[SOLVED] Why Object3D (Blender Empty - Plain Axes) Doesn't Show Up via nodes["myEmptyObject"] in r3f?

[fallFcode]

Hi~ I’m currently working with @react-three/fiber and ran into a confusion when trying to access a Blender Empty object (which I believe is just an Object3D in three.js).

Here's what I did:

• I imported a .glb file with animations.
• In Blender, I used an Empty (Plain Axes) object and parented a camera to it.
• When I render the whole scene using:

<primitive object={scene} scale={0.2} />

→ everything works fine, including the camera animation, which proves the Empty exists and has animation.

BUT, when I try to isolate that object using:

<primitive object={nodes["myEmptyObject"]} />

or even:

<mesh geometry={nodes["myEmptyObject"].geometry} />

→ nothing shows up. The object seems to be ignored entirely.

Here’s the JSON structure I’m dealing with:

{
    "metadata": {
        "version": 4.6,
        "type": "Object",
        "generator": "Object3D.toJSON"
    },
    "object": {
        "uuid": "d5cc417a-10f4-4ca4-976c-42b2d71d75fa",
        "type": "Object3D",
        "name": "camera-transform",
        "userData": {
            "name": "camera-transform"
        },
        "layers": 1,
        "matrix": [
            1,
            0,
            0,
            0,
            0,
            1,
            0,
            0,
            0,
            0,
            1,
            0,
            7.851465225219727,
            2.0321693420410156,
            6.600168228149414,
            1
        ],
        "up": [
            0,
            1,
            0
        ],
        "children": [
            {
                "uuid": "488e213b-5c34-494f-a4bb-33c6bf20b7d6",
                "type": "PerspectiveCamera",
                "name": "camera",
                "userData": {
                    "name": "camera"
                },
                "layers": 1,
                "matrix": [
                    0.6434742327917874,
                    0,
                    -0.7654676952842194,
                    0,
                    -0.14876553875481052,
                    0.9809330558813394,
                    -0.12505660461682205,
                    0,
                    0.7508725655135952,
                    0.1943459167997155,
                    0.6312051455533485,
                    0,
                    0,
                    0,
                    0,
                    1
                ],
                "up": [
                    0,
                    1,
                    0
                ],
                "fov": 22.89519413064574,
                "zoom": 1,
                "near": 0.10000000149011612,
                "far": 100,
                "focus": 10,
                "aspect": 1.081513828238719,
                "filmGauge": 35,
                "filmOffset": 0
            }
        ]
    }
}

So I'm wondering:

1. Why doesn’t nodes["myEmptyObject"] return something renderable?
2. Is there a different way to access and attach the Object3D (Empty)?
3. Should I not use <primitive> directly on nodes["myEmptyObject"] if it's not a mesh?

My expectation was to keep the hierarchy but have more control on what gets rendered.

Thanks for your time~ o((>ω< ))o

P.S. I'm using:

• @react-three/fiber v9.1.2
• three v0.175.0

Update:
I realized the issue wasn't about loading the Object3D—it was actually working from the start!

Turned out the animation order was incorrect, so the movement didn’t play as expected.
After fixing that, everything worked just fine

Sorry for the confusion and thank you for your patience!

@maintainer If this discussion is too trivial or no longer relevant, feel free to archive or delete it. 🌸