XF Studio
Source

Customisation studio for Cyberpunk 2077

Customise your game, starting with your own V.

XF Studio is a local studio for customising Cyberpunk 2077. It begins with your own V and is intended to grow into other areas of the game. Its first working feature is eye makeup: complete layered looks designed on V’s deforming head and compiled into mod files for one in-game selector.

Alpha pre-release

XF Studio 0.1.0 alpha 2 is an unsigned alpha pre-release for testing on 64-bit Windows. It has no automatic updates. The XF Eye Artistry mod it builds has been seen in game, but close-up rendering and finish looks are still being tuned. Keep backups of anything you make. How to get it

See what works today View the source

Eye makeup at a glance

7
finish families in the 3D view
32
layers per preset
105
facial morphs deforming the head in the 3D view
1
selector per built collection, plus Off
Illustration of a layered eye-makeup preset An abstract eye with three makeup layers: a soft satin lid wash, a matte crease shade and a sharp metallic wing liner. The liner is selected, showing Bézier anchor points and tangent handles. A warp field control sits above the crease. Illustration · not a render
  1. Wing liner (selected)Metallic
  2. Crease shadeMatte
  3. Lid washSatin
Eye makeup, the first feature. Layers render bottom to top and are listed top first, as in the Studio; the selected layer shows its Bézier anchors and tangent handles.

01The studio

Built to grow, one area at a time

XF Studio is meant to become one place for customising many parts of Cyberpunk 2077. It starts with the character you already play: the 3D view reads your V’s facial shape from your own save. Eye makeup is the first area that works. Each further area is discussed before any building starts, and none has a date.

  1. Now

    Eye makeup

    Complete layered looks designed on your V’s head, kept in a local library and built into your own copy of XF Eye Artistry, a mod with one in-game selector.

    Works locally
  2. Later

    More of your V

    Piercings, eyebrows, cheek makeup, hair, expressions, tattoos and other character-creator choices are under consideration.

    Discussion first
  3. Longer term

    Beyond V

    Other areas of the game. Quest design is one possibility the broader XF Studio name leaves room for.

    Discussion first

The 3D view shows your own V: skin, face details, eyes, brows, lashes, hair and piercings, read from your installed game and mods. Designing piercings, brows and hair is still to come. Directions has the detail.

02Eye makeup: how it works

From a blank layer to one in-game choice

You design complete eye-makeup looks in the Studio and build them into XF Eye Artistry, your own copy of an eye-makeup mod. The game only needs to offer one selector that switches between them, instead of separate menus for every colour, design and finish.

  1. 01 · Author

    Compose a preset

    Stack ordered layers. Draw each with Bézier curves, then set colour, finish, pigment strength and edge softness, working on the 3D head or the flat UV map.

    Works locally
  2. 02 · Keep

    Save to your library

    Collections live in a local SQLite library with immutable revisions, conflict protection and recovery. Portable recipe and collection files cover sharing and backup.

    Works locally
  3. 03 · Check and build

    Make private mod files

    Check lists exactly which layers or presets a package would omit. Build makes your XF Eye Artistry mod files: it compiles a package-only copy, runs an independent verifier and leaves your collection untouched.

    Verified offline
  4. 04 · Choose

    Pick a look in the game

    One character-creator selector, labelled XF, switches between your complete presets, plus Off. The mod has been seen in the character creator, in gameplay and in photo mode; close-up rendering and finish looks are still being tuned.

    Seen in game, being tuned

03Eye makeup today

What works today

Every eye-makeup capability here is implemented and exercised in the Studio. The 3D view approximates the game’s renderer rather than reproducing it.

  • Presets and layers

    Named presets with ordered layer stacks, up to 32 layers each. Add, copy, rename, reorder and remove both, with per-preset Undo and recoverable removal. Identities survive renames and reordering.

  • Precise shapes

    Bézier paths with smooth, symmetric and corner points, and mirror symmetry. Move, rotate and scale whole shapes, and bend them with up to eight smoothly blended warp fields per layer.

  • Pigment and edges

    Pigment strength can vary from point to point with smooth gradients. Edge softness is set for the whole outline or per point, and stays separate from pigment.

  • Edit on the face or the map

    Drag points, handles, warp fields and whole shapes directly on the 3D head, or in a zoomable, pannable UV map. Each gesture is one Undo step, and Escape cancels it.

  • Your V in the 3D view

    V’s head and an expanded eye plate cut from it, skinned and deformed by all 105 facial morphs, with your V’s own skin, face details, eyes, brows, lashes, hair and piercings from your installed game and mods (vanilla, CCXL and piercing frameworks alike). Load your save, try any piercing style your game offers, play the character-creator idle, adjust field of view and choose 512 to 4K preview textures.

    Your files, not ours: the 3D view is built from your own game files on your PC. None are distributed, and materials are browser approximations.

  • Honest mod export

    Check and Build share one filtered snapshot. Layers whose finish has no export adapter, and presets left empty, are named rather than silently packaged. Files are promoted only after an independent verifier passes.

    Every manifest says so: built packages are recorded as not installed and not game-tested.

Seven finish families

Each layer has one finish. All seven preview in the Studio. Matte, Satin and Metallic become mod files through a provisional adapter. Shimmer, Glossy and Colour-shifting have an experimental export built from the game's own decal materials. The mod has been seen in game, but how each finish looks there is still being tuned.

  • Matte

    Soft colour with little shine.

    Can be built

  • Satin

    A smooth, gentle sheen without individual sparkles.

    Can be built

  • Metallic

    A continuous metallic sheen without separate flakes (also called foil).

    Can be built

  • Shimmer

    Fine reflective texture over colour (also called pearl).

    Experimental

  • Glitter

    Distinct reflective flakes, with five preview models under study.

    Preview only

  • Glossy

    A smooth, wet-looking shine over colour (also called wet look).

    Experimental

  • Colour-shifting

    Duochrome and multichrome colour that changes with viewing angle.

    Experimental

Swatches are CSS illustrations of each intended look, not Studio renders or game captures. “Can be built” means Check and Build can package the layer; “Experimental” layers are packaged too, from the game's own materials, but their in-game look is the least certain; “Preview only” layers are omitted from packages, and Check says so. These are the same words the Studio's finish picker uses.

04Status

Where the project stands

Reviewed . The detailed, evidence-linked record is in the repository’s status document.

Established

  • A working local prototype for editable layered eye-makeup presets, the local library and portable files.
  • An offline package pipeline that filters, compiles and independently verifies private mod candidates.
  • A head and eye plate for the 3D view, matched to the game’s geometry, keeping native skin weights and every facial morph.
  • Matte, Satin and Metallic layers can be packaged through a provisional material adapter.
  • XF Eye Artistry seen in game: its selector, labelled XF, shows in the character creator, and its looks show in gameplay and photo mode.

Still to prove

  • The in-game look: close-up rendering and how each finish looks in game are still being tuned.
  • Eye-plate clearance under facial animation: the latest candidate corrections failed dense animation checks, so the plate is unchanged.
  • Game materials for Glossy, Shimmer, Colour-shifting and Glitter: the first three build as experiments from the game's own decal materials, and their in-game looks are still being tuned; Glitter has no game material yet.
  • Preview fidelity: skin and eye shading in the browser remain approximations of the game renderer.
Game target
Cyberpunk 2077 2.31
Framework target
ArchiveXL 1.27.3

05Download

Try the alpha

XF Studio 0.1.0 alpha 2 is an unsigned alpha pre-release for testing on 64-bit Windows. It has no automatic updates. The XF Eye Artistry mod it builds has been seen in game, but close-up rendering and finish looks are still being tuned. Keep backups of anything you make.

Get XF Studio 0.1.0 alpha 2 on GitHub All versions
  1. 01 · Download

    Get the setup program

    On the release page, download XFStudio-0.1.0-alpha.2-win-x64-setup.exe, a single setup program with nothing to extract, and the SHA256SUMS.txt beside it.

  2. 02 · Check

    Confirm the file

    In PowerShell, run (Get-FileHash .\XFStudio-0.1.0-alpha.2-win-x64-setup.exe -Algorithm SHA256).Hash.ToLower() and compare the result with SHA256SUMS.txt. With the GitHub CLI you can also run gh attestation verify XFStudio-0.1.0-alpha.2-win-x64-setup.exe --repo axefrog/xf-studio.

  3. 03 · Install

    Get past SmartScreen

    Run the setup program and choose Install; it installs for your Windows user only, without administrator rights, and adds a Start menu entry and an uninstaller. Because it is not code-signed yet, Windows may show Windows protected your PC: only if the checksum matched, choose More info, then Run anyway. If Smart App Control is on, Windows blocks unsigned apps and has no per-app override.

  4. 04 · First run

    Start designing

    Choose Start designing to go straight to the flat UV editor, your library and export Check; nothing from the game is included. The first time you open it, XF Studio builds the 3D head preview from your own Cyberpunk 2077 files. It finds your game folder and asks before downloading WolvenKit (45 MB, from its official release); WolvenKit needs Microsoft's free .NET 10 Runtime, and XF Studio links to Microsoft's installer if it's missing. Building the mod files uses the same two things.

Running it from source

Developers can run the Studio from the repository with Bun. Like the app, it builds the 3D view from their own copy of the game the first time it runs, and nothing from the game is included. The authoring guide describes the setup and its limits.

06Directions

Where the studio could go

Eye makeup comes first. Everything beyond it is a direction rather than a commitment: each area is discussed before any building starts, and none has a date.

Next for eye makeup

Active work, in no guaranteed order.

  1. Tune the look in the game

    Close-up rendering and each finish’s in-game look, compared in prepared test sessions.

  2. Eye-plate clearance

    A correction that stays clear of the skin through the full facial animation, not just sampled poses.

  3. More finishes that can be built

    Game material adapters for the finishes that are preview only, but only where the game can represent them faithfully.

  4. A redesigned workspace

    Dockable, floating and tabbed panels, with light and dark themes that follow the system by default.

  5. Library tools

    Visible revision history and restore, backups, thumbnails and search.

More of your V

Later areas under consideration, roughly in the order they may be explored. The 3D view already shows your V’s own brows, lashes, hair and piercings; these would add tools to design them.

  • Piercings and earrings

    Designing jewellery that follows facial deformation. Your V’s own piercings already show in the 3D view; early design research exists, and there is no editor.

    Discussion first

  • Eyebrows

    Brow shape and colour authoring.

    Discussion first

  • Cheek makeup

    Extending layered makeup beyond the eyes.

    Discussion first

  • Hair

    Hair colour and style authoring.

    Discussion first

  • Expressions and idles

    Static and animated facial expressions, and varied idle animations.

    Discussion first

  • Tattoos

    Full-body designs, with a full-body 3D view at that stage.

    Discussion first

Wider customisation

Longer-term directions behind the broader XF Studio name.

  • Character-creator choices

    Editing the options your installed game and mods add to the character creator. Read-only research is under way.

    Discussion first

  • Other areas of the game

    Customisation beyond your character. Quest design is one possibility. Where the studio is going has the direction.

    Discussion first

07Principles

How the project works

  • Honest status

    Previewed, packaged, verified and game-tested are different claims. The Studio, its package manifests and this site keep them apart.

  • Your work stays local

    Drafts, the library and imported saves stay on your machine. There is no account or cloud service; saves are read, never modified.

  • No game assets shared

    This site hosts no game files, and the repository keeps extracted game and mod assets, saves and personal libraries out of version control. The 3D view uses resources from your own installation.

  • Credit where it is due

    Techniques learned from other modders and tools are recorded as they inform the work, with the distinction between learning and reuse kept explicit.

08Community and documentation

Built on what the community has learned

XF Studio stands on ArchiveXL, WolvenKit, the Cyberpunk 2077 Modding Wiki and the resource work of many mod authors. The credits page summarises who taught us what, from the community credits kept in the repository.

Read the credits