Author: nimpsy

My obsession lately has been on mixed reality. I’ve been playing around with a lot of AR creation tools lately to see if I can do something more with my 3D models than just render them out.

Spark AR / Lens Studio

These free tools are created by Facebook and Snapchat to help create AR effects, “Face Filters” or “Lenses” for Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat.

In just a few weeks I was able to whip up a couple of Watchmen themed AR effects that work very nicely on Instagram.

You can check them both out on Instagram and load them from my profile by hitting the following icon.

Adobe Aero / Reality Composer

I’ve also been playing with Adobe Aero and Apple’s Reality Composer to try and make mixed-reality recordings and interactive experiences.

I’m trying to establish a workflow for getting high quality animated 3D models into AR. I’ve been using Cinema4D to model and animate and Substance Painter to create really nice PBR textures and materials.

So far I’ve been successful in getting still models into these tools as .glb (.gltf) or .usdz files, but only as still objects. I can get animated objects in, but then the PBR textures aren’t properly coming in with them. It’s a lot of trial and error at this point but the tools are getting better.

Asset Creation Tools

The following are the tools I use and I’ve learned to use during my quest to create content for mixed reality.

• Cinema4D (Maxon)
• glTF Exporter (Maxon)
• Adobe Dimension
• Adobe Aero
• Marmoset Toolbag
• Reality Composer (Apple)
• USDPython 0.62 (Apple)

The journey continues.