Google is open-sourcing Noto 3D emoji as .obj files

design
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I just found out Google is open-sourcing the Noto 3D emoji models as .obj files, which is kind of huge if you ever mess with UI mockups, stickers, or like, dumb little in-game props.

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The behind-the-scenes bits are fun too. It’s basically a full redesign pass across thousands of emoji so they read better in modern chat, but the part my brain latched onto is “cool, free 3D assets that won’t get me yelled at.”

Has anyone actually tried importing these into Unity/Unreal yet, or is it a materials nightmare?

Source: How design, data and AI shaped Google’s Noto 3D emoji

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. obj is fine, but the materials bit is where you’ll swear.

OBJ usually comes with an. mtl and a pile of texture maps, and Unity in particular loves to import them as a dozen separate materials with weird gamma (sRGB vs linear), so you end up re-linking textures and fixing shininess. I haven’t tried this pack yet, though, so I’m not sure if Google shipped clean PBR textures or something more bespoke.