Color Slide FBX

 Creating a Color Slide FBX for use in animation (e.g. in Blender or Maya) and in BeamNG.drive (a vehicle simulator that supports modding) involves multiple steps, as you're dealing with both 3D modeling and engine/game compatibility. Here's a full guide tailored for beginners to intermediate users:

🎨 What Is a "Color Slide FBX"?

You might be referring to:

A 3D model (FBX) with multiple color/material options or animated color slides.

A vehicle mod or object where textures/colors change or animate, often used in BeamNG for skin switching or visual customization.

🧰 Tools You'll Need

Tool Purpose

Blender (free) Create and export the FBX file

Substance Painter / Photoshop / GIMP Texture creation and editing

BeamNG Mod Tools Testing and packaging for BeamNG

Notepad++ / JSON Editor For .materials.json or .jbeam files (BeamNG uses these)

🔧 Step-by-Step Workflow

STEP 1: Create or Import Your 3D Model

Use Blender or Maya to create a basic object (e.g. a car part, panel, or anything visual).

Assign separate materials to different parts that you want to change color (e.g. "Body", "Stripes", "Glow").

STEP 2: UV Unwrap the Model

Unwrap the mesh properly so textures can be mapped cleanly.

Export UV layout (optional) to use in texture creation tools.

STEP 3: Apply Materials and Textures

Create materials in Blender:

Assign a Base Color Texture

You can also use Emissive or Roughness maps if BeamNG supports it

To create color slides:

Use Image Sequences or swap albedo maps (like body_color_1.png, body_color_2.png).

STEP 4: Export as FBX

In Blender:

Go to File > Export > FBX

Use these settings:

Apply Transform

Mesh Only

Embed Textures: Optional (BeamNG prefers external textures)