DCC bridges — overview
Five DCC (Digital Content Creation) bridges ship in Buril 1.0. Each bridge is a thin integration that lets the agent call out to a third-party DCC application — never bundling it, always calling its public API — and pull results back into Unity as prefabs, materials, animation clips, or other assets.
The five
| Bridge | DCC | License | Why use it |
|---|---|---|---|
| VRoid | VRoid Studio (free) | Pixiv VRoid T&Cs | VTuber pipeline — VRM avatar to VRChat-ready prefab in ~60 seconds |
| Cascadeur | Cascadeur (Indie+ tier req'd for AI keyframes) | Cascadeur EULA | AI keyframe animation — pose authoring with physics-aware interpolation |
| Marvelous Designer | Marvelous Designer (Personal/Enterprise) | MD EULA | Cloth simulation + the bake_to_skin VTuber feature |
| ZBrush | ZBrush 2026+ (paid) | Maxon EULA | Sculpting via the ZBrush 2026 Python API |
| Daz3D | Daz Studio 4.x (free) | Daz EULA + per-content licenses | Character export to Unity Humanoid |
All five are accessible the same way: open the chat panel, describe what you want, the agent picks the bridge and calls the relevant <bridge>_* tools.
How a bridge call works
You ──prompt──▶ Director agent
│
│ (picks specialist e.g. vroid-pipeline)
▼
vroid-pipeline specialist
│
│ (calls vroid_*, asset_*, prefab_* tools)
▼
Bridge dispatcher
│
│ (spawns/talks to DCC: TCP socket, Python MCP, HTTP, named pipe)
▼
DCC application (VRoid Studio, Cascadeur, Marvelous, ZBrush, Daz)
│
│ (does the work, returns output files)
▼
Buril ingests result as Unity assets
│
▼
Specialist returns artifact paths to director
│
▼
Director synthesizes reply to you
Two transport patterns are used across the five:
| Pattern | Used by | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Python MCP sidecar | ZBrush, Daz3D | The DCC has a Python scripting API; the MCP server runs as a separate Python process that bridge spawns and talks to over stdio/HTTP. |
| In-process TCP | VRoid, Cascadeur, Marvelous | The DCC runs a TCP listener (built-in or via a plugin we ship), bridge connects directly. Lower latency, single process to monitor. |
The user never sees the transport — both look identical from the chat panel.
When to use which
Common workflows mapped to bridges:
| What you want | Bridge | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Anime/VTuber avatar with humanoid rig | VRoid | Built for this, 60-second pipeline |
| Realistic photoreal character | Daz3D | Genesis 9 base + Humanoid retarget |
| Sculpted hero asset | ZBrush | Sub-d sculpting, retopo, bake to Unity mesh |
| Cloth-simulated outfit | Marvelous | Pattern → drape → bake to skin |
| Hand-authored animation with AI assist | Cascadeur | AutoPosing + physics interpolation |
For the AI clothing pipeline (no DCC needed), see AI clothing. For AI animation that doesn't require Cascadeur, see AI animation.
Combining bridges
The studio composes bridges. Example:
Make me a VTuber-ready character: VRoid base, Marvelous jacket on top, Cascadeur idle animation.
The director picks vroid-pipeline, then hands off to marvelous-tailor, then to cascadeur-animator. Each specialist owns one bridge. The intermediate artifacts (the rigged VRoid prefab) become inputs to the next stage.
Costs and dependencies
- VRoid Studio is free. The VRoid bridge has zero recurring cost.
- Cascadeur is paid (Indie tier currently $30/month). The AI keyframes feature requires Indie+ or higher.
- Marvelous Designer is paid (Personal license currently $50/month subscription, perpetual options available).
- ZBrush is paid (Maxon One subscription or perpetual). The Python API used by
buril-zbrush-mcprequires ZBrush 2026 or later. - Daz Studio is free; content (genesis figures, morphs, clothing) is paid per asset under per-asset licenses.
Buril does not mark up DCC costs — you pay vendors directly, and Buril does not see your transaction.