Part III: Make your 3D models AR Ready
This is Part III in a four-part series about getting your product from a 3D model to embedding it as an AR element on any platform.
Read the previous parts:
Part III — Getting the 3D Model ready for AR
A lot of effort goes into making a 3D model look realistic when you’re modelling it, from creating a great texture to getting the tiny details on the model to make it look true-to-life.
All the effort would be wasted if you couldn’t display the model in the same level of realism using Augmented Reality. Factors such as lighting, reflections, textures influence the look of the object.
These factors are controlled by the environment that the object is viewed in, in the case of augmented reality, it’s controlled by the device you’re viewing it in and the space you’re currently in.
Since mobile is currently the major platform for viewing in augmented reality, we can look at the two major platforms — Android & iOS.
Each of them controls their 3D scenes differently and with two different file formats for it (read about them here).
The easy & efficient way to easily ensure cross-compatibility is to use the Web to distribute the 3D models.
This gives you the benefit of easy distribution — since the Web is accessible from every device — and also an added benefit of an app-free experience.
Scapic’s Platform — AR Scapes
AR Scapes is one of the templates on Scapic’s platform that helps you create AR ready experiences, all on the browser.
Once you have your 3D object, you can upload it into a new project on the template and preview the object in the viewer immediately.
Voila! You can view the object directly in the viewer now, and that’s not all; with the AR Scapes template, we take it a step further and let you add custom 3D elements such as text, images and other 3D objects around your main object.
Not happy with the material on the object? We’ve got your back —
You can select a new material from a number of presets we’ve built-in, from metals like bronze and gold to solids like wood and asphalt.
We keep adding new materials into this list, so you can edit on the fly.
After you’ve edited the scene to your requirement (here we just add the text Kubrick Armchair) you can instantly preview the object in AR on your phone with just a scan of the QR code.
A draft link is generated with all the changes made to the 3D scene in the viewer.
With each change, you can preview the object in your space to see how the lighting affects it, with every material or object added to the scene.
This allows you to change materials, add objects, images or text and preview them on a single link without ever installing a separate app onto your device. This ensures turn-around time on the changes is as fast as possible and not dependant on one device since you can view this on almost every device.
Once you’re happy with the way the object looks, you can proceed to share it out to everyone, all with one link.
Here’s what the test model (Kubrick Armchair) we used looks like —
You can view the same using this link on your mobile (AR only works if your device supports ARCore or ARKit).
Creating an AR experience has never been this seamless, with Scapic’s AR Scape template it’s a simple drag & drop process with a single link needed to share it out anywhere
Next steps
Now that you know how to get all your 3D models into the real world using AR Scapes, you might want to know how you can distribute them to audiences so that you can show off the product.
If you’re thinking you need to get a bunch of developers to sit down and integrate AR over a few weeks, get that out of your head!
Getting your AR creation isn’t as difficult as it’s made out to be, with the embed code we provide, you can integrate it onto your site or any platform that allows iframe embeds with one single line.
You can learn how to use the embed functionality in Part IV of this series.
We’ve also made a simple tutorial on getting your models AR ready:
3D creation is not new, but most organisations are not set up to create/use 3D assets efficiently. For marketers, e-commerce and businesses, this means the barrier to entry for delivery of compelling 3D and AR experiences is rapidly decreasing, opening the door for increased engagement and consumer understanding.
Scapic’s platform provides an easy way to deliver this to all media such as websites, Facebook, Instagram as well as the ability to quickly and easily export assets to match the specifications of each distribution channel and online platform.
Don’t have 3d Models and want to showcase 3D on your site?
Don’t worry, we’ve got your back. Contact us.
