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Introducing ASBlender

As all 3D modelers probably know: exporting models from 3D applications and use them in Flash (Papervision3D etc.) can be frustrating. Stuff like animations, matrices, etc. sometimes don’t work as expected. So I thought: why not read the native file format of a 3D app instead? That way we get access to the native data as used by a 3D app. Not some ‘twisted’ data as presented by exporters.

Don’t get me wrong: most exporters of course do their job very well, but… exporters ‘interpret’. In other words: exporters think in my place. Often exporter are ‘right’, but sometimes they go wrong (or present data in some awkward form). Then it would be cool to have control over the data yourself.

The workflow becomes very simple. We don’t have to export anymore, Flash could simply read the 3D app’s latest saved file. We can interpret the 3D app’s data as we wish. I like that ;-) . On the bad side: native files contains lots of data we probably don’t need, like the 3D app’s viewport size etc. Then again: how cool is that?

Enter ASBlender, a library I slapped together in a few days to read Blender’s .blend file format and parse it to AS3. Blender is a very cool (open source, free!) 3D application which can compete with MAX, Maya, Cinema4D etc. The Blender UI is kind of weird when you first see it, but after a – admittedly – steep learning curve, it rocks.

Blender 2.5 - Eclipse - FDT

More info, code and a wiki is available at github.

The code is very basic and can be improved for sure, so comments, criticism and suggestions are more then welcome.

Have fun!

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This entry was posted on Monday, January 25th, 2010 at 3:40 am and is filed under CAD, Development, Flash+ActionScript, Papervision3D. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

5 Responses to “Introducing ASBlender”

  1. Sebastian Sanabria Diaz Says:
    January 25th, 2010 at 5:54 am

    This sounds very interesting, I will use this on next days to watch all the capabilities of this software.

  2. Juwal Bose Says:
    January 25th, 2010 at 7:45 am

    Amazing work there. With Blender’s new Durian release, its going to be a software to challenge all the other giants out there. Native import to AS3 can work wonders for Flash 3D space and acceptance for Blender :) Expecting more from you…thanks a lot.

  3. Weekly Shared Items – 26. January, 2010 | TOXIN LABS - weblog of a german design student from wuerzburg Says:
    January 26th, 2010 at 8:01 am

    [...] Introducing ASBlender [...]

  4. *drawlogic » ASBlender – Library to Used Blender Files Directly in Flash - interactive and game development technologies for the web - flash, flex, unity3d, silverlight, javascript [ draw.logic ] » ASBlender – Library to Used Blend Says:
    January 27th, 2010 at 11:30 pm

    [...] Blog post about it by Tim [...]

  5. Christian Lehmann Says:
    February 19th, 2010 at 10:40 am

    Maybe you could help me. I would like to use the Blender camera directly in papervision. I’ve tried quite a few times but I just don’t get the right combination of values (focus, zoom, x,y,z) to make it match the original scene. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
    Best regards, Christian Lehmann

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