FBX: Problems with normals when importing armature

Hello!

In our dev studio we are, for the very first time, making the jump from 2D to 3D technology. We're designing a production pipeline that suits our needs and so far we're considering working with Blender + Unity.

The thing is that I'm having problems importing our assets in correctly into Unity 4.5. I'm using Blender 2.71 and exporting with the .FBX add-on (version 7.4 binary).

The issue is that when I import the mesh alone, everything looks as it should. But when I include the rig I prepared in Blender, the normals of some faces are inverted. It happens even with a cube with a single bone. The animations play correctly, except for the glitch with the normals. I have also tried using Blender 2.72, which has been released recently and declares having fixed some bugs with FBX, but the result is still the same.

Is there a specific way to structure the armature in Blender so this doesn't happen? Or do I have to export with an exact set of options for it to import correctly?

One second question regarding this issue is that when I export with the older FBX version (6.1 ASCII) everything is displayed correctly. What are the downsides of using 6.1 instead of 7.4?

Thanks a lot!

Leo Schieda
www.heavyboat.com

 

Hi Leo, I use Blender and Unity to create games too, have you tried to recalculate your normals in blender ?
(Click ctrl + n)

Also, are you applying normal maps and textures to the mesh ? sometimes when you export the mesh and then you add the normal map to the materials unity doesn't apply correctly the material to the mesh, sometimes you will need to fix the normal map in the menu.