Blender → GLB

Convert .blend to GLB — Blender to glTF binary

Convert .blend straight to GLB (binary glTF) — the modern web/AR/mobile pivot format. PBR materials, embedded textures, animations and skeletal rigs come through more cleanly than via FBX.

blender to glb · convert .blend to .glb · export blender glb online

Why convert Blender to GLB?

GLB is glTF's binary container — one file, everything embedded, optimized for runtime delivery. It's the format Three.js, Babylon.js, Godot, Sketchfab, AR Quick Look and most modern engines prefer. For Blender users, glTF is also the highest-fidelity export target after the .blend itself.

This conversion preserves more than FBX does: PBR roughness/metalness maps stay PBR (no Phong fallback), embedded textures survive in their compressed form, vertex colors travel intact, and the scene hierarchy is preserved. If you're aiming at a modern engine, GLB is the better target than FBX in almost every case.

The .blend reader handles Blender 2.5 through 4.x. Applied geometry, UVs, vertex normals, vertex colors, materials (with a sensible PBR mapping from Cycles principled BSDF), skeletal animations and shape keys come through. Unapplied modifiers and procedural shaders don't — those are Blender runtime concepts with no equivalent in glTF.

What survives the Blender → GLB conversion

Computed automatically from the capabilities of each format.

Feature Blender GLB Status
Geometry (vertices & faces) Preserved
UV texture coordinates Preserved
Vertex normals Preserved
Vertex colors Preserved
Basic materials (diffuse, specular) Lost
PBR materials (metalness/roughness) Preserved
Embedded textures Preserved
Keyframe animations Preserved
Skeletons & rigs (skinning) Preserved
Morph targets / blend shapes Preserved
Multiple meshes in one file Preserved
Parent/child hierarchy Preserved

When you need this conversion

Publish Blender models to Sketchfab / Three.js / Babylon.js
Export for Godot 4 (native glTF support, no FBX pipeline needed)
Create assets for AR Quick Look / WebXR
Send compact downloads to clients without sharing the source .blend

Tips

GLB is way smaller than the equivalent FBX — switch if file size matters.
Three.js / Babylon.js can preview GLB inline with our /tools/viewer page.
For Godot 4, GLB drops in directly with full PBR — no Blender plugin needed.

Common pitfalls

Read these before converting — they save hours of debugging in your engine.

Unapplied modifiers stay unapplied

Subdivision Surface, Mirror, Array — if you didn't apply them in Blender, the GLB has the base mesh only. Apply first, then convert.

Lights and cameras travel but most engines ignore them

glTF supports lights/cameras via extensions, but Unity/Unreal/Godot importers usually ignore them. Don't rely on lighting from glTF for engine work.

Custom shaders → Principled BSDF approximation

The importer maps Cycles materials to glTF's PBR (metalness/roughness). Custom node setups are approximated by sampling the principled inputs — complex shaders won't look identical.

Animations need an NLA strip

Actions loose in the Action Editor without NLA tracks may not export. Push to NLA in Blender first.

Frequently asked questions

GLB or glTF — which should I pick?
GLB if you want one self-contained file (recommended for distribution). glTF + .bin + textures folder if you want the JSON to be editable by hand.
Are my Cycles materials preserved?
They're mapped to glTF PBR. If you used the Principled BSDF, the round-trip is near-lossless. Custom node setups are approximated.
What about animations?
Skeletal animation, shape keys and object-transform keyframes assigned to NLA tracks come through. Drivers, constraints and procedural anim don't.

Related conversions

Need to do this from your backend? See the API.