AssetFurnace Update Brings Free Local Auto-Rigging and Animation for 3D Characters

Developer Nikhil Shahane (@Bingeljell) announced a new version of AssetFurnace (formerly image-to-3d lab) in his own X post on October 8, 2026. Pitched as "make stuff, for free, locally," the release promises a workflow that goes from a text prompt to an animated humanoid character in one pass.

Image source: @Bingeljell X post demo video

The core idea is bundling generation, rigging, and animation into one local pipeline. According to the author, the new version offers a choice of 21 animation presets, a pixel-match feature aimed at high-quality low-poly output, a seamless workspace studio, and a license record for every asset to help users actually ship their work. Note that the perceived quality of the 21 presets and the pixel-match output rests on the author's demo video, not an independent hands-on review.

What it does: from prompt to animated character

The promised flow is simple: enter a text prompt and get an animated character in one go. The scope is explicitly humanoids only — the author wrote "Humanoids only for now."

Asked what drives the animation, the author answered "Kimodo for now," adding that Kimodo works only for humanoids, which he called a shortcoming. So the animation side of this tool should currently be understood as humanoid-only.

The stated environment target is local Mac plus Nvidia setups, and the author framed Tripo/Meshy-level quality on local hardware as the ambition. That is a statement of direction, not a measured performance result, so it should not be read as parity with commercial generation services.

Repository, license, and the quadruped limitation

The repository is https://github.com/Bingeljell/image-to-3dlab and, per the author's post, it is open source under Apache-2.0. He points users to Discord for updates and support, and said an existing issue list will be triaged first.

One limitation deserves attention. Quadrupeds rig fine but have no animations, per the author's reply. Asked whether a Blender/Rigify quadruped walk/trot pipeline documented in the repo runs inside the Studio yet, he answered that it is separate and actually broken, and that stabilizing humanoids comes first. So this should not be presented as a universal auto-animation solution covering quadrupeds, snakes, or other non-humanoids.

Judging by the call for feedback from game developers and 3D artists, this release is closer to recruiting users for a local-pipeline experiment than announcing a finished product. If you prototype humanoid characters and care about local, open-source conditions, it is worth a look.

Sources

• Nikhil Shahane (@Bingeljell) X post announcing the release, with demo video: New AssetFurnace version
• Follow-up X post with repository and Discord links: Repo (open source, Apache-2.0)
• Repository: Bingeljell/image-to-3dlab
• Author reply on quadruped workflow status: Reply to @zhitustudio
• Author reply on Kimodo basis and humanoid-only scope: Reply to @RedCoatShiba
• Author reply on quadruped rig vs animation scope: Reply to @bgodbgg