We’re excited to announce the launch of Spectrum 3DTrue, our newest rendering engine that brings our clients’ products alive with crystal-clear, photo-realistic 3D. 3DTrue’s best-in-class visualization offers high-level animated states, multi-variant lighting and true to life material representation. With 3DTrue, the variety and complexity of materials are represented with 100% accuracy, including glass, translucent plastics, iridescents, detailed fabric, metallics and much more. Lastly, 3DTrue is future-proofing today’s 3D assets with the ability to apply existing product aesthetics to future product images, saving time and money on future photoshoots.
See below for more details:
Unique Capabilities of 3DTrue
Image Based Lighting
Image Based Lighting (IBL) is a technique in which we are able to dynamically light 3D scenes, assets, or environments using an .HDRI image instead of only using 3D lights.
- 3DTrue captures real-world light, and simulates how that environment would physically impact a 3D asset, leading to more realistic looking models.
- We can leverage clients .hdri images to exactly match their existing product lighting requirements for increased consistency.
- Can be used in conjunction with 3D lights for the optimal look.
Physically Based Rendering (PBR)
Physically Based Rendering (PBR) is a way to render a 3D object using properties that mimic how light interacts with objects in the real world. PBR materials have specific properties (roughness, metalness, diffuse/albedo, normals) and can be created using industry standard software.
Spectrum uses an array of industry standard approaches to author materials following a PBR workflow, allowing the team to seamlessly integrate them into our pipeline to be visualized over the web.
Real-Time Rendering
Real-time rendering is the act of rendering 3D models and textures in a live environment, such as via a website/WebGL. This is critical for Spectrum because, unlike some 3D customizers, we aren’t just rendering still images and switching between them. Our process more closely resembles video game development by rendering products right before your eyes.
Keyframe Animation/Rigging Capabilities
When animation can assist in demonstrating a product’s full benefit, 3DTrue utilizes keyframe animation to create fluid and complex animation movements. Keyframe animation provides the ability to use a rig, allowing for rigid animations, where no product part is being bent, deformed or stretched during the animation, such as a knife opening from its handle
Glow and Emissive Properties
With these tools, we are able to use the emissive properties of materials to have parts of a model cast their own light.
Translucency
Translucency is the physical property of semi-transparent materials and how light passes through them. By utilizing translucency, we can more realistically represent products with transparency, such as jewelry and glassware.
Clear Coat
Clear coat is a 3D property of a material that simulates the coating of a transparent layer of paint over a colored layer. Commonly used when rendering car models, clear coat allows Spectrum 3DTrue to provide more realistic looks for any product that is manufactured with a similar process.
Anistropy
Anistropy is a special property where the shape of light reflection changes based on the direction from which it is viewed. This allows 3DTrue to render specific materials more realistically such as brushed metal, vinyl, and velvet.
Camera Animation
With 3DTrue technology, we now have the ability to animate models within our scene as well as the camera itself. This allows us to create dramatic entrances and effects within customizers, and support a range of dynamic movements.
Post Processing Effects
3DTrue provides a host of capabilities for applying specific filters and 2D effects after the image is processed on the screen, in real-time 3D. This opens a whole new world of dynamic and efficient effects that can be applied to our clients’ models, mimicking how real-life cameras operate. Effects include:
- Bloom: Mimics how light is imperfectly captured within a real camera lens, as a gaussian effect where the light spreads out.
- Chromatic Aberration: Captures how colors are imperfectly rendered within a real-life camera.
- Depth of Field: Represents how a camera focuses on elements within the scene.
- Grain: Imitates film grain on a camera, for more realistic filmic scenes.
- Color Processing: Includes various settings and filters that can affect how colors are interpreted by a camera and rendered within our 3D scenes.
.GLB/.GLTF Support
We offer support for the two most ubiquitous file formats in 3D animation, allowing us to render and integrate multiple file formats with minimal effort.
- GLTF is a file format for 3D scenes that aims to become the “JPG” of 3D file formats, a standardized format that will work across multiple platforms
- .GLB differs from GLTF in that it allows textures and animations to be directly compressed within it instead of being referenced externally. Platforms like Facebook are starting to standardize this format, which will make 3D products easier to share across social media.
- Spectrum uses .GLB files a bit differently than other 3D programs. We don’t use the texture information imbedded in the files, allowing us to set-up assets to be more customizable
- We also are able to work with .OBJ, .FBX, .STP and .STEP file formats
Component Swapping
This capability allows for live swapping between models on a webpage. One model is rendered and easily switched to another, sometimes accompanied with a real-time animation, without a page refresh.
Sub-surface Scattering
Sub-surface scattering is the physical diffusion of light within a semi-translucent material, such as the glow of your skin when you hold a flashlight up to your hand, and is utilized to achieve greater realism of products.
Please reach out if you’d like a more in-depth demonstration of Spectrum’s 3DTrue capabilities and how they can benefit your ecommerce program.