Load Blender Models with Three.js

Saturday, March 18th 2023

To load 3D models from Blender on the browser using WebGL, you will need to perform the following steps:

  1. Export the model from Blender in a format that can be read by WebGL. The most common formats are OBJ, STL, and FBX. To export your model in one of these formats, select it in Blender's "Export" menu, and then choose the appropriate options.

  2. Write JavaScript code to load the model into your WebGL application. There are several libraries available that can help simplify this process, such as Three.js, Babylon.js, and A-Frame. For example, here is some code that uses Three.js to load an OBJ file:

// Create a new Three.js scene var scene = new THREE.Scene(); // Create a new Three.js camera var camera = new THREE.PerspectiveCamera(75, window.innerWidth / window.innerHeight, 0.1, 1000); // Create a new Three.js renderer var renderer = new THREE.WebGLRenderer(); renderer.setSize(window.innerWidth, window.innerHeight); document.body.appendChild(renderer.domElement); // Load the OBJ file var loader = new THREE.OBJLoader(); loader.load( // Path to the OBJ file 'model.obj', // Function called when the model has loaded function (object) { // Add the model to the scene scene.add(object); }, // Function called when there is an error loading the model function (error) { console.error(error); } ); // Render the scene function render() { requestAnimationFrame(render); renderer.render(scene, camera); } render();

This code creates a new Three.js scene, camera, and renderer, and then uses the THREE.OBJLoader class to load the OBJ file. Once the model has loaded, it is added to the scene, and the render function is called repeatedly to render the scene.

  1. Host your WebGL application on a web server. WebGL requires a web server to load external files, so you will need to host your application on a web server to run it. You can use a local web server like Live Server or run your application on a public web server.

With these steps, you should be able to load 3D models from Blender on the browser using WebGL. Note that this is just a basic example, and there are many other options and techniques available for loading and manipulating 3D models in WebGL.