Exporting

Exporting your assets from Blender to your game engine can be an annoying process. You first have to select the object you want to export, go to the File menu, select Export, choose the file format, choose the folder and file name, and finally configure the export settings. This can be tedious, especially if you’re iterating on your assets and need to export them frequently.

To streamline this process, this add-on provides quick export operators that allow you to configure your desired export settings once on a per-object basis. After that, a button is presented in the Playable panel in the 3D viewport to quickly export the object with those configured settings.

Currently only armatures are supported by the quick export operator. We are actively adding support for more object types.

Configuring export settings

With an armature selected, you can configure its export settings in the Object panel under the Playable tab. Here you can set the Format and Filepath for the export. The file extension is automatically updated to match the selected format.

You can also toggle which child objects are included in the export using the child object list below the export button. This is useful if you have multiple meshes parented to your armature but only want to export specific ones.

Export formats

The add-on supports a variety of export formats, organized into three categories: 3D animation formats, 2D skeletal formats, and sprite sheet formats.

3D animation formats

These formats export your armature, meshes, and animations as 3D files ready for use in game engines.

  • glTF Binary (.glb) — The standard binary glTF format. A good general-purpose option for any engine that supports glTF.
  • Unreal FBX (.fbx) — FBX export optimized for Unreal Engine, with settings pre-configured for Unreal’s import pipeline.
  • Unity FBX (.fbx) — FBX export optimized for Unity, with settings pre-configured for Unity’s import pipeline.

For 3D formats, an additional Constant Frame Rate option is available under the “Animation Options” section. When enabled, animation frames are exported at a constant rate.

2D skeletal formats

These formats export your armature as a 2D skeleton with an accompanying sprite atlas. They are designed for 2D game engines that support skeletal animation. See the 2D Skeleton documentation for details on configuring 2D-specific settings.

  • Pachario 2D (.json) — Exports a JSON file containing the skeleton data (bones, meshes, animations, vertex skinning) alongside a separate PNG atlas image. See the format specification.
  • Pachario 2D (.pchr) — A packed binary format that embeds both the JSON skeleton data and the PNG atlas into a single file. See the format specification.
Planned: Spine Export

We plan to add Spine-compatible 2D skeleton export in a future release.

Sprite sheet formats

These formats render your animations frame-by-frame into a sprite sheet image. They’re useful for 2D games that use traditional frame-based animation rather than skeletal animation. See the 2D Skeleton documentation for details on configuring sprite sheet rendering settings.

  • Sprite Sheet (.png) — Renders all exportable animation frames into a single PNG sprite sheet grid. See the format specification.
  • Aseprite (.json) — Exports an Aseprite-compatible JSON metadata file alongside a PNG sprite sheet. The JSON includes frame positions, durations, and animation tags. See the format specification.
  • Sprite Sheet (.sprsh) — A packed binary format that embeds both the Aseprite-compatible JSON metadata and the PNG sprite sheet into a single file. See the format specification.

Armatures & animation exporting

When exporting an armature, the add-on automatically respects any export settings provided by our animation system. It handles the baking and loading of animations for you, making the process a one-click operation.

Only animations that are marked for export in their animation settings will be included. The add-on bakes all layers down into final actions and loads them into the NLA editor before performing the export.

Because the add-on needs to bake the animations, this can take some time depending on the complexity of the armature and the number of animations. If it looks like Blender has frozen, just give it some time to finish the baking and export process.