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Home ? How Do I ...? ? Question about Blender FBX export and Muvizu

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28/10/2016 00:13:24

ikayhan
ikayhan
Posts: 6 		Hi everyone,

I sincerely apologize if this question has been asked before.

Very simply, I have determined that I will be using Blender to create models for use with Muvizu in FBX format. While I have some experience modeling with Blender (I have created stuff before), I know next to nothing about materials and UV mapping/unwrapping. I never made it that far with Blender.

So here is a hypothetical situation. Let's say I have a cube object. I want one side to be black and all other sides to be a beige color OR perhaps show an image texture like stucco. Do I simply use materials in Blender OR should I UV unwrap the cube, bring it into Photoshop and then import the FBX and other UV files into Muvizu? This is what I am confused about. Does the FBX format support built-in materials, colors, etc or should I create a UV map? Has someone created a good workflow procedure when it comes to working with Blender and Muvizu?

Ultimately, I want to create objects that my characters with wear, hold, etc. Then all this collision stuff is confusing the heck out of me as well. Not sure if I need to worry about that.

Thanks guys. Great product. Great forum.

K
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28/10/2016 00:43:13

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738 		I don't use Blender, but the principle works the same (even though the step-by-step procedure is different for each modelling app)

Basically... both ways work. You can paint your surfaces directly in Blender, or UVMap it and paint the map, then re-apply it to the model...By far the simpler of the two approaches is to just paint the surfaces inside Blender.

There are advantages to UVMapping... chiefly because it lets you apply photos to the UVmaps, thereby getting lots of realism very easily. But if all you need is color (and in many cases that's all you do need) coloring the surfaces is the quickest, easiest way.
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28/10/2016 14:04:22

ziggy72Muvizu mogulExperimental user
ziggy72
Posts: 1988 		ikayhan wrote:
This is what I am confused about. Does the FBX format support built-in materials, colors, etc or should I create a UV map? Has someone created a good workflow procedure when it comes to working with Blender and Muvizu?

Ultimately, I want to create objects that my characters with wear, hold, etc. Then all this collision stuff is confusing the heck out of me as well. Not sure if I need to worry about that.


FBX uses built in materials, but in Muvizu you can see the texture slots so you can also replace them with with external images, so the answer is yes, both approaches work.

FBX by default out of of blender uses a preset that doesn't work with Muvizu - you have to turn everything but Mesh off, and set the Modifiers to Faces instead of Normals or everything goes faceted and ugly. I show this here at 9:26 :
(I did do the 'copy at time' thing but it doesn't seem to work)

If you attach an object to a character you don't need to bother with any collision volume. If you import an object as a standalone thing, then Muvizu will make a collision volume which is the size of the object. To change that, in blender create the shape you want for your collision and call it UCX_modelname - it has to be in capitals, it has to have the underscore, and the model name has to match your object's name. It only works for one object (so if it's a multi-part model you have to select the bits and use the Join button in blender to make just one object).

I use 3D Coat to paint and UV my models, so I can't help you there. There are lots of videos out there that show you how to do that kind of stuff in blender.
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28/10/2016 15:46:56

ikayhan
ikayhan
Posts: 6 		Hey Zig,

Thanks for the reply.

I created a UV map in Blender. My map works in Blender (in Object mode with Textures on, I see the map applied). I'm exporting to FBX using the exact settings you are using (eg. mesh only, no bones, smoothing set to face, etc) but when I import the object into Muvizu, it is just a grey box (none of my UV mapping has been applied). The UV map is the same name as the object, only with a PNG extension. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong here?

Thanks!!
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28/10/2016 18:04:47

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738 		assuming your textured UVmap is saved as a standalone file, it needs to be in the same directory as your FBX when you load the FBX into Muvizu. Otherwise, Muvizu doesn't know where to find the texture, so it doesn't apply one.
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28/10/2016 23:44:53

ziggy72Muvizu mogulExperimental user
ziggy72
Posts: 1988 		The FBX files that blender exports have the textures embedded, so I don't know what's going wrong for you ikayhan. I don't use blender for textures, so I can't really help (I just convert OBJ files that already have UV textures).
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25/01/2017 14:41:08

Unprofessional
Unprofessional
Posts: 2 		I had a similar problem. Here is what happened.


I got a nice model from Sketchup, imported it to Blender and then exported as FBX to Muzivu.

It kind of worked.

The object imported from Blender was fine. Except no textures. But when I looked closer I realized it's not entirely true. The model showed one of the embedded textures. Only one, all the others were ignored.



It seems Muvizu is happy with imports, but only one image file per object, sir. Only one.

So I learned how to use Blender. And it was pain in the potato neck, let me tell you. But after some terrible teeth grinding I was able to create a model which contained two materials, each with its own texture. However both textured in Blinder were pointing to the same image file.

It didn't help. Same messy results, only one texture visible. Even though it was the same image.

So I worked some more on the model.

Now it had one material, one texture and one image file. I exported it from Blender to FBX (remember: only the mesh and Y is always goes forward!). Now it worked!

So here is the bitter truth: Muvizu accepts only one material with texture per model.

This is not much of a problem when you're creating your own models from scratch (thanks to the miracle of UV maps and unwrapping). Problem is when you want to use in Muvizu an existing model with more than one textures applied. Unfortunately, lot's of Sketchup Warehouse models suffer from this condition.

I would gladly pay someone to rework some of those models to make them use one big unwrapped texture file instead of several small ones. Muvizu hates it and so do I.
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25/01/2017 17:22:22

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738 		I don't think that Muvizu allows only one texture per model. Your results must be tied to the way you are applying materials.

I think your solution lies in learning how to apply the texture correctly in Sketchup before exporting it.
http://muvizu.com/Wiki/wiki/99/import-objects-ase-objects-with-missing-textures-from-sketchup-file-when-im
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25/01/2017 19:30:55

ikesMuvizu mogul
ikes
Posts: 282 		Unprofessional wrote:
So here is the bitter truth: Muvizu accepts only one material with texture per model.


This is definitely not the truth. Muvizu can support multiple materials with textures per object. Most people here only use Blender as a FBX converter. The steps you have to do to setup textures in Blender are just too awkward, I don't like it.
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25/01/2017 19:36:20

RodrisilvaMuvizu mogulExperimental user
Rodrisilva
Posts: 113 		yes, Pat is right !
More than one layer is not an issue limitation we assign to Muvizu.
Blender is a wonderful tool that allows you to export any FBX model with more than one layer. It is possible to export difuse, normal and specular layers for a given material and do that with many materials.
You can find youtube videos explaining this.
I have done myself many models with more than one material and exported them sucessfully to Muvizu.
Don't give up and you will find the path to sucess.
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25/01/2017 19:49:14

RodrisilvaMuvizu mogulExperimental user
Rodrisilva
Posts: 113 		ikes wrote:
Unprofessional wrote:
... Blender are just too awkward, I don't like it.


Sorry Ikes to disagree!
Blender like most things in life need open mind. Late versions are more friendly than ever but I understand those moving from other apps. In some way they have to start again. Once it done it will be supprinsingly efective. All my muvizu works have models made or tuned with blender and I don't regret that. It's free anyway.
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25/01/2017 20:12:00

ikesMuvizu mogul
ikes
Posts: 282 		Rodrisilva wrote:
ikes wrote:
Unprofessional wrote:
... Blender are just too awkward, I don't like it.


Sorry Ikes to disagree!
Blender like most things in life need open mind. Late versions are more friendly than ever but I understand those moving from other apps. In some way they have to start again. Once it done it will be supprinsingly efective. All my muvizu works have models made or tuned with blender and I don't regret that. It's free anyway.


No problem Rod and good for you, I personally don't like Blender much. It's great that it's free, but I think there is just too much build in to it, so you get lost easily with the many buttons, checkboxes, shortcuts and functions. And if you don't use it often, you quickly forget the procedures. I get the impression that a lot of users here think the same.
edited by ikes on 25/01/2017
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26/01/2017 09:45:49

Unprofessional
Unprofessional
Posts: 2 		ikes wrote:
Unprofessional wrote:
So here is the bitter truth: Muvizu accepts only one material with texture per model.


This is definitely not the truth. Muvizu can support multiple materials with textures per object.



Could you provide an example object, Ikes? I wasn't able to export any object that has more then one textured material and would work with Muvizu. Maybe I'm doing something wrong or the problem is elsewhere. It would be a great help if I could get a working example to experiment and see where the problem is.
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26/01/2017 10:08:09

ikesMuvizu mogul
ikes
Posts: 282 		Unprofessional wrote:
ikes wrote:
Unprofessional wrote:
So here is the bitter truth: Muvizu accepts only one material with texture per model.


This is definitely not the truth. Muvizu can support multiple materials with textures per object.



Could you provide an example object, Ikes? I wasn't able to export any object that has more then one textured material and would work with Muvizu. Maybe I'm doing something wrong or the problem is elsewhere. It would be a great help if I could get a working example to experiment and see where the problem is.


Hi,

Maybe you can have a look at this simple cube with textures for every side. http://www.filedropper.com/cube_3
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