominant/Average/Center)
Tolerance	0.15	Color match distance for manual mode
Debug Material	On	Create emission material for preview
Delete Source	Off	Remove source layer after mask creation

Unreal Material Setup

Vertex Color (Mask layer)
├── R → Lerp(BaseColor, PrimaryColor, R)
├── G → Lerp(result, SecondaryColor, G)
├── B → Lerp(result, AccentColor, B)
└── A → Emissive multiplier

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Python API

from braindead_blender.mesh_ops import colors, remesh, cleanup, decimate, normals, masks

# Transfer vertex colors with solid face mode
colors.transfer_vertex_colors(source_obj, target_obj, mode="FACE")

# Paint selected faces (edit mode)
colors.paint_selected_faces(obj, color=(1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0))

# Sample color from face
color = colors.sample_face_color(obj)

# Solidify face colors
colors.solidify_face_colors(obj, method="DOMINANT")

# Apply flat shading
colors.apply_flat_shading(obj)

# Convert color domain
colors.convert_color_domain(obj, target_domain="CORNER")

# Stylized decimation
decimate.decimate_stylized(obj, target_faces=5000, planar_angle=7.0)

# Remesh with sharp edge preservation
remesh.apply_sharp_remesh(obj, octree_depth=8)

# Cleanup operations
cleanup.fill_holes(obj, max_sides=100)
cleanup.remove_internal_geometry(obj, method="RAYCAST")
normals.fix_normals(obj, method="BOTH")

# Auto-mask with k-means clustering
masks.auto_mask(obj, num_clusters=4, face_based=True, face_method="DOMINANT")

# Analyze color distribution
colors_by_loop, colors_list = masks.extract_vertex_colors(obj, layer_name="Color")
stats = masks.analyze_color_distribution(colors_list)

# Clear mask layer
masks.clear_mask(obj, output_name="Mask")

# Material-based masking
loop_assignments = masks.assign_by_material(obj, material_map=None)
masks.create_mask_vertex_colors(obj, loop_assignments, output_name="Mask")

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File Structure

BrainDeadBlender/
├── README.md
├── CLAUDE.md                   # Development notes
├── .gitignore
│
├── mesh_ops/                   # Modular mesh operations (standalone)
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── utils.py                # Logging, progress, helpers
│   ├── colors.py               # Vertex color operations
│   ├── remesh.py               # Remesh operations
│   ├── cleanup.py              # Cleanup/repair operations
│   ├── normals.py              # Normal operations
│   ├── decimate.py             # Decimation operations
│   └── masks.py                # Mask color generation (RGBA channels)
│
├── braindead_blender/          # Blender 5.0/4.2+ Extension
│   ├── blender_manifest.toml   # Extension manifest
│   ├── __init__.py             # Operators and panels
│   └── mesh_ops/               # Bundled mesh_ops package
│
├── scripts/                    # Standalone scripts
│   ├── uefn_pipeline/          # UEFN character conversion
│   ├── vertex_colors/          # Color baking scripts
│   └── utils/                  # Debug utilities
│
├── TransferVertexColors_v1.py  # Standalone color transfer
└── Decimate_v2.py              # Standalone decimation

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ComfyUI Integration

These tools integrate with ComfyUI-BrainDead nodes for AI-powered character generation workflows.

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License

GPL-3.0-or-later

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🧠 BrainDeadGuild

Professional AI Tools for Creative Production

Created by BizaNator

BrainDeadGuild.com | BrainDead.TV | GitHub | discord

Other BrainDead ComfyUI Nodes

• BD - Image Descriptor (Coming Soon)
• BD - Prompt Iterator Enhanced (Coming Soon)
• BD - Character Consistency Suite (Coming Soon)

Building tools for the BrainDeadGuild community

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A Biloxi Studios Inc. Production

© 2024 Biloxi Studios Inc. - All Rights Reserved

Support

• GitHub Issues: Report bugs
• discord: BrainDeadGuild