3D content publishing platform Sketchfab is doing well! Not only did they release a snazzy new materials editor, but as they have reached 20,000 members, uploading has now become free!
Alban Denoyel writes:
We have been working on a material editor for a while and are excited to release it.
This brand new feature has multi-material support for diffuse, normal, specular maps and many more. With this tool you can now fine-tune the materials of your models in real-time with the Sketchfab viewer. You can also upload new textures directly to the website and display them on your models instantly.
The material editor is available from the Edit panel, in the right side of the viewer. Here, it lists all your materials with any names you give them in your 3d package. Picking a material will adjust the camera and outline the section of the model for easy identification.
For a more in-depth post and a video demo, you can read our blogpost.
Also, since we just reach 20,000 users, as of now uploads on Sketchfab are unlimited, for free!
Link
16 Comments
Am I the only one who sees the humour in this? Has their policy always been to charge you money so you can give your stuff away? :)
I guess you didn't actually read the article?
"Also, since we just reach 20,000 users, as of now uploads on Sketchfab are unlimited, for free!"
Actually, I did read the article. The meaning I glean from it is this: I can UPLOAD (your word) my stuff to your site for free. Now if you'd said DOWNLOAD instead, I wouldn't have made my comment. You guys do know the difference between upload and download, right? You know which direction is implied by these two terms?
What makes you think it's supposed to be a download site? Vimeo isn't a download site. Photobucket isn't a download site. This site looks like it's a 3D interactive version of something like Flickr or Photobucket, you put your model up and people can rotate it and zoom around it without having to download a mesh and convert to their own software. Kind of like a fully interactive online demo that your audience controls.
Also, don't be an ass.
You're right. My comments did make me sound like an ass. Thank you for pointing it out. In future I'll endeavor to be in a better mood when I comment on posts as vague as this one.
I'm quite surprised that my old laptop can actually handle this interactive 3D viewer. Usually it would yell at me that the internal graphic chip doesn't support stuff like that.
Also, nice, shiny materials and textures right from your browser.
Perhaps I'm dumb, but I can't work out the purpose of this site. Wow ! you can give and upload freely? Is this a site where you can just look at a picture but please don't touch or play around with it? What I mean is that I can't find the download button. So what is the point of this site?
Think of it like YouTube and Vimeo on steroids. It's for you to show off your work. The difference is people can actually interact with your model without needing to download it, see the quality of your work and maybe get you known I guess.
Seriously not getting it? It's not a swap site. The purpose of the site is to allow people to display their work through a web browser viewport that allows people to rotate your models and look at them from every angle in real time. This is a huge deal. What Vimeo does for high quality videos, this company's website apparently does for models you can interact with in real time. I think it's a great way to show off a lot of hard work, and I don't think it was ever meant to be a download site or a swap site. It's entirely about getting your work out there so people can see it and take note and maybe ask you to do some work for them.
Bart, maybe posting this as a refresher could help.
http://www.blendernation.com/2013/02/05/sketchfab-releases-material-editor-free-uploads/
Also, I'm guessing that some people are not using WebGL enabled browsers such as Chrome and that might be what is causing their confusion. I think this is a relatively new site and doesn't have the name recognition that other share sites have, so maybe a little additional info could have sorted some of the confusion.
okay, that didn't work. Here is the link I meant to paste.
http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/16/sketchfab-is-a-unique-way-to-show-diy-3d-content-on-the-web/
Bart, I just noticed something else. On some computers I am not getting the warning message that I used to see, saying something about "your web browser is not able to handle OpenGL content" and suggesting compatible browsers. Can you confirm this?
Thanks @ChromeMonkey for the clarification. We are exactly what you said: like vimeo, but for 3D files. A tool to let 3D professionals show and publish their work without having to give it away.
About not seing the warning message: we are testing an alpha version of our fallback, which will show a 360° image of the model when WebGL isn't available. This should be ready pretty soon.
The Sketchfab team
No worries. It's what I do.
It took me about 30 minutes to fully appreciate what this site is. Sketchfab needs a better intro page. At first like many of you I thought it was a swap site. But now I see that it is a portfolio site, like Deviantart for 3D models. Its really pretty awesome! No plugins! And you can embed! Once I figure out the textures and the subsurf details, I will be using this a lot!
Thanks Bart for sharing this link