FBX to OBJ converter
Drop your .fbx file — we convert it to .obj right in your browser. Files never leave your computer.
Why convert FBX to OBJ?
Handing a game asset to a render artist who prefers OBJ (KeyShot, older Blender pipelines, some Houdini workflows). OBJ is simpler, text-based, and universally supported — a safe fallback when FBX compatibility varies.
Who runs this conversion
Game artists exporting props for rendering in KeyShot, Blender users on older versions with flaky FBX support, Mixamo users moving a mesh to Blender sculpting.
Things that commonly go wrong
- Animation rigs do not convert — OBJ is static. Only the current pose is captured.
- FBX secondary UV sets often drop during conversion; verify all UVs transferred in the target tool.
- Material textures need manual re-linking in the target DCC because we only emit geometry.
Technical note for this tool
FBXLoader → first-frame pose snapshot → OBJExporter. No .mtl is written — materials are re-authored downstream.
FBX vs OBJ— what's the difference?
Autodesk's proprietary interchange format — the de-facto standard for moving rigged, animated characters between Maya, Max, Blender, Unity, and Unreal.
- Carries skeletal animation, blend shapes, cameras, lights
- Supported by every major DCC and game engine
- Binary or ASCII flavours
- Closed, Autodesk-controlled spec — SDK-only for authoritative reads
- No universal web viewer — typically converted to GLB for the browser
Human-readable Wavefront mesh format — ubiquitous in 3D graphics, game art, and asset pipelines. Pairs with a .mtl material file.
- Supported by virtually every 3D tool (Blender, Maya, 3ds Max, Unity, Unreal…)
- Plain-text, easy to diff and hand-edit
- Keeps UV coordinates and vertex normals, unlike STL
- Material references via companion .mtl file
- Text format — larger on disk than binary meshes
- No scene hierarchy, no animation, no skeletons
- Materials live in a separate file; easy to lose
Deeper context on the formats
FBX — where it came from
Originally developed by Kaydara in 1996 for their Filmbox motion-capture software. Alias bought them, Autodesk bought Alias, and FBX became the default handoff between Maya, Max, MotionBuilder, and every game engine built in the last two decades. The spec is technically closed, but the FBX SDK is freely downloadable and maintained.
- FBX version mismatches are the #1 support ticket — a Unity project expecting FBX 2020 may refuse FBX 2013 binary. When in doubt, re-export as FBX 2020 ASCII.
- Embedded textures (vs referenced) balloon file size; uncheck "Embed media" unless you are shipping a self-contained asset pack.
- Scale inheritance settings differ between Maya and Max — rig scales can distort on re-import. Bake scale to 1.0 before export.
Real-world use: Character animation pipelines (Mixamo, Rokoko, Adobe Character Animator outputs), game-engine import (Unity, Unreal, Godot all accept FBX natively), VFX houses moving assets between Maya and Houdini. If the asset has a skeleton, the probability it travels as FBX is roughly 80%.
OBJ — where it came from
Created by Wavefront Technologies in the late 1980s for their Advanced Visualizer software. When Wavefront was absorbed into Alias (then Autodesk), the format stayed public and became the lingua franca for academic 3D research, hobbyist modeling, and early game art. Its ASCII simplicity is why every graphics textbook still ships an OBJ example file.
- The .mtl material file must travel with the .obj — ship them as a zip or the textures will vanish on the other side.
- Negative indices and per-face normals exist in the spec but many importers silently misread them. Re-export from a round-trip through Blender if a downstream tool complains.
- Triangulate before export if the target is a game engine — Unity and Unreal OBJ importers choke on n-gons.
Real-world use: Computer-graphics research papers still use OBJ as the reference format for meshes. Hobbyist marketplaces (TurboSquid, CGTrader free tiers) distribute OBJ + MTL packs. Photogrammetry pipelines (Meshroom, RealityCapture) output OBJ as the portable intermediate. It is still the safest format to hand to a stranger who just said "I need a 3D model."
How to convert FBX to OBJ
- 1Drop a .fbx file on the page. Both binary and ASCII FBX variants work.
- 2Preview the geometry in 3D. The Scene Tree shows the full hierarchy from the FBX.
- 3Click Download .OBJ. Open in Blender, Maya, 3ds Max, Unity or Unreal.
FAQ
What does OBJ keep from the FBX?
Vertices, faces, UVs, vertex normals, and a flat list of named object groups. No animation, no rig, no blend shapes, no scene hierarchy beyond group names.
Is there a .mtl material file?
We emit just the geometry .obj. FBX materials don't map cleanly to OBJ's limited .mtl format, so we leave materials to your target DCC. Most workflows reassign materials on import anyway.
Is animation preserved?
No. OBJ is a static mesh format. Only the bind pose (or whatever pose the FBX is currently at) is exported.
Why is the OBJ larger than the FBX?
OBJ is plain text; FBX is binary. Expect 2–5× the size. The trade-off is universal compatibility — every 3D tool ever made reads OBJ.
Is my file uploaded?
No. Three.js' FBXLoader and OBJExporter run entirely in your browser.