Exporting a 3D Character and Animation to a Game Engine

Program feature · updated Oct 12, 2026 · about 4 min read

A character and its animation are needed not on their own, but in a game, a clip or an app. Animatic saves the result in widely used formats that open in popular engines and 3D editors.

Which Format to Choose

• FBX — the standard for Unity and Unreal Engine. It saves the skeleton, weights, animation and materials. Suitable for most game projects.
• GLB — a compact format for Godot, web viewing and mobile apps. All the data is stored in a single file.

What Goes into the File

• The model's geometry.
• The skeleton and the bone hierarchy.
• The skinning weights, that is, the binding of vertices to bones.
• The animation, if one was created.
• Materials and textures.

Step-by-Step Export

1. Open the character or animation in the program and check the result in the viewer.
2. Press the export button and choose the FBX or GLB format.
3. Wait for the save to finish. The file will appear in the results/[name]/ folder of your project.
4. Import the file into the engine and check the animation in the editor.

Import into Unity and Unreal Engine

The FBX file imports directly: the skeleton and animation are recognized automatically. After importing, check the model's scale and material settings. If the character looks too big or too small, fix the scale during import rather than in the model itself.

Import into Godot

The GLB file opens in Godot without extra setup. The animation is attached to the node with the character, after which it can be triggered from code or from the scene tree.

If Something Doesn't Show Up

• The character doesn't move. Make sure skinning was done before export and that the weights are bound to the bones.
• Textures are gray or missing. Check that the textures sit next to the file or are embedded in it. When importing FBX, you may need to point to the texture folder.
• The model has the wrong orientation. Check the up-axis settings on import: they can differ between engines.
• The animation stutters. Return to the article on motion transfer and check the source animation in the viewer.

Tips

• Before exporting, inspect the model from all sides in the viewer.
• Keep the original project so you can re-export with different settings if needed.