I decided to use the “Pearl” model from Mixamo to experiment with animation and (as it turns out) importing FBX files.

Importing into PlayCanvas is straightforward, simply drag and drop the FBX into the assets area. PlayCanvas converts the file to JSON format with associated textures (in PNG format) and materials. You end up with two JSON files (not sure why) but it’s fairly obvious which is the one to use.

The model can now be added to the scene.

There were problems with the eyes, they were black and the eyelashes were solid black.

Dear god! No!

Frankly after a long day I was fed up and knocked off for the day, after leaving a request for help on the PlayCanvas forums.

After some very helpful suggestions by Steven Yau, I was able to tweak some settings to correct the model.

A black specular colour tint fixed the eyes.

Looking good

Setting the opacity blend type to alpha fixed the black eyelashes, but caused them to act as a stencil straight through the poor model’s head when viewed from below.

Will the horror never end!?!

Setting opacity “alpha to coverage” fixed the clipping eye syndrome.

Finally! Yay!!!

Maybe now I’ll be able to get on with coding… nah… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯