3d Game Programming With Java and libGDX — Setting Up a Model With Blender

Or… the journey through the x, y, and z axes through the lens of a computer screen.

TL;DR

Using Blender to get your Model UV unwrapped with an image texture, 100% correct, so that it can be easily imported into your libGDX project.

Note: this is part of a series of articles: See 3d Game Programming with Java and libGDX — Overview of Articles

What You Will Need

• Download blender if you don’t have it yet — at the time of writing it is version v2.90.0
• fbx-conv to convert from .fbx file formats to .g3db file formats (.g3db is the native file format for libGDX) — pre-compiled packages can be downloaded from here.

A screenshot of the startup screen of a newly installed Blender programme version 2.90.0

Things to note:

• There was a major UI overhaul with the version 2.80+ series, so, in order to follow the instructions you will need to be on at least version 2.80.
• There are lots of good tutorials around using the blender programme — if you are new to the programme, the ‘Learn the basics’ videos on the thank-you page is a great way to start. However — make sure that you search for tutorials about blender 2.8 which will show the new interface.

The Steps