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Tutorials

Structured courses for the AshForge tools, written to be worked through rather than skimmed. Each covers one tool from the beginning and assumes you have not used it before.

Two shapes. An accelerated course covers one tool end to end at pace, and most tools have one. A ladder climbs the same ground in three stages — beginner, intermediate, advanced — and Canvas and Crucible are the two tools that have one. Neither is a short read: both are many hours of work.

Mod Kit

Mesh like a pro

A deep course in mesh modelling for the Mod Kit world editor — block out, shape, cut, generate from curves, and hand the game something it can actually render.

Read & block out · Shape it · Cut & combine · Generate from curves · …

Definitions, End to End

The half of the Mod Kit that reaches the game without a single mesh. Sixteen categories share one editor, a typed reference that does not resolve fails the whole definition, and four of the categories you can author are never read by the exporter at…

Sixteen categories, one machine · The one that is different · Open the mod first · Saving, and what it saves · …

The Library, the File, the Gate

Three things that look unrelated and are one chain: the library you pull art from, the failure that loses your work while reporting success, and the gate that refuses to let a mod ship with its weapons in the wrong place.

What you are looking at · Pulling one in · The button's three states · Empty is not broken · …

Shipping Your Own Art

An icon you drew and a model you made, carried into the exported mod and referenced by your own definitions. The mechanism is small and worth knowing exactly — including why shipping the obvious file format costs four times the video memory.

Where art lives · A reference has no extension · Subfolders are kept · What actually ships · …

The World Editor

The 3D workspace is the largest part of the Mod Kit. Layers and groups are not the two things their names suggest, solo does the right thing until one action makes it quietly do the wrong one, and none of what you place can ship to the game.

Putting something in · Selection replaces · Where things start · Saving, and the round trip · …

Canvas

In about half an hour it will be textured, weathered and packaged as a mod you can load — done the way you would still want to be doing it in a year.

What you're actually painting · Five habits worth having · Open Canvas from the Hub · Load your model · …

The Canvas Bench

Everything Canvas can do to a surface, in the order you would actually do it, and the reasons professional texture artists work that way. Written for the modder who has a mesh and wants it looking like it belongs in Ascent of Ashes by tonight.

A mesh that can hold paint · Six channels, one material · Values that don't lie · Smart material layers · …

Before You Paint

The two tiers below this one both end with a finished texture, so this one is not another pass of painting. It is the short list of decisions that cost nothing before your first stroke and cannot be taken back after it

Resolution is a decision · The atlas is all-or-nothing · What the bakes need · A preflight worth doing

Texture like a pro

Take one mesh from bare grey to a game-ready PBR asset — the six channels, masks and material layers, wear read off the mesh itself, and an export the game actually loads.

Land a stroke · What each map is for · Layers & masks · Material layers · …

Crucible

Warnings Are Allowed

Crucible validates a mod every time a scene loads, and produces a wall of findings that looks like a verdict. It is not one.

Three severities, one verdict · What actually fails · Four validators · When a validator breaks

Everything Wrong Here Is Silent

The Behavior Sandbox spawns factions of AI agents, has them see each other, fight and complete quest objectives.

What actually spawns · Hostility is symmetric · A flat cone, and no walls · Four names, two behaviours · …

The Baseline Is Whatever You Did Before

Batch mode runs every scenario unattended, records what it measured, and tells you whether you got slower. It is genuinely good at that — for one kind of slower.

What one run measures · The median, and why · The threshold · Cliffs, not slopes · …

Sentinel

Build It, Then Read the Run

Sentinel authors behaviour trees and then lets you watch them run. The authoring half is small; the debugging half is where the tool earns its keep, and it rewards knowing which of its four instruments answers which question.

Three regions · Selector means or · Change one thing · Watch it run · …

Chronicles

Quests, Branches, and What Ships

Chronicles authors quests, objectives and dialogue. Most of what feels like branching is a menu that reconverges, and its validation promises less than its name suggests — this course is the whole tool with those two facts up front.

Read one before writing one · An objective is a row · Write your own · What Validate promises · …

Sequence

Keys, Staging, and Output

Sequence authors cutscenes: keyframes on a timeline, props staged in a scene, and a render at the end. It substitutes quietly for anything it cannot find, so a scene that looks finished can be built largely from fallbacks.

A key and a clock · Which key owns what · Two ways to cut · The path is a curve · …

Motion

Clips, Curves, and the File

Motion authors animation clips as tracks of keys. Most of it behaves exactly as you would expect — and one part does not, in a way that is invisible until something downstream reads the file and finds nothing.

Clip, track, key · The name is an address · The type is the instruction · What reaches the file · …

Atlas

The Lattice and the Paint

Atlas builds terrain: a height lattice, painted material shares, and props on top. Three of its controls do the opposite of what their names suggest, and one does nothing at all

The lattice under the level · Why you get a spike · The slider that does nothing · Falloff is backwards · …

Echo

Distance, Banks, and Buses

Echo authors sound: how far a noise carries, how it fades, and how several clips become one bank the game can vary. Its settings live in two places that disagree, and knowing which one wins is most of the tool.

The bubble and the curve · Which model reads what · Does it ever reach silence? · Rolloff, and loose names · …

Equilibrium

The Tick, the Market, the Chain

Equilibrium simulates an economy: resources, recipes, markets and the prices that move between them. Its controls are named for what you want rather than what they set, which is why two of them look broken until you know what they actually do.

The demo economy · One tick · Predict the next one · Where it all lives · …

Catalyst

Seeds, Rules, and Output

Catalyst produces items and quests from seeds and rules. It is a small tool with a handful of surprises, so this is one course rather than a ladder

Identical, not similar · The whole recipe · Templates replace · What it will not refuse · …

Refinery

The Index and the Ledger

Refinery builds the asset index the rest of the suite reads. Almost nothing in it is a gate — it warns, records and carries on, and knowing exactly which one switch does refuse is the difference between a clean ship and a surprise at signing.

Type is the extension · What an entry carries · What never reaches it · Who reads it · …

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