An intuitive object-generation experience is provided by employing an autoencoder neural network to reduce the dimensionality of a procedural model. A set of sample objects are generated using the procedural model. In embodiments, the sample objects may be selected according to visual features such that the sample objects are uniformly distributed in visual appearance. Both procedural model parameters and visual features from the sample objects are used to train an autoencoder neural network, which maps a small number of new parameters to the larger number of procedural model parameters of the original procedural model. A user interface may be provided that allows users to generate new objects by adjusting the new parameters of the trained autoencoder neural network, which outputs procedural model parameters. The output procedural model parameters may be provided to the procedural model to generate the new objects.