Modeling Overview

Foxel offers three modeling workflows: Voxel Modeling, Pixel Modeling, and Mesh Modeling.
They all use colors and materials, but they edit different kinds of data and are used for different tasks.

What All Modeling Workflows Share

No matter which workflow you use, the basic idea is similar:

• You activate the thing you want to edit.
• You choose a tool, such as Draw, Erase, Paint, or Material.
• You choose how that tool should behave by selecting a tool mode.
• You can transform, process, and filter the result afterward.

This makes it easy to switch between workflows once you understand the basics.

Voxel Modeling

Voxel Modeling is the main 3D editing workflow in Foxel.
It is used to edit Voxel Layers inside Voxel Scenes and Voxel Movies.

Use Voxel Modeling when you want to:

• build and refine 3D voxel objects directly
• work with cube and wedge-based voxel shapes
• edit selections in three dimensions
• create manual levels of detail (LOD)

Pixel Modeling

Pixel Modeling is a 2D workflow based on Pixel Layers inside Heightmaps.

Use Pixel Modeling when you want to:

• draw height-driven 2D data
• create relief-like forms from height information
• prepare source data that can later be converted to voxels
• work in a flatter, image-editor-like environment

Its defining feature is that each pixel can store height in addition to color and material.

Mesh Modeling

Mesh Modeling is focused on editing the textures of imported Mesh Assets.
In Foxel, this means editing texels, not changing vertices or topology.

Use Mesh Modeling when you want to:

• repaint imported mesh textures inside Foxel
• remap texture colors to the open asset palette
• adjust how voxelized mesh references look in a scene

Which One Should You Read First?

• Start with Voxel Modeling if Foxel will be your main modeling tool.
• Start with Pixel Modeling if you mainly work with heightmaps and relief-like forms.
• Start with Mesh Modeling if your main goal is to repaint imported meshes.

Suggested Reading Path

If you are new to the manual, this order works well:

1. Read the introduction page of the workflow you want to use.
2. Continue with its Getting Started page.
3. Learn the available tools and tool modes.
4. Move on to transforms, operations, and filters as needed.

The sub-sections are organized so you can either read them from top to bottom or use them as reference later.