FBX (''Filmbox'') is a proprietary file format () developed by Kaydara and owned by

Autodesk Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational software corporation that makes software products and services for the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media, education, and entertainment industries. Autodesk is headquartered ...

since 2006. It is used to provide interoperability between digital content creation applications. FBX is also part of

Autodesk Gameware Autodesk Gameware is a discontinued middleware software suite developed by Autodesk. The suite contained tools that enable designers to create game lighting, character animation, low level path finding, high-level AI and advanced user interfaces. O ...

, a series of

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

middleware Middleware is a type of computer software that provides services to software applications beyond those available from the operating system. It can be described as "software glue". Middleware makes it easier for software developers to implement co ...

History

FBX originated as a replacement

file format A file format is a standard way that information is encoded for storage in a computer file. It specifies how bits are used to encode information in a digital storage medium. File formats may be either proprietary or free. Some file formats ...

for Canadian company Kaydara's

Filmbox MotionBuilder is a 3D character animation software produced by Autodesk. It is used for virtual cinematography, motion capture, and traditional keyframe animation. It was originally named Filmbox when it was first created by Canadian company Kay ...

, a software for recording data from

motion capture Motion capture (sometimes referred as mo-cap or mocap, for short) is the process of recording the movement of objects or people. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, medical applications, and for validation of computer vision and robo ...

devices. Prior to 1996, Filmbox 1.0 used a file format called FLM. The format only supported motion data, user preferences and a list of devices used in the capturing of the motion data. This data was a serialized version of the libraries (binary dump), containing read/write memory data. This method of storing data did not work well with different versions of Filmbox. There was also demand from early adopters of Filmbox to implement a target character in a scene with the motion capture data, to enable the visualization of the data in a 3D view with display markers. In 1996, Kaydara released a new native file format with Filmbox 1.5 called FBX, which used an

object-based The term object-based language may be used in a technical sense to describe ''any'' programming language that uses the idea of encapsulating state and operations inside ''objects''. Object-based languages need not support inheritance or subtyping, b ...

model, allowing for the storing of motion, along with 2D, 3D, audio, and video data. The format saw wider support from other 3D software packages such as

Cinema 4D Cinema 4D is a 3D software suite developed by the German company Maxon. Overview As of R21, only one version of Cinema 4D is available. It replaces all previous variants, including BodyPaint 3D, and includes all features of the past 'Studio' ...

SoftImage 3D Softimage, 3D was a high-end 3D graphics application developed by Softimage, Co., which was used predominantly in the film, broadcasting, gaming, and advertising industries for the production of 3D animation. It was superseded by Softimage XSI i ...

PowerAnimator PowerAnimator and Animator, also referred to simply as "Alias", the precursor to what is now Maya and StudioTools, is a highly integrated industrial 3D modeling, animation, and visual effects suite. It had a relatively long track record, starting w ...

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3D Studio MAX Autodesk 3ds Max, formerly 3D Studio and 3D Studio Max, is a professional 3D computer graphics program for making 3D animations, models, games and images. It is developed and produced by Autodesk Media and Entertainment. It has modeling capabil ...

and

TurboCAD TurboCAD is a computer-aided design, CAD software application for 2d computer graphics, 2D and 3d computer graphics, 3D design and technical drawing, drafting which runs on MacOS and Microsoft Windows operating systems. Windows versions TurboCA ...

. Filmbox was renamed MotionBuilder in 2002 with the release of version 4.0. In 2003, Kaydara launched FBX for Apple's

QuickTime QuickTime is an extensible multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. Created in 1991, the latest Mac version, QuickTime X, is avai ...

Viewer.

Alias Alias may refer to: * Pseudonym * Pen name * Nickname Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Alias'' (2013 film), a 2013 Canadian documentary film * ''Alias'' (TV series), an American action thriller series 2001–2006 * ''Alias the ...

announced its intention to acquire Kaydara on August 8, 2004, reaching an agreement in September. A

Software Development Kit A software development kit (SDK) is a collection of software development tools in one installable package. They facilitate the creation of applications by having a compiler, debugger and sometimes a software framework. They are normally specific to ...

was developed in 2005 to standardize the object model and allow other software developers to provide plug-ins of their own. Alias was acquired by

on January 10, 2006. Later in 2006, support for properties was added to FBX.

Limitations

The FBX file format is proprietary; however, the format description is exposed in the FBX Extensions SDK which provides header files for the FBX readers and writers. There are two FBX SDK bindings for

C++ C++ (pronounced "C plus plus") is a high-level general-purpose programming language created by Danish computer scientist Bjarne Stroustrup as an extension of the C programming language, or "C with Classes". The language has expanded significan ...

and

Python Python may refer to: Snakes * Pythonidae, a family of nonvenomous snakes found in Africa, Asia, and Australia ** ''Python'' (genus), a genus of Pythonidae found in Africa and Asia * Python (mythology), a mythical serpent Computing * Python (pro ...

supplied by Autodesk.

Blender A blender (sometimes called a mixer or liquidiser in British English) is a kitchen appliance, kitchen and laboratory appliance used to mix, crush, purée or emulsion, emulsify food and other substances. A stationary blender consists of a blender ...

includes a Python import and export script for FBX, written without using the FBX SDK and

The OpenEnded Group The OpenEnded Group is a digital art collective comprising Marc Downie, Shelley Eshkar, and Paul Kaiser. They are known for their 3D visualizations, advances in dance technology (especially motion-capture), non-photorealistic rendering, and the us ...

's Field includes a

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

-based library for loading and extracting parts from a FBX file. The Godot game engine has a FBX importer without using the FBX SDK.

File format

The FBX can be represented on-disk as either binary or ASCII data; its SDK supports reading and writing both. While neither of the formats is documented, the ASCII format is a tree structured document with clearly named identifiers. For the FBX binary file format, the

Blender Foundation The Blender Foundation is a Dutch nonprofit organization (Stichting) responsible for the development of Blender, an open source 3D content-creation program. The foundation has distributed the animated films '' Elephants Dream'' (2006), ''Big Bu ...

published an unofficial specification, as well as a higher level unofficial spec (work in progress) for how actual data is laid out in FBX (independent of ASCII or binary format). List of FBX versions (and alternate names in brackets): * 6.x (FBX 2006, FBX 2009, FBX 2010) * 7.1 (FBX 2011) * 7.2 (FBX 2012) * 7.3 (FBX 2013) * 7.4 (FBX 2014) * 7.5 (FBX 2016.1.2)

References

External links

Autodesk FBX

Blender FBX description
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fbx 3D graphics file formats 3D graphics software

History

Limitations

File format

See also

References

External links