BDEngine is powered by Display Entities. This allows you to create models and animations without the need to install additional mods or resource packs. Everything you need is already in the base version of the game.

What are Display entities?

Starting with Minecraft 1.19.4, new entities called Display have been added. These include the following types: Block Display, Item Display, and Text Display.
These entities allow you to display any block or item present in the game, as well as change their shape and size to your liking. With Display, you can create objects of any complexity and shape, giving the world of Minecraft a unique and colorful look.

Before you start creating a model, you should learn the basic modeling functions and tools. This will make the modeling process more efficient and faster.

Main Dock panel

This is the main panel where all the main functions of BDEngine are located.

Let's look at the purpose of each button:

Context menu

This is an additional panel that is invoked on the right mouse button. It contains a minimalistic copy of the main Dock panel, as well as additional functions such as Flip and Head Size.

Let's look at the purpose of the special buttons:

Bottom panel

A panel that allows you to change the editor mode, for example for modeling or animation. Export a model or animation to Minecraft. And learn about the development plans for BDEngine.

Side panel

This is the main place where the auxiliary panels are located. They will allow you to see a list of objects, edit object properties, change the transformation, and more. You can change the width of the panel by grabbing the “tab” at the top left of the panel.

Scene

A panel displaying all objects in the scene.

Transforms

The panel that allows you to manually change object position, rotation and size. Also, here you can specify Snapping. This is the step with which moving, rotating and resizing occurs. And you can also choose the resizing mode. For example, normal or as in BlockBench. Try it out to see the difference.

Properties

This is the panel of all properties of the selected object. Here you can change both standard Minecraft-NBT object properties. As well as properties within the editor. If you cannot find the property you want, you can specify it in the Advanced NBT field.

Head Creator

This is the panel with all the functions of Head Creator mode. You will learn more about it in the “Custom Textures for Model” section.

Screenshot

This is the panel with all the functions of the screenshot creation mode. Enable screenshot mode in the Dock panel to see the settings.

Editor

This is the control panel of BDEngine. Here you can find additional tools and learn about the features of the editor.
In addition, you can customize the editor, change the appearance and hotkeys. You can also get information about the statistics of your project, such as how many Block Display and Item Display items it has.
You can also customize the volume of the editor interface.
If you find a bug in BDEngine, you can report it.

And so, let's get to building your first model. Don't worry! It's very simple!

Basic modeling

To start modeling, you need to use one of the following buttons on the top panel of the Dock: Blocks, Items, Heads or Add Head. Learn more about these buttons.

Clicking on Blocks, Items or Heads will open a panel that allows you to add a Block Display, Item Display or Player Head with the skin you want (e.g. food or decorations).
If you click Add Head, you will get an empty standard Player Head.

Once you have selected a Block, Item, or Head. You will see its model on the stage, as well as the Scene Controller next to it.
On the top left, you will see buttons to control the Scene Controller mode.

Scene Controller

Changing the
Scene Controller Mode

Using Scene Controller and selecting the desired mode, you can move the model, rotate, and scale the object.

If you have already added multiple objects. Just click on the desired one to start its transformation. Also, you can select the desired object from the list with all objects in the Scene panel at the side.

To select multiple objects (e.g., to move), hold the [Shift] key, and then click on the objects you want.

To duplicate objects, select them and then press: the Standard Duplicate Key [D] OR the Duplicate Button in the top Dock panel OR [Ctrl+C] and then [Ctrl+V].

To quick multi-select, hold down the [Ctrl] key and then draw a rectangle with the mouse. Everything inside this rectangle will become selected.

Objects grouping

Once you've figured out how to create and transform objects, it's time to learn about grouping.

To group selected objects or ungroup a selected group, press the standard [G] key or the group button on the top Dock panel.

Your objects now share a common group and you can transform them together using the Scene Controller.

By default, the Scene Controller is located at the bottom corner of the object/group. Sometimes it may have a specific location for some objects.
To select your own Pivot position (Pivot is the point where the Scene Controller is located), you need to press [Alt] and then start moving the Scene Controller.
This way you will get its new location.

However, please note: The new position is saved only for groups. This is often important for creating animations. For regular objects, the new position will be reset after deselecting the object.

Useful tricks

Sometimes, after creating one part of the model, there is a desire to make a mirror copy of the second part.
To do this, select the desired parts of the model, duplicate them, open the Context menu by clicking on [right-click], and then select Flip selected, specifying the axis along which the mirroring will be done.
Your selected part of the model will then be mirrored.

To create models with unique textures, BDEngine uses players' heads. They are Item Display and allow you to set any player skin.

To get started, you need to activate HeadCreator. This is a mode that allows you to draw on players' heads. After activation, you will see a new panel on the side.

HeadCreator panel sections

TOOLS: This is the tools section. allows you to move objects in the scene, allows you to draw on heads, allows you to fill similar pixels, a side or the whole head at once, erases pixels, allows you to select the color of a pixel from the head, allows you to copy a side of the head and paste it on other sides or other heads.

COLOR: This is the section of the color you are painting or filling with. You can choose the color itself, its transparency. You also have a palette of colors you have used recently. You can pull the color palette directly from the image file, you can sort the colors or clear the palette.
Note that the players head does not support transparent color on the inner first layer. Only on the outer second layer.

TEXTURE TO MODEL: This is a special section that will help to automatically generate models from heads. From the tools presented: to generate a player model by nickname or skin file, to generate the block model you need, to generate a whole canvas of heads forming an image and to import one regular head by nickname or skin file.

BAKE THE TEXTURES: This is an important section that is needed to convert the drawn textures in the heads, into the full TextureValues that are needed for Minecraft. Here, you can either automatically convert all the heads using the Create ready-made heads button, or manually by downloading all the painted textures as a zip archive (not recommended, this is the hard way).

You can distinguish heads with painted texture from finished heads by using the [Painted] label. If you see this mark, you need to convert the heads through the BAKE THE TEXTURE section. Otherwise, you will not be able to export the model to Minecraft.

If the Create ready-made heads button is inactive, you need to set the API key in the field above.
How to get it:

1. Open a MineSkin Account.
2. Sign in with your Google Account.
3. Go to the Manage API Keys page.
4. Click on the large panel with the “+” and select a name for the key.
5. Right after that you'll get an API key, which you need to paste into the box above the Create ready-made heads button. Don't lose it, as you'll have to create a new key to see it again.

Modeling and texturing

After you have figured out the values of the HeadCreate sections, it's time to try making a model with textures. And it's really very easy!

First, you need to create the shape of your model. Using the Add Head button on the Dock bar at the top, add as many heads as you need.

After you have prepared the model, use the TOOLS section of HeadCreator to draw directly on the heads.

When you're done, be sure to work the heads through the Create ready-made heads button from the BAKE THE TEXTURE section. If the button is not available, check the information above under HeadCreator panel sections.

If you have a ready-made TextureValue that you want to set to the head to get the head skin you want, just click on the head and in the properties panel, set the TextureValue to the appropriate field.

You can add a ready-made head from a large library built right into BDEngine. To do this, click Heads in the top Dock panel and select the desired head. If necessary, you can also draw on it.

Model preparation

Important information: You can only animate groups and heads (for heads only texture change).

To start creating animations, first you need to split the model into groups, in Editor mode.

To do this, select the desired parts of the model and then press the standard [G] key to group or the grouping button Group in the upper Dock panel.

By default, the Scene Controller is located at the bottom corner of the object/group. Sometimes it may have a specific location for some objects.
To select your own Pivot position (Pivot is the point where the Scene Controller is located), you need to press [Alt] and then start moving the Scene Controller.
This way you will get its new location.

However, please note: The new position is saved only for groups. This is often important for creating animations. For regular objects, the new position will be reset after deselecting the object.

Below you can see a video example of splitting a model into groups, as well as customizing your own Pivot position:

Preparing heads for texture animation

Explanation. What is TextureValue? It is a special string that contains information about the player's skin from Mojang servers. That is, all the head skins you see are all officially published Minecraft skins.

To animate texture changes in heads, you first need to add all the necessary TextureValues to the head.
First, select the desired head to see its properties:

Here we are interested in the TextureValue section. In it you can see the current TextureValue, if your head has a skin, as well as the list of saved TextureValues.

How to add more TextureValue?

In one of the main ways, the order is as follows:
1. Through HeadCreator you draw a new texture on the head.
2. When you are done, process the new texture through the Create ready-made heads button to get a ready-made TextureValue.
3. Open the properties of the head and you will see the new TextureValue as current. Click on the Add to List button next to it.
4. Repeat this procedure, adding all the desired TextureValues for your animation to the list.

Once you've categorized your model and/or added lots of TextureValue to the heads you want, it's time to go into animator mode.
Click on Animator in the bottom panel of the editor.

Meet the Animator

Animation process

Note the Scene panel. In Animator mode, you see only groups and heads. This is because you can only animate them. Other objects are hidden so they don't get in the way.

Once you've figured out the purpose of the new panels, in Animator mode, it's time to start creating animations!

To change the position of your groups, select the desired time position in the Timeline, and then start moving your group. The key points of the group animation will appear automatically.

To change the textures of the heads, likewise, select the desired time position on the Timeline, and then, select the desired TextureValue in the list, by clicking on Set as current, inside the properties of the head you want.

To create additional commands to be invoked during your animation, select the desired Timeline time position and then, using the Command Animation panel, add the commands you want.

Multiselect is available in Timeline. You can select keys with [Shift] held down, you can move them, copy them with [Ctrl+C] and paste them with [Ctrl+V] where the current Timeline time is. You can also use a rectangular selection.

When you have a group selected, on the Timeline, next to the time, you will see a button. Clicking it will create keys with the current transformation of the group. Clicking it with [Shift] pressed will create keys with the current transformation of the group, as well as all groups within it.
This can be handy if you want to save the current position and then move the Timeline and move the group. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Exporting a model

When you want to transfer your model, without animation, click on Export to Minecraft in the bottom panel, in Editor mode, select the desired version of the game, and then:

If you are using Command Blocks:

Select Command Block mode
Select the first Summon command, place a command block, paste the command into it, and then activate the command block.
If there are additional Summon commands, if there are several - do the same for each one.

If you are using Axiom:

Select Axiom mode
Select the first command, then in the game, press [Ctrl+V].
If there are several commands, do this with each one, one after the other.

To remove a model, use the last commands from the Export window, labeled Remove..
You need to paste them into the chat, getting as close as possible to the desired model.
If there are several Remove commands, you need to execute all of them (maximum 3)

If the model is not deleted, it is probably further out of range than the command. Change the distance=...2 value in the command to the desired distance. The number means the radius in blocks. Be careful not to delete unnecessary models.

Exporting animation

When you want to transfer your model, with animations, click Export to Minecraft in the bottom panel, in Animator mode, select the desired version of the game, and then click Export Animations as a datapack at the bottom of the Export panel.
You will get a zip-archive with the datapack, which you need to place in the datapacks folder of your world. After that you need to restart your world or run /reload.

Now you can use the commands from the Export window to place a model, delete, run a desired animation or stop all animations.

In BEngine, there are different options and ways to import models:

To import a Minecraft command, copy it and use [Ctrl+V] directly into the BDEngine.

You can also import commands from Axiom by pressing [Ctrl+V] directly into BDEngine.

You can either open .bdengine files, via the menu at the top of the editor, or by dragging the file with the mouse, directly into the BDEngine window.