User Guide — aukimi

aukimi is an all-in-one creative suite that runs in your browser. You get 17+ specialized tools (game engine, 2D/3D painting, video, audio, materials…) that share the same project, clipboard, and file library.

Contents

• Getting Started
• General Navigation
• Modules in Detail
  • Game Dev
  • 3D
  • 2D
  • Media (Video & Audio)
  • Procedural Materials
  • Cross-Cutting Tools
• Typical Workflows
• File Library
• Real-Time Collaboration
• Cloud Save
• Keyboard Shortcuts by Module
• Languages & Interface
• FAQ / Troubleshooting

Getting Started

1. Open aukimi in your browser (recent Chrome, Edge, or Firefox recommended; the Engine module requires a browser with WebGPU enabled).
2. Sign in (nammu.ch / Supabase account). You can create a project or open an existing one.
3. Dashboard: the home board lists your recent projects. Click one to open it — all modules open on the same project.
4. Left sidebar: click a module icon to switch to it. Heavy modules (Sculpt, Pigment, Inkwell…) stay loaded in the background so your work is preserved.

Tip: your work is auto-saved in your browser (localStorage + IndexedDB) every few seconds. If cloud save is enabled, it's also synced every 60 s to our servers.

General Navigation

Modules in Detail

Game Dev

Engine — Game engine

The heart of aukimi for creating full 3D, 2D, or text-adventure games.

What you can do:

• Build a scene by dragging in prefabs, meshes, and lights
• Script with the Blueprint (visual graph) or sandboxed JavaScript
• Add physics (Havok: collisions, joints, raycast)
• Paint a terrain with sculpting, erosion, vegetation scatter, automatic LOD
• Enable AAA image effects: ambient occlusion (GTAO), global illumination (SSGI / RTGI / Lumen-like), motion blur, DOF, bloom, anti-aliasing, volumetric fog, volumetric clouds, tonemapping, color grading, and more
• Export to glTF / GLB for sharing

18 starter templates are provided (click "New from template"): CubeRunner, FightingGame, GalacticWars, HorrorDemo, FPS Zombie Survival (formerly Minecraft Survival), NeonRacing, Platformer, PuzzleMatch3, PuzzleSwitch, RPGBattle, Starport, SuperPlatformer, TerrainShowcase, TextAdventure, TopDownShooter, TowerDefense, VFXShowcase, ZeldaRPG.

Required: WebGPU-enabled browser. If WebGPU is not enabled, the engine will refuse to start.

Particles

GPU particle-system editor — emitters (sphere/cube/cone), color curves, trails, bursts. Exported particles can be used directly in Engine.

Animate

After Effects-style timeline with:

• Layers (movable bars on the timeline)
• Keyframes/anchors (diamonds) — any property change creates a keyframe
• Frame-by-frame canvas for traditional animation
• Built-in VFX clips (particle, trail, burst, flash, distortion, camera, mesh, audio, event)
• Non-destructive modifiers (glow, blur, drop shadow, vignette, chromatic aberration, gradient fill…)

All numeric values are adjustable by dragging the label (Shift = fine precision, double-click = direct input).

GameLogic

Event-based visual scripting via node graph — lighter than Engine for rapid prototyping.

3D

Sculpt

Sculpt high-poly meshes. Dynamic brushes, matcap library, metaballs, mask extraction, array scatter, UV-island polygroups, edge crease. Export to Retopo and then Pigment for the rest of the pipeline.

Retopo

Retopology — build a clean low-poly over your high-poly. Quad tools, topology repair, tracking onto a target mesh.

Pigment — 3D texture painting

~85% parity with Substance Painter. For PBR-texturing meshes.

What you can do:

• Paint on 7 PBR channels: baseColor, roughness, metallic, normal, height, AO, emissive
• Layers with 12 blend modes, masks, non-destructive effects
• Dynamic brushes (size, opacity, pressure, tilt, spacing, smoothing)
• Stencils, decals, triplanar projection, AI texture generation
• Procedural generators (AO, curvature, edge wear, dirt, thickness) accelerated by BVH
• 15 smart materials (Worn Metal, Painted Metal, Aged Wood, Sci-Fi Panel, Stone Brick, Fabric…)
• High-poly → low-poly baking in a Web Worker
• Symmetry (X/Y/Z mirror + radial + UV)
• 5 HDRI presets + custom HDR loading
• .p3d project format (ZIP) + .matter save from Matter
• Import OBJ, glTF, GLB, STL, PLY, Babylon
• UV button: shows UV seams in cyan on the 3D mesh
• Nodal material graph (30+ node types)
• Automatic brush wrap at u=0/u=1 seam to avoid visible "cuts"

Tips:

• Right-click a layer to see options (duplicate, mask, effects, delete)
• "Matter Materials" tab: automatically loads materials created in Matter
• "Library" sub-tab: browse .matter files in the File Library

Render — LumenStudio

Lighting studio for composing 3-point setups, HDRI rotation, render queue. Receives textured meshes from Pigment.

Nimbus3D

Cloud-native 3D viewer — opens glTF files via streaming and plays animations, ideal for collaborative inspection.

2D

Inkwell — Digital painting

Layer-based image editor with everything you need for illustration, retouching, and concept art.

What you can do:

• Painting with an advanced brush engine (bristle, wet, color dynamics, Procreate-style smoothing)
• Layers with 8 non-destructive effects (drop shadow, inner/outer glow, gradient/color/pattern overlay, bevel, stroke)
• Adjustment layers (10 types: brightness-contrast, hue-saturation, levels, curves, color-balance, invert, posterize, threshold, grayscale, sepia)
• 28 CPU filters (gaussian, motion, radial blur, sharpen, unsharp mask, high pass, spherize, twirl, polar, wave, clouds, noise reduction, pixelate, posterize, threshold, sobel, emboss, hue, saturation…)
• 14 GPU-accelerated filters (Bloom, Chromatic Aberration, Vignette, Film Grain, Tone Mapping ACES, Tilt Shift, Halftone, CRT/Scanlines, Glitch, Oil Paint, Color Grading, Pencil Sketch, Watercolor, Mosaic)
• Text tool + text on bezier path
• Advanced selection tools: grow/shrink, smooth, invert, color-range selection
• Onion skinning for frame-by-frame animation
• Export PNG / JPG / WebP / AVIF / BMP / GIF / TIF / TGA / EXR / PSD / DDS / QOI / HDR / ICO / APNG + animated GIF
• Tiled rendering (only recomputes modified tiles) + Web Worker filters for large canvases
• Paste images from the OS clipboard via Ctrl+V
• Painting on a moved layer: the stroke lands exactly where your cursor is (transform is baked automatically)

Tips:

• Alt+click = quick color picker
• Cmd/Ctrl+T on a text layer re-opens text editing instead of transform
• Liquify opens as a non-blocking side panel (Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+L)
• Color labels on layers (via right-click) for visual sorting

Vectra — Vector graphics

Pen tool, shapes, text, boolean operations. Export SVG / PDF / EPS. Dedicated mobile build for editing on phone/tablet.

Composer — Composition

Multi-track layout tool for panels / posters / pages / posts. Tile pipeline + shared clipboard with Inkwell/Vectra.

SpriteSheetEditor

Generate sprite sheets from animations or individual images: grids, Unity/Unreal/Godot presets, automatic bounds, batch export.

Media (Video & Audio)

Fusion — Video editing & VFX

Non-linear editing station with video/audio tracks, transitions, keyframes.

What you can do:

• Multi-track timeline
• WebCodecs acceleration for real-time preview
• Auto-generated waveforms and thumbnails, auto-proxy for heavy footage
• Export H.264 (3 profiles), HEVC/H.265, AV1, VP9/WebM, ProRes 422/HQ, QuickTime MOV, Matroska MKV
• Image sequence export (PNG/JPG/WebP/TIFF) + animated GIF
• Interchange export: EDL, FCPXML, AAF
• Audio export: AAC, Opus, PCM, MP3
• Automatic audio ducking (voice-over lowers the music)
• Batch export + saveable presets
• FFmpeg WASM filters directly in the browser

Pulse — Digital audio workstation (DAW)

Everything you need to compose music and sound effects without leaving the browser.

Built-in VSTs (synths/instruments):

• Chiptune — 8-bit retro (NES palette, 29 presets: Arcade Lead, Quest Lead, Space Lead, Bounce Lead, Blade Lead, Power Lead, Screamer, 8-Bit Bass, Sub Pulse, etc.)
• Orb — vowel/formant VST synth
• SynthWave — 80s pad/lead
• AmbientPad — atmospheric textures
• Choir — choral voices
• Ragnarok — epic pads
• Vault — deep bass
• Helios FM — 4-operator FM synth with 8 algorithms, feedback, per-operator ADSR, solar palette (navy + gold + orange) — 22 presets (E-Piano, Warm Piano, Clav, Bell Keys, DX Brass, FM Bass, Metal Lead, Glass Pad, etc.)

What you can do:

• Multi-track MIDI piano roll
• Per-track automation
• Export WAV / FLAC / MP3 / OGG / AIFF / AU / MIDI / stems
• Per-track VST selection from the track bar — the piano roll reflects the sound immediately
• VST settings persisted with the project

Procedural Materials

Matter — Nodal PBR material authoring

Create PBR materials via a node graph (Substance Designer-style).

Node types:

• Generators: AO, Curvature, Edge Wear, Dirt, Thickness, Position (mesh-aware via BVH)
• Noise: Perlin, Simplex, Voronoi (3 variants), Cells, FBM, Clouds, Scratches, Checkerboard, Bricks, Gradient
• Filters: Levels, HSV, Blur, Sharpen, Invert, Threshold, Brightness/Contrast, Height-to-Normal
• Blend with 11 modes + input mask
• Math: Add, Multiply, Lerp, Constants (color + value)
• Output per channel (baseColor, roughness, metallic, normal, height, AO, emissive)

What you can do:

• 15 pre-made materials (metals, wood, stone, fabric, sand, gold, plaster, asphalt, grass, brick…)
• Drag-and-drop nodes from the library with full-text search (name/category/tags/kind)
• Mini-map + zoom-to-fit + alignment/distribution of selection
• "Recent" nodes (MRU of last 10 used)
• Dominant-color thumbnails on node cards — double-click = full-screen 640×640 preview
• Real-time PBR sphere 3D preview
• Export the full material to a single .matter file (ZIP containing manifest.json + PNG per channel)
• "Send to Module" → Pigment / Engine / Inkwell
• Integrated cloud save

Consumption:

• In Pigment: the "Matter Materials" tab splits into "Project" (auto-detected materials from the current project) and "Library" (.matter files saved in the File Library). Apply a material to all channels in one click, or channel by channel.

Cross-Cutting Tools

File Library

Browser for all your files — textures, meshes, audio, presets, .matter materials, projects. Type filters (9 categories) + source-module filter (11 modules). Full-text search and 7 sort options (date, name, size, type).

Every module can save/load without opening the modal thanks to the internal window.__fileLibrary bridge. Drag-and-drop a file onto a module's canvas to import it directly.

AssetEditor

Raw asset inspector — useful for debugging an import that misbehaves.

Dashboard

Home dashboard with recent projects, activity feed, quick access to tutorials.

ReferenceBoard

Reference board — images, notes, screenshots. Great for keeping inspiration within reach.

CharacterCreator

Character builder — character-customization shell.

AI

AI toolbox: speech synthesis/recognition (TTS/STT), background removal, image upscaling. Runs in the browser via TensorFlow.js + bundled models.

SettingsPanel

Global preferences: theme, language (28 languages), account, keybindings, local storage.

PerformanceMonitor

FPS / memory counters for diagnosing slowdowns.

Typical Workflows

Full game jam in one day

1. Engine: open a template (e.g. TopDownShooter)
2. Pigment: re-texture one of the props
3. Pulse: compose the music (Chiptune VST for a retro feel)
4. Fusion: edit the game trailer
5. Export glTF/GLB of the game + MP3 + MP4 → hosting

Full 3D pipeline

1. Sculpt: high-poly sculpture
2. Retopo: create the low-poly
3. Pigment: bake maps (AO, normal, curvature) via the Baker, then paint PBR channels
4. Matter: create complementary procedural materials
5. Render (LumenStudio): final lighting setup
6. Engine: integrate into a playable scene

2D illustration → animation

1. Inkwell: paint your illustration
2. Vectra: add vector elements on top
3. Animate: animate the whole thing on the timeline
4. Fusion: compile into a final video with transitions and sound design

Transfers between modules

Every module has a "Send to…" button that sends the current asset to another module. The transfer goes through the internal asset bus (no need to export/re-import). Meshes, images, audios, animations, materials, and MIDI are all supported.

File Library

• Open: click the Library icon in the sidebar, or from the File menu of any module.
• Import: drag files from your OS into the window, or click "Upload".
• Filter: by category (image/3D/audio/video/script/matter/data/other) + by source module.
• Search: full-text search bar (name, tags, extension).
• Use: drag-and-drop a file directly onto a module's canvas, or double-click to open it in the appropriate module.
• Organize: tags, notes, favorites.

Real-Time Collaboration

• Open the same project with a colleague (via shared link).
• Operations (add layer, brush stroke, node move) are broadcast in real time peer-to-peer (WebRTC).
• Presence indicator: collaborators' cursors appear in color on your screen.
• No central server needed — it works directly browser-to-browser.

Cloud Save

• Enabled by default once signed in.
• Auto sync every 60 s (only changes, not the whole project every time).
• Status pill bottom-left:
  • green = up to date
  • orange = sync in progress
  • red = conflict (modal "keep local" vs "keep cloud")
• File Library files are also synced with thumbnails.
• Offline mode: your changes are queued and sent as soon as you're back online.

Keyboard Shortcuts by Module

General shortcuts (all modules)

Inkwell

Pigment

The OS cursor disappears when the pointer touches the mesh (the orange brush ring takes over) and reappears off-mesh.

Engine

The engine inherits the Blueprint Editor shortcuts (Recent tab for the last 20 node types used) as well as standard scene shortcuts.

Fusion / Pulse / Animate

Timelines use space for play/pause and J/K/L for navigation (like classic NLEs).

Languages & Interface

aukimi is translated into 28 languages: Français, English, Deutsch, Español, Italiano, Português (BR), Nederlands, Svenska, Dansk, Norsk, Suomi, Polski, Čeština, Türkçe, Українська, Magyar, Română, Русский, 日本語, 简体中文, 繁體中文, 한국어, ไทย, Tiếng Việt, हिन्दी, বাংলা, العربية, עברית.

Change language: Settings → Language. The interface updates instantly. Arabic and Hebrew switch automatically to RTL.

FAQ / Troubleshooting

Nothing displays in Engine

The engine requires WebGPU. Enable it in your browser:

• Chrome / Edge: usually enabled by default on recent desktop versions
• Firefox: about:config → dom.webgpu.enabled = true
• Safari: requires macOS Sonoma+ with WebGPU enabled in developer options

My drawing on a moved layer appears shifted

Fixed: the transform is now "baked" into the layer data at the start of a new stroke — you paint exactly where your cursor is.

Ctrl+V doesn't paste an image copied from my OS

Make sure you're in Inkwell (not in a text input). On first use, the browser will ask for clipboard permission — accept it.

I see "ghost symmetry" on my sphere in Pigment

Seam Bleed is disabled by default because it produced artifacts on standard Babylon spheres. You can enable it in the Symmetry → Seam Bleed panel if your mesh has clean UVs.

The stroke "cuts" at the UV seam of my sphere

The automatic wrap stamp should handle this: when the brush touches the u=0 or u=1 edge of the texture, a second stamp is applied on the other side, making the brush continuous. If that's not enough, increase brush size above the distance to the seam.

My cloud project is in conflict

A modal appears with two buttons:

• Keep local — your version overwrites the cloud
• Keep cloud — the server version overwrites yours

No permanent loss: the non-chosen version stays in cloud history for 30 days.

FBX import doesn't work

FBX format is not supported natively by the browser engine. Convert your model to glTF / GLB (Blender: File → Export → glTF 2.0) and re-import. Formats supported by Pigment are: OBJ, glTF, GLB, STL, PLY, Babylon.

I lost my work

• If you are signed in: open the Dashboard, your projects are there. Also check cloud version history (30 days).
• If you are offline: the last module state is in the browser's localStorage (24 h TTL) and in IndexedDB for large files. Don't clear aukimi browsing data!
• As a last resort: the internal auto-save runs every few seconds.

Camera crossing through the 3D model in Pigment

Fixed: the minimum zoom distance is now automatically computed from the mesh's bounding sphere (radius × 1.2 + 0.1), so the camera stops just in front of the model.

Where are brush / material / VST presets?

• Inkwell: right panel → Brushes → Library
• Pigment: Shelf panel (100+ default presets, ability to create your own collections)
• Matter: Library panel with 15 materials + search + Recent
• Pulse: each VST has its own "Preset" button in its UI (29 for Chiptune, 22 for Helios FM, etc.)

For questions / bugs / suggestions: sebastien@nammu.ch