FBX to GLB converter
Drop your .fbx file — we convert it to .glb right in your browser. Files never leave your computer.
Why convert FBX to GLB?
FBX is the animation / rigging lingua franca inside Unity and Unreal pipelines, but it is not web-safe — no browser loads it natively. Converting to GLB makes an asset embeddable anywhere, without dragging in Autodesk's FBX SDK or a pay-walled converter.
Who runs this conversion
Unity / Unreal devs publishing a scene or prop to a browser, indie game artists sharing rigged assets online, and anyone handed an FBX by a collaborator who needs to preview without installing Maya or 3ds Max.
Things that commonly go wrong
- Animation tracks survive if present, but blend shapes drop on some FBX versions — test playback after conversion.
- Binary FBX 7.3 / 7.4 / 7.5 all parse; older ASCII FBX may not. Re-export from your DCC to a recent binary version first.
- Coordinate handedness mismatch between FBX and glTF can flip an axis. We normalise to glTF Y-up right-handed, but cameras may need re-targeting.
Technical note for this tool
Three.js FBXLoader produces a Group with animations, then GLTFExporter writes it to binary .glb. Animations survive when present; skinned meshes retain joint hierarchy.
FBX vs GLB— 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
Binary glTF — the JPEG of 3D. Self-contained, small, and loads natively on the web, in AR, and in every modern 3D engine.
- Everything (geometry, textures, materials, animations) packed into one file
- Tiny and fast — designed for streaming and web delivery
- Native support in Blender, Unity, Unreal, three.js, <model-viewer>, Android ARCore…
- PBR materials (metallic-roughness) render consistently everywhere
- Binary — not hand-editable
- Less common in traditional CAD pipelines
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%.
GLB — where it came from
glTF 2.0 was ratified by the Khronos Group in 2017 and quickly became the W3C-recommended format for web 3D. GLB is the "one-file-to-rule-them-all" binary packaging — geometry, textures, animations, and the scene graph all in a single .glb. Adoption was explosive because <model-viewer>, Android Scene Viewer, and every modern game engine landed support almost simultaneously.
- The PBR material model assumes linear-space textures — DCC tools that export gamma-baked colour maps will look washed-out in web viewers.
- Draco mesh compression bloats load time if the decoder is not preloaded; turn it off unless you actually need the bandwidth savings.
- Y-up vs Z-up: glTF is strictly right-handed Y-up. Blender, 3ds Max, and most CAD exports need an axis flip on import or the model lies on its side.
Real-world use: E-commerce product pages (IKEA, Amazon, Shopify 3D), Android AR Quick View, <model-viewer>-powered docs, NFT marketplaces, and real-time configurators. If a 3D asset has to render in a browser tab without plugins, the answer is GLB.
How to convert FBX to GLB
- 1Drop a .fbx file onto the page. Binary or ASCII FBX both work. Everything runs locally.
- 2Preview the model in 3D. Use the Scene Tree to walk the hierarchy and hide parts you don't want to export.
- 3Click Download .GLB. Load the result into three.js, <model-viewer>, Unity, Unreal, or Android ARCore.
FAQ
Why convert FBX to GLB?
FBX is great for DCC handoff, but no browser speaks it. GLB is the web-native 3D format — tiny, self-contained, render-anywhere. If you're publishing a model online, GLB is almost always what you want.
Is my FBX uploaded?
No. The file is parsed by Three.js' FBXLoader in your browser, then re-exported as GLB by GLTFExporter. Your asset never leaves the machine.
Does animation carry over?
Skeletal animations and blend shapes are preserved by GLTFExporter when present. Complex rig constraints (IK, HIK, Maya-specific nodes) may not translate cleanly — test in your target engine.
What happens to materials and textures?
Standard FBX materials (diffuse / normal / specular) are mapped to glTF's PBR metallic-roughness workflow. Embedded textures are packed into the GLB; external textures are referenced and may need to be shipped alongside.
Can I preview the GLB in AR?
For Android ARCore, drop the GLB into Scene Viewer. For iOS AR Quick Look you need USDZ specifically — the 3D viewer on this site can export USDZ directly from the loaded FBX.