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I was wondering if there is a chance to export a shape key animation from blender (as .fbx) without actually exporting the mesh.

The reason why I am asking is, I want to use and import that animation in Unity. The animation will be applied onto the already imported model with the same poly order. However I don't want to export the same geometry over and over again with each animation fbx I create. It is very redundant and unnecessarily blows up my projects filesize.

Any ideas are welcome, thanks in advance.

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Not with any existing exporter that I know of. Without the mesh, the animation simply consists of keyframes of the various Shape Keys' Value setting. You could write an exporter to export the F-curves, but then you'd be faced with the problem of the importer, in your case Unity, knowing how to associate the F-curves with the new mesh -- and you would only have the value settings, and no mesh delta information.

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  • $\begingroup$ thanks for your answer. the problem you mentioned is no problem actually. I export my character once, including the rig and all shape keys. each animation that will have f-curves for the rig and shape keys will be imported individually and applied to the already importer character. so having obly the f-curves for the shape key index is what I need and what will work in unity. I tested this before and it works. Only problem is having redundant geometry with each animation I export. and the reason fir that are the shape keys. $\endgroup$
    – Marten Zander
    Commented Mar 6, 2022 at 18:19
  • $\begingroup$ So having a custom exporter would be the solution I guess… $\endgroup$
    – Marten Zander
    Commented Mar 6, 2022 at 18:19

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