Meebits blender utils

Blender import add-on for Meebits based on MagicaVoxel .vox format.

In addition, the project provides conversion from of Meebits MagicaVoxel .vox format to:

• VRM format for 3D avatars
• GLB
• OBJ
• FBX

The conversion is provided both as command-line option (requiring local installation of blender) and as a docker image.

Getting Started

Installation

This add-on needs to be installed into Blender in order to be used. The add-on to be installed is in the meebit-blender-add-on.zip file. Directions for this process can be found here directly from the Blender Documentation.

Note: in order to enable the add-on, you will need to have Testing add-ons visible within the Blender Preferences menu.

Usage

With the add-on installed and enabled, the importer can be accessed from File > Import > Meebit (.vox) To automatically add rigging, open the supplied Blender scene MeebitRig.blend as your first step.

Import options

This add-on offers several import options, seen on the file select menu of the import.

The following settings are available: Optimize scene import for

• Blender scene rendering - The imported model will have separate materials for each colored voxel. This allows blender users to easily change each materials properties, for example to make sunshades reflective
• VRM Export (beta) - The imported model will be optimized for usage as 3D avatar in the metaverse and the VRM file format. Model will have a single texture.

Advanced options

• Rig with Meebit armature: If current scene has an armature with name MeebitArmature, it automatically joins them with automatic weights
• Scale Meebit armature to fit: Will scale the armature dimension to be the same as the meebits dimensions
• Shade smooth: Improve shading of model
• Override materials if they exist: The VRM Export creates a couple of materials which are named based on the original file name of the import. This option overrides the materials if they already exist in the blender scene.

Add-on files

A common issue when rigging a Meebit with an armature, is that arm bones affect parts of the head such as the hair.

In order to mitigate this issue this, we support import of the Meebit in a two-step approach:

First import the main part of the Meebit without hair or head accessories. This is rigged with all bones of the armature

Second, import the add-ons (ie. hair or head accessories) and join their meshes to the main part. In addition, we'll look for a bone called HeadBone and only for this bone recalculate how moving the bone affects the Meebit as a whole. This ensure the arm bones will not affect the add-ons.

The filename of the add-ons follow a special syntax. If the main part has filename 'meebit_19666_t_solid.vox', the add-ons must be named 'meebit_19666_t_solid_addon*.vox' (where the star is wildcard for example _hair).

Questions and Concerns

Report issues in Github or raise them in the MeebitsDAO discord.

Changelog and Versioning

v1.1.1 - Add-on vox import support

v0.9.6 - Conversion to FBX, OBJ and GLB formats

v0.9.2 - Batch conversion to VRM through docker including VRM metadata.

v0.9.0 - Improved import dialog

License

This project would not be possible without saturday06/VRM_Addon_for_Blender nor technistguru/MagicaVoxel_Importer

This project is licensed under the GPL v3.0 License - see the LICENSE file for details