I Tried Doing Everything with Codex! From a Bubble Girl to a 3D Animation 🫧💜

From 100 research links to hands-on production: my experience using Codex for Tripo3D generation, segmentation, and rigging; Blender hair and clothing motion; a glass greenhouse; and a 12-second video.

“I want to create a world that’s translucent, sparkly, and full of cute girls—with hair and clothes that gently sway!”

I tried making that gloriously ambitious bundle by operating Tripo3D and Blender through Codex ✨ The result is “Bubble Reverie”: a 12-second animation of a girl casting magic in front of a glass greenhouse 🪄

From research, image generation, and browser control to modeling and adjustments in Blender, video export, and writing this article, I centered the production around Codex. The human’s role was to set the direction: “make it cuter,” “make the clothes sway too.” The only thing I needed help with was downloading the GLB file—which the browser blocked—and placing it in a folder. This was not a story of everything succeeding completely unattended, so I’ll be honest about that part too 😊

First, the research. What did I use from 100 links? 🔎

First, I organized examples from Astra, MCP integrations, and Blender animation and rendering materials into 100 research items. Not all 100 items are articles about works made with Astra. It is a collection that also includes official manuals and general 3D-production resources.

The starting point for this project was OpenAI’s Architectural visualization with Astra. It shows Astra in Codex using Blender’s Python API to build architecture, refining it while reviewing previews, and turning it into a camera tour.

Taking inspiration from that “make → review → refine” workflow, I made a girl-and-bubble greenhouse instead of a house this time 🏛️🫧 I used Blender MCP for the connection. The collected URLs are listed by group in the second half of this article.

1. From cute concept art to a 3D girl 🎀

First, I used Codex’s image-generation skill to create 2D concept art: a lavender bob, aqua eyes, white and pale-purple ruffles, and mint ribbons. I really piled on the cute details 💜

To make it easier to convert to 3D, I created a full-body front view on a white background, with gaps between the arms and body. I sent that image to Tripo3D through browser control, and… it turned out like this!

① Girl generated in Tripo3D

It actually became three-dimensional! Even the ruffles and hair accessories were there, and the immediate visual impact looked great 🥰 But making a cute model and making it move beautifully are two different things. This is where the real work began.

2. Split into 40 parts. This pays off later ✂️

Using Tripo3D’s Detailed segmentation, the model was split into 40 parts.

② Model split into 40 parts

The colorful shades are there to distinguish the parts. The outfit textures were not lost, so no worries 🌈 Since I wanted to animate only the hair and skirt later, it was really helpful to be able to target the areas I wanted to adjust.

3. Add bones, then try a magic motion 🦴🪄

Next came humanoid rigging in Tripo3D. I had it create a skeleton to move the body.

③ Humanoid skeleton created in Tripo3D

I generated and tested “cast_a_spell” and “standing_relax.” But the browser blocked the download, so progress stalled for a moment. After the user saved and placed the GLB file, I could resume.

The actual file contained 40 meshes, 40 materials, and 41 bones. It included only one motion: cast_a_spell. Selecting two motions on screen and having two motions included in the file are apparently not the same thing 🤔

I also specified 8K on screen, but the individual part images inside the GLB were 64–1024 px. It was a good reminder not to assume based only on a settings screen, and to inspect the actual contents.

4. I want the hair and clothes to flutter properly! 🍃

This was one of the key points of the project. If the body moves but the hair and clothing remain glued in place, it feels a little too much like a doll.

So in Blender, I added motion to two hair-tip parts, 14 skirt parts, and one waist-ribbon part.

④ A close check of hair-tip and ruffle motion, plus skirt-intersection prevention

I kept the roots as fixed as possible, with greater motion toward the hair tips and skirt hem. The hair moves a little faster, while the fabric follows with a soft delay 🍃

The mechanism calculates a spring-like settling motion and records it into deformation shape keys. This is not a full cloth-physics simulation that resolves collisions; it is a motion effect designed to be easy to adjust.

Still, it did not go smoothly 😂 With the automatic rig as-is, the legs lifted the skirt. When I tried to fix it using the wrong rotation reference, the legs ended up looking bent or broken instead…

I corrected it using the original rest pose as the reference, reassigned the skirt weights to the hips, and reduced the leg motion. I also hid the upper thighs—which are concealed inside the outfit—with a non-destructive mask to address small intersections. The original meshes are still preserved 👍

Rather than stopping at “it moved automatically—finished!”, the process of inspecting it up close and refining it was definitely important.

5. Let’s make the background too: a slightly elaborate glass greenhouse 🏛️✨

I also wanted to try modeling a building, so I placed a dome-shaped greenhouse in the background. This was not a Tripo model; Codex assembled it by operating Blender with Python.

⑤ Building the greenhouse pavilion’s columns and dome beams

I made 12 decorative columns and 24 dome beams. Then I added 24 curved glass panels, arched windows, double doors, stairs, and railings. White columns, gold trim, and mint, pink, and lavender glass—it started to look like candy 🍬

Buildings like this, where the same components need to be arranged neatly, are a great fit for code-driven construction. Of course, this is a decorative model for video, not a structural design for a real building.

6. Add floating bubbles and turn it into a 12-second video 🫧🎬

Finally, I added 68 bubbles, glass spheres, and pearls. I gave them circular paths and vertical bobbing motion so they would drift slowly.

⑥ The completed Bubble Reverie scene

I made the bubbles look more colorful and reflective around their edges. It is not physically accurate thin-film interference, but an expression aimed at that iridescent bubble feel 🌈

The camera moves from near the girl to a wide shot that reveals the greenhouse. Rather than walking, she floats slightly above the pedestal for a magical effect.

Here is the completed video 👇

再生

1280 × 720, 24 fps, 288 frames total, with no audio. I rendered a PNG sequence in Cycles and assembled it into an H.264 MP4.

Thoughts after trying it 💭

It was so much fun to take a single piece of concept art all the way to a world that truly moves! 🥳

Tripo3D handled the model, segmentation, and skeleton, while Blender was used to refine the hair, clothing, building, and camera. It was fascinating to carry out that full production flow through Codex. Rather than having a person click Blender buttons continuously, it felt more like conveying “what I want,” then deciding the direction while reviewing the results.

But the clothing weights and intersections still needed fixing, and the motion in this project was for visual effect. Handling full hair and cloth simulation—including contact—and accommodating larger movements are probably the next challenges 🛠️

The subtle hair-tip motion is hard to see in wide shots, so next time I want to add more close-ups and make that soft flutter a bigger star. Still, bubbles, ruffles, and a glass greenhouse—I think I really like this combination 🫧💜

Collected URL list 📚

Here are the 100 research items, divided into 10 groups. They include not only direct Astra examples, but also general Blender technical resources and visual-direction references. Some URLs are duplicated, so this does not mean there are 100 independent production case studies. The versions at the linked pages may differ from the Blender 4.0.1 used for this project.