3D Notebook

MagicaVoxel: Importing

How to import

You can just drag’n’drop a .obj file into MagicaVoxel to import it.

Need to paint, though. Importing material (.mtl) file didn’t do anything. Can import .png palette, but would need to construct anyway.

potted plant source

Formats

For .obj, whole scene gets imported. Might need to extract out somehow.

Assets

What I’ve tested:

Place Works? Notes
Unity Asset Store Only unity format (not .obj)
ShareCG TBD, needs signup. Old website, needs login, model quality looks bad.
CGTrader TBD, needs signup
Free3D No login required.
3DScans.com TBD

Lists to peruse:

Thoughts on Importing

My original take on importing was that it doesn’t make sense when you’re doing “art.” Why use stuff someone else already made?

I realized, looking at massive voxel worlds that people put together (e.g., pieces by madmaraca, or even scenes by Paul Riehle, and people guessing about their workflows, that importing makes sense when you’re making things on such a big scale. It’s more like world building in video games, where you’d use a plant pack in order to build a park.

Important consideration: style. High res object don’t automatically look good voxelized. (See, e.g., plant above.) Even if coarser quantized, they won’t match other voxel work. It’s like trying to auto-generate pixel art from high-res models.