FBX (3D)
Also known as: .fbx file, Filmbox, how to open FBX
FBX is a rich 3D interchange format owned by Autodesk that can carry geometry, materials, textures, rigs, and animation in a single file. It is the common pipeline format for games and film, and files tend to be large because they bundle so much.
- Carries geometry, materials, rigs, and animation
- Standard game/film pipeline format (Autodesk-owned)
- Larger than OBJ because it bundles a full scene
What an FBX file stores
Unlike a plain mesh format, FBX (originally Filmbox) is built to move a whole scene between tools: meshes, normals and UVs, materials, cameras, lights, skeletons (rigs), skinning weights, and keyframed animation. That breadth is why a single FBX can be much larger than the equivalent OBJ.
It comes in binary and ASCII variants. The format is proprietary to Autodesk, so support depends on each app’s FBX importer rather than an open spec.
How to open and use FBX
FBX is widely supported in 3D content tools — Blender, Maya, 3ds Max, Cinema 4D — and in game engines like Unity and Unreal Engine, where it is a standard import. For a quick look, the Windows 3D Viewer opens FBX, and online viewers exist.
Use FBX when you need to move animation and rigs between programs. For shipping models to the web or a runtime, exporting to glTF/GLB usually produces a smaller, more open result.