How to create 3D models
A key part of creating augmented reality experiences is the inclusion of 3D models. These models, in addition to different textures, configurations or colours, can have animations that show parts of a product, or simply tell a short story, with an animated scene.
Depending on the needs of the experience, there are different ways to proceed when generating the necessary 3D resources:
Create your own 3D models from scratch
When it comes to tailoring an experience to a very specific need, or brand, adapting content is a really important step. In this case, we propose that when creating an AR experience, a creative team capable of generating the necessary 3D models should be available.
In our documentation we recommend tools such as Blender to be able to carry out this type of process. We also propose a series of tips to improve the performance and capabilities of 3D models that are included in web experiences. Take a look at our documentation on 3D models for more information.
Download 3D models from an existing library
There are several platforms from which you can download numerous 3D models organised by typology. Both free models and paid models. An interesting option may be to purchase or download these models, and then adapt them to the needs of the experience, making appropriate modifications.
In this case, our recommendation is to visit the sketchfab.com library, which we consider to be the most complete at present. In addition, in our tutorials, we explain how to download a model from this platform and add it easily to your Onirix account.
How to donwload 3D models from sketchfab and include them in Onirix:
Generate 3D models from photos: photogrammetry
When what is required is a model of an object or product existing in the real world, and it is also important that it looks realistic, an increasingly widespread option is the creation of 3D models through a set of photographs taken in all their perspectives: photogrammetry. By taking 360-degree photos, there are now numerous tools capable of creating 3D models on the fly of any element in the real world.
This can be especially useful if you want to generate a restaurant menu for example, as we do with our experience library with this restaurant menu.
There are several apps that allow us to generate these models, simply by taking a kind of video around the real-world elements. If we also add the power of including sensors such as Lidar in the phones that run them (mainly iPhone terminals), the result can be really interesting. Some of them, which also allow you to download the content in .glb format, would be these:
Generate 3D models through AI tools
Some tools are already testing the benefits of generative AI in order to create 3D models from textual instructions. However, this technology is still in very early stages, and when building a 3D model many aspects must be taken into account, which complicates the process much more than the generation of an image or even a video. The whole internal structure or texturing of the model makes it a really complex challenge.
At the moment many of these tools are in alpha phases, so we cannot recommend any of them for their correct use.
We will keep this documentation updated as new tools are released.