View FBX Format
The FBX Format is an interchange format originally created by FilmBox, which eventually become Motion Builder, and was purchased by Autodesk, via their acquisition of Alias several years ago. Originally intended as a way to get motion data from FilmBox to other content creation applications, the format has now become a defacto interchange format among all 3D content creation applications. The interchange offered by FBX support is extensive, but far from perfect; many aspects of each vendor’s offerings are proprietary, and do not translate directly (if at all.)
FBX has shown to be good for:
- mesh data (models)
- animation data (baked; rigging information does not translate due to differences in spatial references and internal data structures)
- UV coordinates
- Some shading information
- joint placement
- light information
- camera information
It is always wise to run a series of tests with live data (but backed up for safety) in order to determine the efficacy of the format, and interapplication support for the elements you need to interchange. In most cases, special scripting support may be required to translate additonal information into your pipeline.