Your model looks great in MagicaVoxel — but a buyer is going to drop it into a game engine, rig it, or view it in AR. A few minutes of preparation before you export makes your .vox file behave predictably everywhere. Here's the checklist.
1. Center your model on the origin
In MagicaVoxel's world editor, move your model so it sits centered on the origin, with its feet (or base) resting on the ground plane.
Why it matters: the origin becomes the model's pivot point after conversion. A centered model rotates in place, scales from its base, and lands correctly on surfaces in AR. An off-center model orbits around empty space and floats or clips into the ground.
Quick check: in the world editor, the grid lines crossing at the origin should pass through the middle of your model, and the bottom row of voxels should sit at height 0.
2. Break it into volumes before rigging
If your model has parts that should move — arms, wheels, a door, a turret — split each one into its own object in the world editor before you publish. One solid block of voxels can't be rigged without painful mesh surgery; separate volumes map cleanly onto bones.
A good split for a character:
- Head
- Torso
- Each arm (upper + lower if you want elbows)
- Each leg
- Any accessory that moves independently (weapon, cape, tail)
Name each object as you go. arm_L is useful to the person rigging it; obj12 is not.
Even if you never rig the model yourself, buyers will thank you — a well-split model is usable in far more projects.
3. Delete voxels nobody will ever see
Fully enclosed interior voxels add nothing visually, but they inflate file size and slow down conversion and rendering. The same goes for stray voxels left floating from earlier edits — a single forgotten voxel far from the model blows up the bounding box, which throws off thumbnails, scaling, and AR placement.
Before exporting:
- Hollow out large solid shapes where you can.
- Orbit the whole model at a distance and hunt for orphan voxels.
- Check the bounding box hugs the model tightly.
4. Tidy the palette
Get rid of colors you aren't actually using. A clean palette keeps the converted files lean and makes life easier for anyone who wants to recolor or restyle your model later.
MagicaVoxel makes this quick:
- Left-click on the palette and click Mask — this selects the colors your model isn't using.
- Set all the selected colors to black so the dead entries are obvious and out of the way.
- Left-click on the palette again and pick "Sort" — your used colors regroup into a tidy block at the bottom, blacked-out leftovers at the end.
Thirty seconds, and anyone opening your file sees exactly the colors that matter.
5. Save and upload the .vox directly
briq takes your .vox file as-is — no need to export to another format first. Conversion is powered by vengi, the open-source voxel engine, which generates GLB and OBJ automatically (plus a thumbnail) — so buyers get engine-ready files in every format while the original voxel data stays intact for anyone who wants to remix it.
That's it: centered, split into named volumes, no junk voxels, clean palette. Five minutes of prep, and your model is ready for anything a buyer throws at it.