Humanoid Animation (HAnim) Overview — Architecture, Strengths, and Strategic Value for Open, Interoperable 3D Human Representation
Blogs by Date
Release Date: 1 August 2026
HAnim, the Humanoid Animation International Standard maintained by the Web3D Consortium, provides a rigorously defined, interoperable framework for representing, animating, and exchanging 3D human figures across tools, platforms, and applicatio
Release Date: 1 August 2026
HAnim, glTF, and VRM—three major frameworks for representing and animating humanoid characters.
Release Date: 1 August 2026
HAnim's "center of rotation" and glTF's TRS (translation/rotation/scale) are solving related but distinct problems, and conflating them causes confusion when converting rigs between the two.
Release Date: 31 July 2026
My most recent work developing the RawKee X3D exporter for Maya has been in the area of Physical Based Rendering (PBR - aka the X3D PhysicalMaterial node).
Release Date: 21 July 2026
Through my work with the Laboratory for Digital Realism and Engineering in the Applied Metaverse (DREAM Lab) at the University of North Dakota, I have been given the opportunity to work on a file translator between X3D and USD, hoping to include this into the C++ AOUSD/Adobe File Translator Plugi
Release Date: 17 July 2026
Artificial Intelligence is rapidly transforming how 3D content is authored, validated, and optimized. Within the Web3D community, X3D offers a structured, open, and extensible foundation for AI-assisted workflows. But as the paper x3d_mcp: A Model Context Protocol Server for AI-Assisted X3D Authoring shows, raw LLM output is brittle without grounding in the authoritative X3D specification.
Release Date: 17 July 2026
Through the Cesium Ecosystem Grant, the Web3D Consortium is enabling X3DOM to stream massive geospatial datasets—terrain, photogrammetry, buildings—directly into declarative X3D scenes. This work strengthens alignment across X3D, glTF, and OGC 3D Tiles, creating a seamless, vendor‑neutral pathway from data acquisition to web deployment. For users, this unlocks scalable digital twin experiences, richer metadata‑driven visualization, and a more interoperable 3D ecosystem built on open standards that will endure.
Release Date: 12 July 2026
Web of Worlds sets the spatial ‑ web vision, X3D/Web3D provides the open 3D standard to build it, and the Metaverse Standards Forum coordinates the broader ecosystem so everything interoperates across platforms a
Release Date: 2 March 2026
Using Compound Nodes in Maya LookdevX
I've been hard at work this weekend, trying to come up with a workflow that will integrate with MaterialX shader exports into RawKee exports.
Release Date: 25 February 2026
Starting the RawKee Blog
Release Date: 21 February 2026
A consortium of leading cultural institutions has announced a draft specification for presenting computer-based 3D content.
Release Date: 1 November 2025
Implementing X3D (open source and royalty free) in e-commerce can significantly enhance product visualization and customer interaction. By following this workflow, businesses can create a seamless and engaging shopping experience that leverages the power of 3D technology.
Release Date: 7 July 2025
Blender, the powerful open-source 3D creation suite, offers robust capabilities for creating, manipulating, and exporting 3D content in various formats. X3D (Extensible 3D) is an ISO standard XML-based file format for representing 3D computer graphics. This blog explores how to effectively use Blender with X3D, enabling you to create immersive 3D content for web applications, virtual reality, and more.
Release Date: 5 June 2025
X‑Ite, X3DOM, and the Castle Game Engine — three tools that all deal with X3D. Together, they form a complete ecosystem for 3D Web visualization.
Release Date: 27 March 2025
The 3D web is entering a new era—one defined by openness, interoperability, and immersive experiences that run everywhere. At the center of this evolution stands X3D Version 4, the latest generation of the ISO‑standardized framework for declarative 3D graphics.
Release Date: 16 December 2024
What happens when enterprise 3D graphics meets the World-Wide Web? When peanut butter and chocolate meet? The answer, of course, is ‘Delicious Things’!
Release Date: 11 December 2024
In today’s fast-moving digital landscape, X3D (Extensible 3D) has emerged as a cornerstone technology for interactive web-based 3D graphics.
Release Date: 6 November 2024
The 3D web has evolved from experimental to a mature ecosystem powering cultural heritage, e‑commerce, scientific visualization, digital twins, and immersive storytelling.
Release Date: 1 October 2024
There is great excitement around the development of new features and formats, from glTF 2.0 to X3D 4.0. This blog provides a high-level view of the leading open formats and how and why they should be used together.
Release Date: 25 May 2022
The term ‘Metaverse’ has taken on a new sparkle recently, appearing prominently in the marketing materials of a number of large technology companies. Indeed, many have attempted, or are attempting, to co-opt it for their own purposes, which has resulted in a great deal of confusion among producers and consumers in the marketplace. With this short position paper, the Web3D Consortium seeks to address this confusion by exploring the history of the ‘Metaverse’ that has led us to our current state, providing a workable definition of the term ‘Metaverse’, and providing a vision for its sustainable, cooperative construction into the future. We believe that all the technologies are in place to fulfill the vision of an open, equitable, and ubiquitous information space. What remains are the key issues that have kept the Metaverse from manifesting the last two decades: user experience and corporate cooperation. See attached paper below.
Release Date: 4 April 2019
This blog post will present three techniques to improve 3D visualizations of mechanical parts published on the web. Web users expect standard and intuitive user interaction patterns without a steep learning curve or need a User’s Manual to read and use the links on that page.