This is efficient if there are only a few options to show. For example, if the product is only available in few predefined dimensions, all of them can live in the same scene and be hidden so that only the one selected by the user is shown. With SketchFab there is no real "standard" way of doing this, though it can be simulated with different tricks. What if I wanted the night table to be higher or wider? What if I wanted to change the number of drawers? Nevertheless, I started to wonder how far the product logic complexity could go: Up to this level of complexity, I was pretty happy using SketchFab. As long as the dimensions of the night table stayed the same, I could simply hide and show geometry (using the parent/children technique) to visualize the final result depending on the selected options. My first attempt was to create a Night Table with options such as cornice style, base style, drawers style and material options.
This way, if one plans the structure of the 3d model, there can already be a level of logic when uploading files to SketchFab.Įxample of parent-children geometry relation created in Cinema4D which could be used in a SketchFab-based configurator.įinally, one can create camera movements, change lighting, scene settings, filters, annotations, animations and even create clickable and hoverable elements for more intuitive interactions in the scene.
For example, “children” shapes move or hide according to their “parent”. In other words, if a shape is “parent” of others shapes, its “children” are also affected. The other functions respect the hierarchy in the model. The materials (or textures) can be as complex as a video file playing or even custom text that the user can input. This is when I discovered that with SketchFab’s API, one can create configurators by changing materials, hiding or showing parts of the model, or even by moving and rotating geometry. However, I had never used it to create a product configurator. Additionally, one can inspect the model at a technical level by checking its mesh, texture mapping, normals and other variations.Īt that point, I had already used the platform for quite a while for creating static presentations of architectural models, furniture and other various projects. It has realistic rendering, scene settings, animations and sounds that make models look amazing and really brings them to life. SketchFab is one of the best platforms to share and sell 3D models online. I was introduced to it while I was studying Computer Animation at the SAE Creative Media Institute in Melbourne, Australia. When I was asked to create a product configurator for a client, the first platform that came to my mind was SketchFab.
In this blog post I will tell you why I switched from SketchFab in order to create product configurators for my clients.