Creating custom assets

Flow addon allows you to add ANY objects and materials directly from your scene to the library in a very simple way.

Asset Browser Support

Since Flow 3.0, all models and materials will be also marked as Blender Assets, and will be accessible with Blender Asset Browser. Mind that collections in asset browser are supported only since Blender 3.2!

Adding models to the Flow library

Add Asset to Library operator

Setting the asset / set of assets

1. Select the desired objects, that you want to add to the library. It can be set of objects that you want to convert to one single asset or set of separate objects, that you want to save as separate assets.
2. It's recommended to duplicate the objects somewhere outside the scene, for the easier workflow (but this step is not necessary)
3. If you want to add a single asset, select the active object and set it's origin as a desired placing point, when you'll be adding the object from the library. You may simply place the 3d cursor on the desired spot and click 'Origin to cursor' in the Development Tools panel in Flow addon.
4. If you want to batch add more than one object, be sure that their origins are in the spots you want, they will be also saved with their current objects names, so make sure the naming is done properly.
5. Make sure that the object is facing the front view (along Y Axis) to have the good looking preview thumbnail.
6. If you want, you may set the viewport camera angle and later select it as the angle for the preview rendering (optional)
7. When the desired objects are selected, click Add Asset to Library button from the Flow Creator panel (or select it from Ctrl + Shift + X menu)

Category / subcategory selection

1. You may now select one of the existing categories or add new. Do this step also for the Subcategory (or leave blank if you want your object to be accessible directly from the category folder). The category + subcategory path will be also set for the Blender Asset Browser.
2. If you want to add multiple objects within one operation, select Batch Add Selected Objects. Each object from the selection set will be added to your library as a separate asset, using it's current origin as placing point and current name as the asset name.
3. Asset type for Asset Browser - you may choose whether you want your asset to be marked as a collection or as an object. This function affects ONLY the way it will be added from the Asset Browser, it is not affecting Flow functionality in any way. If batch add is active, all objects will always be added as the type Object
4. Asset name - enter the asset name that you want to have for your asset. If batch add is active, this input field will not appear. You may also select 'Create Unique ID' to create the randomly generated name (or suffix if you've typed the name). This feature is recommended if you may use the same name for objects in various directories.
5. Select path remapping type: a. Local Textures - this option will create textures folder inside the folder with your asset and will copy all it's textures into this folder and make it relative. b. Pack Textures - all textures will be copied into the asset .blend file c. Remap paths - this will keep the textures in their current location, and make remap the path to them for the asset. This option is recommended for more advanced users and if you want to use relative, make sure that textures are located inside the same target Flow Library, whare you want to save your assets! d. Copy Textures - this option will copy all the asset textures into the Flow Library/textures folder and make them relative for the asset.
6. Options - You can decide if you want to apply scale and rotation of the saved assets. Mind, that if objects are using modifiers, shape keys or they have linked data, the error may be raised.
7. Camera type - you can switch between perspective and ortho camera
8. Camera Angle: a. TR - Top Right angle b. TRH - Top Right Higher angle c. FR - Front angle d. R - Center right angle, on the asset level e. BR - Bottom Right angle f. Viewport angle - this option will use the latest viewport angle, and it needs to be set before starting the operator.
9. Show human posture - when active, the human posture will be rendered in the preview image. It's an useful feature e.g. for the trees.
10. HDRi Type - You can switch between four hdris for the preview rendering - Two studio variants, the sunlight and the cloudy hdri.
11. Click OK when ready. NOTE! This action may take a few seconds to complete or even longer when batch add is active, as the preview image is rendering automatically in the background. If this action takes too long, consider changing your preview render settings in the addon preferences

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Adding Materials to the Flow library

You may easily add any material to the library, using the Flow addon, so you could use it in your later projects.

1. Select the objects containing the materials, that you are willing to add to the library. Note, that it must be an editable object with directly editable materials (eg. mesh / curve / text). You will not see this option when eg. instance collection is selected.
2. Click Add Material to Library
3. In the popup window, you'll find the list of all materials linked to this object. Select the desired one and continue.
4. You may also press Batch Add Materials to select from all the materials linked to the selected objects. When the list of the materials appear, select which of them do you want to add to the library.
5. Check whether you want your preview object to be Sphere or Cube
6. Select the category and subcategory (or leave it blank)
7. Select path remapping type: a. Local Textures - this option will create textures folder inside the folder with your asset and will copy all it's textures into this folder and make it relative. b. Pack Textures - all textures will be copied into the asset .blend file c. Remap paths - this will keep the textures in their current location, and make remap the path to them for the asset. This option is recommended for more advanced users and if you want to use relative, make sure that textures are located inside the same target Flow Library, whare you want to save your assets! d. Copy Textures - this option will copy all the asset textures into the Flow Library/textures folder and make them relative for the asset.
8. You may type the new material name or leave the original one. You will be notified if the file with the same name already exists in the selected category & subcategory. You may continue if you want to replace the material with the new one. If batch add is active, this input field will not appear.
9. Click OK when ready. NOTE! This action may take a few seconds to complete, as the preview image is rendering automatically in the background. If this action takes too long, consider changing your preview render settings in the addon preferences

Adding Assets to Blender Asset Browser

To see your new assets in Blender Asset browser, there are no extra steps, that you need to follow. You just need to have your Flow Library set also as Blender Asset Library. While adding models, you will be able to set whether you want to mark your asset as collection or object - it will only affect the format for Asset Browser. Asset will be saved by Flow as collection anyway.

Saving as Collection

If you select Collection as your asset type, the selected asset will be visible in the Browser as the collection with all it's objects inside. It is recommended if you are saving more than one object as one asset. Mind that Collections will not be visible in Browser in Blender 3.0 and 3.1, then you should consider adding asset as object.

Saving as Object

When you are saving the asset as object, you should use only the single objects as one asset. If you will try to add more than one object as one single asset, you will be notified by the plugin, and then ONLY the first object will be renamed and marked as asset. You can select Batch Add Objects, if you want to add several objects at once, each as single asset.

Batch Adding Assets & Materials

You can add to your library multiple objects and materials within one operation. Then each object and material will be saved separately, using the Objects or Material name - there is no way to rename it with the plugin, so be sure to prepare the objects naming before.

When batch adding models, the addon will use all the selected objects.

While adding materials, all materials from the selected objects will appear in the addons popup, so you will be able to select which of the materials you want to add to the library.

It is strongly recommended to save before batch adding any assets and adding lower numbers of assets at once (eg 10 instead of 100), due to the complexity of this operation. It may also raise errors or crash Blender on slower computers

To learn more, check out the tutorial on our Blog