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Blender's Asset Browser vs. Connector 3D#

Connector 3D has long been a popular option among freelance 3D artists and studios for browsing assets for a variety of pipelines. Within the last few years, Blender released its own internal Asset Browser. How does it shape up against Connector? Can it be used at-scale for studios with thousands of assets?

Neither Blender nor Connector are asset "managers" because neither try to control how you store your files. They are essentially glorified file browsers, but that makes all the difference when it comes to finding and using assets quickly in a production environment.

This shifts the responsibility to the artist or technical director to structure one's directory layouts and establish conventions for naming assets (more on that in another post).

Needs#

  • Library types
    • Hero Asset Library
    • Script Library
    • Material Library
    • Light Library
    • Prop Library
    • Set Library
    • Animation Library
    • Decals Library
    • etc.
  • Visual browsing
  • Advanced search & filtering
    • Metadata (tags, vendor, creation date, approved, etc.)
    • Color
    • Reverse image search
    • Semantic search
    • Category
  • Tagging
  • Metadata editing (including batch editing)
  • Fast performance
  • Previews / turntables
  • Migratable / Modular / No vendor lock-in
  • DCC integrations (drag'n'drop)
  • Support all kinds of media "Data-blocks" / asset types
  • Synchronization / Collaboration
  • Ease of use
  • Scriptable (API)
  • Low cost

Wants#

  • Review/Approval workflows
  • Version control
  • Asset "Health" dashboard/indicators

Approach#

  • 2D
    • Tiled previews
  • 3D
    • Asset Zoos 1
    • Asset Museums

Comparison#

Blender Connector 3D
Visual browsing Tiled 2D Tiled 2D
Metadata name, author, description, tags, category name, author, description, tags, category, feedback, custom properties
Fast performance Fast. Front-loads all generated/custom previews upon opening library. Instant browsing thereafter. Previews are not realtime and are not cached. Fastest. Progressively loads previews as user scrolls. Does not cache, so scrolling back up requires reload. Non-custom previews are extracted in realtime by reading file data.
Ease of Use Easy. Consistent UX with Blender. Easy, but a bit clunky. Unintuitive UI/UX.
Catalogs Yes. Yes.
Data blocks models, materials, environments, lights, objects, poses, brushes, animations, node groups, scenes models, materials, environments, textures, CAD, BIM, video, audio
Previews Custom, Auto Custom, Auto via stacking or "auto-assign previews" tool
Migratable Yes. Asset data is stored in decentralized files. Can export metadata with Python/JSON scripts. Vendor lock-in. No way to export database/workspace metadata.
DCC integrations Blender. Additional DCCs via "Send to" addons or file export. Blender, Unreal, Maya, Max, etc. Save as feature in Blender uses outdated Blender template file (<v2.8).
Filters Yes. Basic filters. 4 filters at a time (library + catalog + search + filter). Could develop filter presets via Python. Yes. Advanced filters. >4 filters at a time. Can save filter presets for later reuse.
Synchronization Default, metadata stored in decentralized asset files / editable config files. Premium feature, metadata stored in centralized / uneditable database file.
Scriptable Easy. API is open-source and well-documented. Difficult. No API.
Low cost Free. >$135/month
Bell & whistles Full Blender integration. Can easily extend to suite specific pipeline needs. Interactive previews, version control, cloud SSO, image annotation, basic PBR material previewer, stacking, MaterialX editor.

Conclusion#

If you or your studio uses Blender, I think it makes the most sense to use Blender's interal Asset Browser to build your asset library around. If you store your library in a network drive, make sure you have sufficient bandwidth so your artists aren't waiting for ten minutes on a 1 Gbps connection for 5,000 assets to load.

Otherwise, Connector remains a solid choice due to its greater cross-platform compatibility. Watch out for the vendor lock-in due to it's centralized database of metadata. Metadata is key for extending your asset library with tooling. This, combined with the lack of an API in Connector 3D, limits your potential to scale your workflows with Connector 3D.

Tip

I generally recommend developing asset creator tooling that stores metadata for a given asset in info.json files living in each asset folder combined with a central library_info.json that maps to those asset metadata files.

  1. https://rystorm.com/blog/asset-browser-flaw ↩