Setting Up the Godot Scene

Now for the part that actually gets your assets in the game.

I will be assuming you have at least partially finished the Blender part. Your art or animations do not need to be fully complete yet, but you should have at least:

• a .glb export from Blender
• a basic rig
• at least one animation, ideally idle

Importing the Model

You technically can use the imported .glb model directly, but I do not recommend it. It is better to separate the imported model from the scene you actually edit, otherwise things can break or get reset when you re-import the model.

Because of that, we will make an inherited scene first.

Find your .glb file in Godot:

1. Right-click the .glb file.
2. Pick New Inherited Scene.
3. Save it as something like myCharacter_imported.tscn.

Now make another scene that will act as the actual 3D character view:

1. Create a new 3D scene.
2. Drag myCharacter_imported.tscn into its root node.
3. Right-click the imported scene instance and enable Editable Children.
4. Add an AnimationTree next to the AnimationPlayer.
5. Add a Camera3D.
6. Set the Camera3D projection to Orthogonal.

You can save this scene as something like myCharacter_view.tscn.

This scene is the 3D model/camera setup that will later be rendered into the 2D character scene.

Re-importing

When re-importing the .glb, Godot may not always update everything correctly. This should not permanently break anything, but sometimes parts of the model or animations may look mangled.

If that happens:

1. Double-click the .glb file.
2. Open the import settings.
3. Click Reimport.

This is also where you can set animations as "looping". Its relevant for your idle. On the left side scroll down untill you find the animation, click it and set it to loop.

Setting Up the Main Scene

Now we will set up the actual character/enemy scene.

Starting Point

If you already have a working placeholder scene, you can probably skip this part and just adapt it.

Otherwise, make a new 2D scene with this structure:

• Root - Node2D
  • Visuals - Node2D
  • Bounds - Control
  • IntentPos - Marker2D
  • CenterPos - Marker2D
  • OrbPos - Marker2D
  • TalkPos - Marker2D

The exact names matter, because the game expects certain nodes to exist.

Roughly speaking:

• Visuals contains the visible character setup, you can put whatever you want in here.
• Bounds controls the targetable area and HP bar.
• IntentPos is where enemy intent icons appear.
• CenterPos is the center used for some random things like VFX.
• OrbPos is used for orb positioning.
• TalkPos is used for talk bubbles.

You will probably need to adjust these markers later so they line up nicely with your character.

Setting Up the SubViewport

This is the part that lets you render the 3D character scene as a 2D image inside your normal 2D character scene.

Inside your Visuals node, create this setup:

• Visuals
  • CharBox - Control
    • SubViewportContainer
      • SubViewport

Then configure the SubViewportContainer:

• Enable Stretch.
• Set layout mode to Anchors.
• Set anchors preset to Full Rect.

Now drag your myCharacter_view.tscn scene into the SubViewport.

Lastly in the SubViewport toggle Own World 3D, by default ViewPorts share the same world, but that would lead to jank with multiplayer. This fixes that.

Also enable Transparent BG

The final structure should look roughly like this:

• Root
  • Visuals
    • CharBox
      • SubViewportContainer
        • SubViewport
          • myCharacter_view
  • Bounds
  • IntentPos
  • CenterPos
  • OrbPos
  • TalkPos

Assuming nothing went wrong, you should now see your character in the scene.

If the character is not visible, check:

• the Camera3D is looking at the model
• the camera is set to Orthogonal
• the model is inside the camera view
• the SubViewportContainer has a visible size
• the SubViewport is inside the container
• the 3D scene is actually inside the SubViewport

AnimationTree Setup

The AnimationTree is used to control animation playback.

The exact setup depends on how your character scene and code are structured, but the basic idea is:

1. Add an AnimationTree.
2. Assign the correct AnimationPlayer.
3. Enable the AnimationTree.
4. Set up the animation state machine.

Transitions going from idle

• Reset - On
• Switch Mode - Immediate
• Advance Mode - Enabled

Transitions going toidle

• xFadeTime (optional)
• Reset - On (optional)
• Switch Mode - At End
• Advance Mode - Auto

At minimum, you probably want your idle animation to play correctly first. Once idle works, test attack, cast, hurt, and die.

If animations do not play:

• check that they imported from Blender
• check that the names are correct
• check that the AnimationTree points to the right AnimationPlayer
• check that the animation is not accidentally empty
• check that looping is enabled for idle in the import

Testing In-Game

Once the scene looks correct in Godot, test it in-game as early as possible.

Do not wait until every animation is finished.

A good first test is:

• the character loads
• idle animation plays
• the model is positioned correctly
• target/bounds feel reasonable
• attack or cast animation can play
• nothing explodes

A rough model that works in-game is much more useful than a polished model that doesnt.