Model

For technical information regarding models, see Tutorials/Models.

Models are three-dimensional shapes used in Minecraft which are used to display objects encountered in the game.

In Java Edition, the models pertaining to the vast majority of blocks and items can be configured, as well as those of a small selection of entities.

Uses of models

Non-hardcoded models are used in-game in the following contexts:

Use case	Uses	Image	Respects shade=false?
Blocks
Placed blocks	All blocks excluding those listed here		Yes
Falling blocks	All blocks excluding those listed here		Yes
Piston-moved blocks	All blocks excluding those listed here		Yes
Lit TNT	TNT		No
Items
Items in the inventory	All items excluding air		No
Items in the player's hand (first person)	All items excluding air		No
Items in the player's hand (third person) Items held by other players Items held by mobs	All items excluding air		No
Items on the ground	All items excluding air		No
Items in item frames	All items excluding air		No
Totem of undying animation	Totem of undying		No

Objects which cannot be remodelled

While most blocks and items can have their model changed, there are a multitude of things that cannot.

For example, no entities (with the exception of item frames and glow item frames) can have their model changed in Java Edition with resource packs alone.

Blocks and fluids

Block	Reason
Air Cave Air Void Air Barrier Light Structure Void	The block is hardcoded to be invisible. Despite having empty physical model data, defining such a model will not change it.
Beds Shulker Boxes Signs Wall Signs Hanging Sign Wall Hanging Sign Heads Wall Heads Chest Trapped Chest Ender Chest Conduit	The block renders as an entity would. As of 1.20.1, all entity models besides item frames and glow item frames remain hardcoded.
Banners Wall Banners	In addition to using an entity model, these blocks use a layering system to define textures.
Moving Piston	This is a highly technical block which is only used in specific circumstances, with its own special rendering method.
End Gateway End Portal	These blocks utilize a "starfield" effect which is incompatible with the functionality of models.
Bubble Column Lava Water	Fluid rendering is hardcoded and their handling differs significantly from blocks.

Even these blocks (with the exception of the three air variants) have particle textures defined in dedicated model files, however it still stands that actual visual models cannot be changed.

Sub-elements of blocks, such as passively emitted particles and the book on top of the enchanting table, cannot be modified, even though the base block can.

History

Java Edition pre-Classic
?					Blocks exist, however their models are completely hardcoded, and as such cannot be configured outside of modding.
Java Edition
1.8		14w06a			Added custom block models.
		14w07a			The model format has now been rewritten. Instead of having just "planes", it now has "planes" and "cubes".
					The rotation of objects are now limited to one directional rotation per object in increments of 22.5 degrees.
		14w11a			Lighting on solid block no longer makes inner sections completely black.
		14w11b			Generic blocks now load models instead of pre-defined shapes.
		April 12, 2014			TheMogMiner posts about upcoming changes to the model format.
		14w17a			Converted most of the remaining static blocks to the model format.
					Added "rotateVariantTextures" to preserve uv details through rotation.
		14w25a			The directional attribute from the uv definition has now been removed and replaced it with explicit texture references. "textureFacing" has been replaced with "texture" parameter, which is now prepended with the hash symbol (#).
					"useAmbientOcclusion" has now been renamed to "ambientocclusion".
					"rotateVariantTextures" has now been renamed to "UV lock".
					"cull" has now been renamed to "cullface", specifies the opposite of which neighboring face causes culling to occur.
					Rotation has now been made more verbose, it is now more clear that it can occur only on a single axis. Example, the rotation for one of the two faces of the "cross" model is now: "rotation": { "origin": [ 8, 8, 8 ], "axis": "y", "angle": 45, "rescale": true },.
					The folder models/blocks/meshes has now been removed and model files are now stored in models/block.
					The folder blockstates has now been added and stores the model selection files previously found in models/block.
					The model format now supports custom item models.
		14w27a			Block state names have now been replaced with data that better reflects the internal data. This does not yet reflect all data for some blocks and switches to using the actual stored data in a future version when numerical data values are completely dropped in favor of block states.
		14w27b			The block state files now support an array of models allowing for random models.
		14w30a			Added the item model "builtin/entity".
1.8.2		pre5			The tag "translation" is now limited to the range of -24 to 24.
					The tag "scale" is now limited to 4 or less.
1.9		15w31a			UV is now optional, and if not supplied it automatically generates based on the element's position.
					Added different models/textures for different damage values, item states, and whether the player is left handed. This works on compasses, clocks, and anything that can have a durability bar. It also contains additional tags for bows and fishing rods.
					Models can now be put together based on block state attributes, such as fences. As a result, the vanilla set of block models was reduced by almost 300 models.
					Block model JSON is now strict, comments and quoteless identifiers are now not allowed.
					"display" tag defaults have now been changed, and the "thirdperson" and "firstperson" tags have now been replaced with "thirdperson_righthand", "thirdperson_lefthand", "firstperson_righthand", and "firstperson_lefthand".
					"parent" and "elements" tags can now coexist, though the top level elements tag overwrites all former ones.
					The option to disable alternate block models has now been removed.
					Multipart tag functionality added.
1.14		18w43a			Added the item model property "custom_model_data".
1.15.2		Pre-Release 1			The gui_light parameter for item models has been added.