Format Guide
The game and VFX industry's standard for animated 3D assets — mesh, skeleton, and animation in one file.
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| Extension | .fbx |
|---|---|
| Full name | Filmbox |
| Developer | Autodesk (acquired from Kaydara) |
| Geometry type | Polygon mesh |
| Open standard | No — proprietary Autodesk format |
| Supports animations | Yes — skeletal, morph target, blend shapes |
| Supports materials | Yes — Phong, Lambert, PBR |
| Supports assemblies | Yes — scene hierarchy, instancing |
FBX (Filmbox) was originally developed by Kaydara and acquired by Autodesk in 2006. It is a proprietary binary format (ASCII variant also exists) that stores mesh geometry, materials, textures, skeleton rigs, blend shapes, animation curves, and scene hierarchy. FBX is the dominant interchange format in game development and visual effects because it is the only widely supported format that preserves animation rigs, morph targets, and complex scene graphs during transfer between tools. Unity and Unreal Engine both use FBX as their primary import format for animated assets.
FBX is the primary format for importing animated characters, vehicles, and rigged assets into Unity and Unreal Engine. It carries the full rig, blend shapes, and multiple animation clips.
FBX is the standard interchange format between Maya, Houdini, Cinema 4D, and compositing pipelines. Animation curves and scene hierarchy transfer cleanly between tools.
Architectural scenes with linked objects, instancing, and camera animations are exchanged between Revit, SketchUp, 3ds Max, and Lumion in FBX format.
Maya, 3ds Max, Cinema 4D, Blender, Unity, Unreal Engine, MotionBuilder, Houdini, Revit, SketchUp, and most major 3D tools via Autodesk's FBX SDK.
Commonly converted from STEP or OBJ for game pipeline import, to glTF/GLB for web and AR, or to OBJ for renderers that do not support FBX.