How to Fix Deformations When Exporting Animations from Blender to Other Engines

Fix Deformations When Exporting Animations from Blender

Does your character appear with legs spread apart or deformed when exporting? Discover how to adjust axes, transformations, and formats to keep the animation intact in other programs.

"Exporting correctly is like translating languages: a small error completely changes the meaning" — Expert technical artist in pipelines

1. Problem Diagnosis

Common Causes:

• Axis Orientation: Blender uses Z-up, other programs use Y-up
• Unapplied Transformations: Residual rotation/scale
• Different Rest Pose: Base skeleton misinterpreted
• Incompatible Format: Data loss on export

2. Professional Step-by-Step Solution

Preparation in Blender:

1. Select all (A)
2. Apply transformations (Ctrl+A → All Transforms)
3. Verify the rig's rest pose
4. Check for no negative scales

Correct Export (FBX):

3. Advanced Techniques

Animation Bake:

1. Go to the Animation panel
2. Select Bake Action
3. Check Visual Keying and Clear Constraints
4. Export with Baked Animation enabled

For DarkBASIC/Fragmotion:

• Try alternative formats:
  1. FBX 2010
  2. Collada (.dae)
  3. DirectX (.x) with plugins
• Use Noesis as an intermediate viewer

Clean Export Checklist

• ✅ Transformations applied (Ctrl+A)
• ✅ Axes configured according to target program
• ✅ Rest pose verified before exporting
• ✅ Test in viewer before importing to engine

On foro3d you'll find preconfigured export profiles for different engines. Because we've all had those characters that seem to do splits on export. 🕺

Advanced Troubleshooting

1. Persistent Deformations: Check skinning weights
2. Inverted Animation: Try changing Forward Axis
3. Incorrect Scale: Adjust units in Blender and destination
4. Floating Bones: Export with "Include Armatures"

As pipeline veterans say: "Perfect export is invisible... it's only noticed when it fails". Now go and take your animations to any engine without surprises. 🚀