Working with layers

A layer in Re:Form is a separate mesh — its own geometry you can sculpt, move and transform independently of everything else in the scene. A character is a body layer plus eye layers plus tooth layers; a prop is a handle plus a blade. Layers are how multi-part things stay manageable.

Click a layer in the list to make it active — brushes and transform tools work on the active layer only. Each layer has a visibility toggle, and double-clicking its name renames it.

The actions

• Add — a new layer, starting from the shape of your choice: Sphere, Cube, Cylinder, Cone, Capsule, Egg, Teardrop, Pebble, Rounded cube, Torus or Plane, or the Head or Ear base mesh. Every closed shape arrives with the same even quads and the same triangle count as the Sphere, so it subdivides and mirrors the same way. The base meshes arrive centred at the same size as the primitives — place and scale them with Move and Scale.

• Duplicate — an exact, independent copy of the active layer.
• Mirror — flip the active layer across the active symmetry axes (X when none is on), in place. For the classic "second eye" move: Duplicate first, then Mirror — you get a mirrored copy on the other side.
• Delete — remove the active layer.
• Move ↑ / Move ↓ — reorder the list. This is list organisation only; it never changes the sculpt.
• Merge down — merge the active layer into the layer directly below it; the two become one mesh.
• Merge all — merge every visible layer into a single mesh. Do this before remeshing an assembly into one continuous solid — or before exporting for print.
• Split loose — the reverse of merging: split the active layer into its disconnected pieces, each becoming its own layer. Invaluable right after importing a model that arrives as one object but is really several parts.
• Split Mesh Sets — every mesh set becomes its own layer, cut along the group borders and left open there; the largest piece (or the ungrouped rest) stays on the active layer. Group by angle or colour, then split, and a whole model comes apart into its parts in two clicks.
• Split masked — the masked area is cut away along the mask's half-strength contour and becomes its own layer, directly above this one; the rest stays on the active layer. Both are left open along the seam (Remesh with hole filling closes either). With mesh sets, Mask group then Split masked separates a group in two clicks. One Undo brings the single layer back.

Focus and Fade

Two buttons in the options bar (also under View) help when layers crowd each other:

• Focus shows only the layer you are working on. Every other layer hides until you turn it off, so you can reach the part buried inside the rest.
• Fade fades the other layers to see-through, so the layer you are working on shows through whatever sits in front of it — handy for an eye inside a socket or a body under clothing.

Only one of the two is on at a time, and both are viewport aids: renders and turntables always show every visible layer, solid. They need at least two layers.

Working across layers

• Sculpting only ever touches the active layer — a brush stroke can't accidentally drag a neighbouring layer's surface, which is precisely why eyes go on their own layer.
• The transform gizmo poses layers independently, each around its own movable origin point.
• Subdivision is per-layer too: spend triangles on the face, not the teeth.

Array: copies in a row or a ring

Tools ▸ Array… copies the active layer many times at once. The copies are drawn in the viewport as you set them up, and nothing changes until you press Apply.

• In a row puts the copies one after another along X, Y or Z. Spacing is the step from one copy to the next as a share of the layer's own size: 100% sets them side by side, more leaves a gap, less overlaps them.
• Around an axis turns the copies about X, Y or Z through the layer's origin point. Angle at its right-hand end is a full circle, shared out evenly; a smaller angle puts a copy at each end. Radius moves the layer out from the axis first, so a layer standing on its own origin makes a ring. Move the origin point (the Origin button in the Symmetry section) to turn the copies about somewhere else.
• Copies is how many there are in all, your layer included, from 2 to 64.
• Separate layers: Off makes the layer become all of its copies, as one mesh; each copy keeps its own Mesh Sets, so you can still mask or hide one copy. On leaves your layer exactly as it is and adds every further copy as a layer of its own, named after it.

One Ctrl+Z undoes the whole array. On the Free plan a single layer cannot go over 12.5 million triangles: the window tells you when the copies would, and Separate layers gets round it because no one layer grows.

Reshape: bend, twist, taper, flare, stretch

Tools ▸ Reshape… changes the whole shape of the active layer at once. Pick the axis the layer's length runs along (X, Y or Z), then drag an amount. The model itself shows the result as you drag, and nothing is kept until you press Apply.

• Bend lays the layer's length on an arc of that many degrees. 180° is a horseshoe; 360° closes it into a ring. A negative angle bends the other way.
• Twist turns one end one way and the other end the other way about the axis, by that many degrees each.
• Taper makes the layer wider towards one end and narrower towards the other.
• Flare makes it wider towards both ends and leaves the middle as it is. Below zero it narrows the ends instead.
• Stretch makes it longer or shorter along the axis.

All five work about the layer's origin point, which stays where it is: move it (the Origin button in the Symmetry section) to bend or taper about somewhere else. You can set several amounts together. Double-click a slider to put it back to nothing, or press Reset for all of them.

The mask protects what is masked. Mask the part to keep still, soften the mask's edge for a gentle hand-over, then Reshape. Cancel puts every point back, and after Apply one Ctrl+Z undoes it. Reshape moves points and never adds any, so a bend looks smoothest on a layer with enough triangles along its length.

Inflate and Polish: the whole layer at once

Tools ▸ Inflate… moves every point of the active layer along the surface's outward direction. Drag Amount above zero and the layer swells, as if air were pumped into it; below zero and it shrinks inward. The amount is a share of the layer's size, so the same setting does the same to a small layer and a big one.

Tools ▸ Polish… flattens bumps and brush marks over the whole layer. Bump size is the size of the bumps that go, as a share of the layer's size: small takes off grain and brush marks, large flattens wrinkles and lumps too. Strength is how far the surface moves toward smooth. Shapes much larger than the Bump size are left alone, the layer keeps its size, and it works the same on a light layer and a heavy one.

Both show the result on the model as you drag, leave masked areas where they are, and are one Undo. Mask what you want to keep first.

Surface noise: grain, stone and skin in one step

Tools ▸ Surface noise… roughens the whole active layer at once: every point is pushed in or out along the surface by a noise pattern. The window opens with a pattern already showing on the model, and nothing is kept until you press Apply.

• Scale is the size of the bumps, as a share of the layer's size. A small Scale is fine grain; a large one is a broad, slow swell.
• Strength is how far the surface moves, as a share of the layer's size. Below zero turns the pattern inside out, so bumps become dents.
• Seed picks which pattern you get. The same Seed always gives the same pattern, so you can come back to one you liked.
• Pattern is the built-in Noise, or Image…: any alpha from the alpha library, one of your own imports included, tiled over the layer, white pushing the surface out and black leaving it — a white dot on black becomes a field of bumps. With an image, Scale is the size of one tile and Seed slides the tiling along.
• Detail (for the noise) adds finer grain over the broad shapes: 1 is a smooth swell, 6 is swell with fine grain on top. Angle (for an image) turns the image on the surface.

Blending decides how the pattern meets the surface:

• Contrast above zero sharpens the pattern (steeper sides, flatter tops); below zero softens it into rounder, gentler shapes.
• Blend: Add pushes in and out as the pattern comes. Raise only pushes every part outward, so the surface never goes in: rounded bumps with fine creases between them. Carve only cuts every part inward: grooves and cracks. Replace detail smooths away the detail already there, up to about the pattern's size, and lays the pattern on in its place.
• Mask by curvature: Cavities lays the pattern only in creases and hollows, Peaks only on ridges and bumps. Falloff is how gradually it fades from the deepest crease (or sharpest ridge) out to the rest of the surface.

The mask protects what is masked, and a soft mask edge fades the noise out. Mask the eyes and lips before roughening a face, for example. The noise can only be as fine as the layer's triangles: for fine grain, subdivide first. Apply it twice at two Scales (a broad one, then a fine one with a different Seed) for a more natural surface.

Cancel puts every point back, and after Apply one Ctrl+Z undoes it. Your settings are kept for the next time.