Omber supports exporting images to the COLLADA 3d file format. This is useful because it allows you to export 2d vector graphics for use in certain 3d game engines and 3d animation tools. For example, if you had a simple SVG picture that you wanted to use in a game, you could import it into Omber and then re-export it to COLLADA. Omber will automatically convert the SVG shapes into triangle meshes that can be handled by 3d graphics pipelines used in many game engines.

Unfortunately, there is no standard way of working with 3d objects, so the 3d files created by Omber might not be compatible with the certain 3d programs that are built around a different 3d graphics pipeline. The COLLADA format, in particular, has uneven support in many programs. As such, it is strongly recommended that you export to the glTF format instead if you can.

Importing Omber COLLADA files into Unity

Unity generally provides uneven support for most 3d file formats except for the .fbx format, which is a proprietary, undocumented format. As such, Omber now provides a special glTF importer package for Unity specifically for importing Omber vector art exported in the glTF 2.0 format. It automatically handles the conversion of meshes and textures to Unity, and it provides custom shaders as well.

When exporting to the COLLADA format from Omber, do NOT select the "Use embedded images" option. That option is not generally supported by most 3d programs. Omber will then create the COLLADA .dae file. If your picture contains any images, Omber will also allow you to download those images. Those images are needed for use as textures in 3d programs.

To import the object into Unity, drag the COLLADA .dae file to the Assets section of your Unity project to import them all. If your exported COLLADA file came with any image texture files, you must drag them to the Assets section of your Unity project as well in order to import them. Unity will not automatically import them for you.

You can then drag your imported object to your scene to view it. If your project is a 2d project, your object will initially not be visible when you drag it to the scene. Exported Omber objects are designed to face a certain direction. Due to the way 3d graphics are drawn, Omber's shapes are not drawn when they are viewed from behind. Unity's 2d mode views all shapes from the back, so Omber's shapes will not be visible in Unity's 2d mode when they are first imported. To make them visible, you must "turn them around." Do that by selecting the object in the scene, and changing the Y rotation to 180 degrees.

When in Unity's 2d mode, imported Omber objects will not be visible by default

To make the imported Omber objects visible in 2d mode, select the object and set the Y rotation to 180

Omber uses a technique called vertex coloring to describe the colors of its shapes. Unity does not use vertex coloring by default when drawing shapes. To enable vertex coloring in Unity, you must change the object's shader to one that supports vertex colors. Currently, many of Unity's Particles shaders support vertex colors. Simply select the imported Omber object, go to the shader section, and change it to the "Particles/Alpha Blended" shader. You will then see the object with its full colors. There will not be any transparency, unfortunately. Although Omber does export transparency information as an alpha channel in its exported COLLADA files, Unity currently ignores that information when it imports it.

Change the shader to "Particles/Alpha Blended" to show the colors of your objects

If you use any images in Omber drawing, they will be exported as textures in the COLLADA document. Unity does not automatically import these textures though. You must manually apply these textures yourself to the objects. For each image used in the drawing, Omber will create a separate mesh object. If you open up the imported object, you will see the different mesh objects inside. For each of those mesh objects that require a texture, you will need to select them, then expand the shader panel to reveal the texture options, choose the "Select" button to load a texture, and then choose the imported image to use as a texture. Sometimes, the first mesh is not in the list of mesh objects inside the main imported object. To select that first mesh, simply select the whole object.

To apply textures, choose the mesh inside the object, go into the shader options, and choose the texture to use