Exporting FBX for Studio: the boxes that decide whether the model arrives whole

A good part of Studio import problems does not start in the model. It starts in the export window — in those checkboxes nobody reads carefully because they appear between finishing the work and seeing the result.

The symptom misleads: the model arrives crooked, with no texture, at the wrong scale or with an extra bone, and the investigation starts at the mesh. This guide is the list of the boxes, in both programs, with what each one decides.

The problem

The starting rule: exporting for Studio is in FBX, and the reason is practical — the format carries everything Studio's importer knows how to read.

On a model with a rig or skinning, that matters even more: FBX carries the rig and the influence data needed to import later. Meaning a well-exported FBX brings the skeleton and weights along; a badly exported FBX brings the mesh and leaves the rigging work behind, without saying so.

And there is a recommendation about order that almost nobody follows: checking the modelling specifications before exporting. Exporting is the step after the model is right, not the way to find out whether it is.

It is also worth knowing that specific asset types have additional specifications, with export pages of their own — rigid accessories, layered accessories and avatar characters. The lists in this guide are the common base; if you are making one of those three, there is one more layer.

Step by step

In Blender, the route is File, Export, FBX (.fbx). In the window:

1. Path Mode to Copy, and switch on Embed Textures. They go together and decide whether the texture travels inside the file. Without them, the FBX stores a path to a file on your disk — and that path does not exist on the other side.

2. Transform → Apply Scalings to FBX Unit Scale. That is the scale setting. If there is still a problem on import, the documentation points to alternative approaches on a page dedicated to FBX scale in Blender.

3. Under Armature, switch off Add Leaf Bones. Keep this one. It is the most forgotten on the list and the subject of the next section.

4. Switch off Bake Animation — except if you are exporting content with animation keyframes, such as a walk cycle or a character with facial animation data.

5. Export FBX.

In Maya, the route is File, Export All, then FBX export in the file type list, going on to Options...:

1. Under Geometry, switch on Smooth Mesh and Referenced Asset Content. The second is what brings the referenced content along — without it, a model assembled with references arrives incomplete.

2. Under Animation, switch off Animation — unless you need to import an animation. And the documentation adds a warning worth underlining: some avatar assets require animation. Switching it off by reflex, in that case, produces an asset that does not pass.

3. If you are exporting animation, switch on Bake Animation.

4. Under Embed Media, switch on Embed Media if you want the texture as a .png. It is Blender's Embed Textures equivalent.

5. Under Advanced Options, go to Units and switch on Automatic. It is the scale setting equivalent.

6. Still under Advanced Options, go to Axis Conversion and set Up Axis to Y. Blender does not ask this question; Maya does, and getting it wrong lays the model on its side.

7. Export All.

It is worth noticing why this list is short and still produces so many problems: none of those boxes warns you when it is wrong. They are not validation — they are a declaration of intent. The exporter does exactly what was ticked, and the resulting file is a perfectly valid FBX, just describing something else.

That is why the error only appears on the Studio side, far from the cause, and why re-exporting "more carefully" rarely fixes it: without changing the boxes, the result is identical.

The artifact

The document below is the list of the boxes in both programs, in checklist form, with a table at the end aligning the equivalents.

That final table is what helps you remember. Both programs ask the same three questions with different names: does the texture go along? Is the scale right? Is there animation? Anyone who understands they are three questions stops memorising two lists.

And Maya asks a fourth that Blender does not — the up axis.

An observation about FBX itself, which explains why the list is so specific: the format is generous and carries far more than Studio uses. It has room for cameras, lights, edit history, multiple unit systems and different axis conventions. The boxes in the export window are, in large part, choices about how much of that excess comes along — and each wrong choice is one more piece the importer has to interpret.

Common mistakes

Add Leaf Bones switched on. It is the champion mistake for anyone exporting a character from Blender, and it is perfect in its failure mode: no error, no blocked import, and a rig with bones you did not create.

Blender adds those leaf bones by default, at the end of each chain. For Blender that is reasonable; for Studio it is rubbish entering the rig hierarchy. The result ranges from confusing to broken, and the investigation starts in the wrong place — because the rig in Blender is perfect.

The documentation solves it in one line: in the Armature section, switch off Add Leaf Bones. There is no case where switching it on helps.

A texture that does not travel. The second most common, in both programs. The model arrives grey, and the reaction is re-exporting the same way. What is missing is the Path Mode plus Embed Textures pair in Blender, or Embed Media in Maya — and the symptom is identical to a badly assigned texture, which sends the investigation to the material.

Wrong scale. A model that is gigantic or tiny on import is almost always the scale box: Apply Scalings in Blender, Units set to Automatic in Maya. Fixing it by resizing inside Studio works once and poisons everything afterwards — because the next asset from the same scene will arrive with the same error, and then there are two different correction factors in the project.

A model lying down. Exclusive to Maya, and it is the Up Axis. If every model you export arrives rotated ninety degrees, it is not the scene: it is the box.

Animation on when it should not be — and off when it should be. The mistake runs both ways, and the second is worse. Exporting animation by accident bloats the file and brings frames nobody asked for. But not exporting animation on an avatar asset that requires it produces a rejection whose cause is an unticked box two windows back.

There is also a habit worth keeping about working order: the export window remembers previous choices in some cases and not in others, depending on the program and the version. Checking the boxes even when "it was right last time" costs ten seconds, and it is the only way not to discover, three assets later, that one of them changed by itself.

Next step

The highest-return action is turning this list into a saved preset in your program. Both allow it, and it is the difference between getting it wrong once and getting it wrong always — because none of those boxes warns you when it is wrong.

After that, it is worth building a thirty-second import test you run every time: import the FBX into an empty Studio file, and check four things in the order they break — does the scale look right? Did the texture come? Does the rig hierarchy have only the bones you created? Is there animation where there should not be?

One detail that saves a lot of re-exporting: run that test with the SIMPLEST asset in the project before exporting the most complex one. If the cube arrives crooked, the problem is the configuration; if the cube arrives right and the character does not, the problem is the character. Separating the two hypotheses costs a minute and saves an afternoon adjusting the wrong mesh.

Four questions, thirty seconds, and each one points straight at a specific box in the export window. It is much quicker than an investigation that starts by suspecting the mesh.

And, if you produce for the Marketplace, remember there is one more layer: rigid accessories, layered accessories and avatar characters have export pages of their own, on top of this one. Reading the one for the type you produce — once, in full — is what stops you discovering the extra requirement after paying the submission fee.

EXPORTING FBX FOR ROBLOX STUDIO. Checked on 23/09/2026.
Print it, save it as a preset, stick it beside the monitor -- what matters
is not ticking these from memory.

== BEFORE OPENING THE WINDOW ==
  [ ] does the model meet the modelling specifications?
      (it is the check the documentation asks for BEFORE exporting)
  [ ] does the asset type have its OWN specification?
        rigid accessory   -> its own spec + export settings
        layered accessory -> its own spec + export settings
        avatar character  -> its own spec + export settings

== BLENDER ==
  File > Export > FBX (.fbx)

  [ ] Path Mode ............... Copy
  [ ] Embed Textures .......... ON (the button beside Path Mode)
  [ ] Transform > Apply Scalings ... FBX Unit Scale
        ^ scale problem on import? the documentation points to
          alternative approaches on the FBX scale page for Blender
  [ ] Armature > Add Leaf Bones ... OFF
        ^ the most forgotten one, and the one that ruins a rig silently
  [ ] Bake Animation .......... OFF
        ^ EXCEPT when exporting keyframes: a walk cycle, or a
          character with facial animation data
  [ ] Export FBX

== MAYA ==
  File > Export All  >  Files of type: FBX export  >  Options...

  Geometry:
  [ ] Smooth Mesh ................. ON
  [ ] Referenced Asset Content .... ON

  Animation:
  [ ] Animation ................... OFF
        ^ EXCEPT when you need to import animation. CAREFUL: some avatar
          assets REQUIRE animation
  [ ] Bake Animation .............. ON *if* exporting animation

  Embed Media:
  [ ] Embed Media ................. ON, if you want the texture as a .png

  Advanced Options:
  [ ] Units > Automatic ........... ON
  [ ] Axis Conversion > Up Axis ... Y

  [ ] Export All

== THE SYMMETRY THAT HELPS YOU REMEMBER ==

  Both programs ask the SAME three questions, with different names:

  | question              | Blender                  | Maya                   |
  |-----------------------|--------------------------|------------------------|
  | does the texture go?  | Path Mode=Copy +         | Embed Media            |
  |                       | Embed Textures           |                        |
  | is the scale right?   | Apply Scalings=          | Units > Automatic      |
  |                       | FBX Unit Scale           |                        |
  | is there animation?   | Bake Animation           | Animation +            |
  |                       |                          | Bake Animation         |

  Maya asks one question Blender does not: the UP AXIS.
  Up Axis = Y. Getting it wrong lays the model on its side.