Obj & Mtl

[Michael272608378nn0]

I'm sure this has been asked before but I search did not find it.

I have seperate .obj and .mtl files. How do I import and attach the material?

[Michael272608378nn0]

These are models I bought from video Copilot several years ago.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hey there, @Michael272608378nn0,

Thanks for the question. Have you already tried importing the .obj file? What happened? If the .mtl file is in the same directory, and you save them that way in Element 3D, then the .obj should be pointing to the .mtl. You should not have to expressly import the .mtl file, if I am not mistaken. Give it a try. If it doesn't work, you may want to explore exporting the file from Element 3D once more, which has the provision of attaching the .mtl file. I hope the information is useful. Let us know.

Thanks,
Kevin

[Michael272608378nn0]

I attached the files. I'm not exporting the files from element 3D. It's a pacage of food models I purchased and download from them.

[Michael272608378nn0]

Not sure if they uploaded correctly.  Dosen't appear to allow me to upload the .mtl or a zipped file.

[Michael272608378nn0]

When I import the obj its just grayscale model.

[ShiveringCactus]

That is the case with OBJ model imports into After Effects.  The MTL file can contain material nodes, but rarely textures.  

I have found the best approach is to do a quick conversation using the free Blender 3D program.  Import your OBJ file, then export it as a GLB / gLTF file.

I made a video recently showing the process:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pdsb7Z4l4Jw

[Michael272608378nn0]

I watched the video but didn't see the process of importing and exporting with Blender. Did I miss that?

[ShiveringCactus · Accepted solution]

[facepalm]

I'm so sorry, this is the first in the series and I just recorded the other one at the weekend.  I genuinely thought I had covered this in that video.

OK, the steps are really simple:

1. Install Blender from blender.org
2. When it opens, draw a box around the three objects (light, cube and camera) and hit the DELETE key to remove them.
3. Go to File > Import > Wavefront OBJ and then find and import your 3D model.
4. Go to File > Export > gLFT and export a copy of your model.  This version "bakes" in the textures and After Effects should display them for you.

If all that fails, DM me, we can trade files and I'll see if I can spot any issues.  

(Can't beleive I pointed you to the wrong video.)

[Michael272608378nn0]

Yes! This worked. Thank you.