Where FBX Fits in the Creation Pipeline

What Content Developers Can Do With FBX Technology

Content developers are people who work on 3D modeling and animation for films, television and games. Here are some of the ways in which content developers use FBX technology:

Sharing scene assets (interoperability)	Moving models and other scene assets from tool to tool, and from production house to production house. For example, Studio 1 creates a character in 3ds Max, then exports it to an FBX file. Studio 2 imports the FBX file into MotionBuilder, adds motion capture data to the character, then exports it to an FBX file. Studio 3 imports the second file into Maya, touches up the model’s skinning, then exports it to a third FBX file. Studio 4 imports the third file into its proprietary tool and so forth.
Storing scene assets	Storing scene assets in a durable file format. Each new release of FBX can read earlier versions of FBX files.
Processing animation	For example, applying a filter to animation curves.
Packaging models for sale	Vendors of 3D models use FBX as a file format.

What Designers Can Do With FBX Technology

Architects, designers, engineers, and design visualization specialists use products such as Autodesk Revit Architecture to design and visualize buildings and other objects.

These designers use FBX technology to save models, metadata, and other assets in a file format that can be used by the content developers who prepare the advertising and marketing collateral.

Applications that Support FBX Technology

The following Autodesk products use FBX technology to import and export files:

Product	Description
Autodesk 3ds Max	3D animation, modeling, and rendering solution. Includes plug-in to import and export FBX files.
Autodesk Maya	3D modeling, animation, and rendering solution. Includes plug-in to import and export FBX files.
Autodesk Maya LT	3D modeling and animation software. Imports and exports FBX files.
Autodesk MotionBuilder	Productivity suite for 3D character animation. Imports and exports FBX files.
Autodesk Mudbox	Digital sculpting and texture painting software for 3D modelers and texture artists. Imports and exports FBX files.
Autodesk Flame	Real-time visual effects design and compositing system. Imports and exports FBX files.
Autodesk Smoke	Integrated editing and finishing system for SD, HD, 2K film and above. Imports and exports FBX files.
AutoCAD Revit Architecture	Building information modeling (BIM) application. Exports FBX files.
AutoCAD	General CAD modeling package. Imports and exports FBX files.

Many third-party software products also use the FBX SDK to import and export files. For more information, see http://www.autodesk.com/fbx.