Scene Editor

Summary

1. Introduction
2. Objects
3. Materials
4. Lights
5. Cameras
6. Settings

1. Introduction

The 3D Scene Editor section is where you upload and manage the 3D models of your products that you have developed according to our guidelines.

In particular, from this section you manage: 

• Objects (3D Models and parts)
• Materials
• Lights
• Cameras

When you start creating a new configurable product and upload a 3D model, you are provided with a menu as in the image below from where you can manage the 3D assets, materials, lights, and cameras.

2. Objects (3D models and parts)

Uploading a 3D model of your product is the first step to creating your configurable product.

When you upload your 3D asset, you will be able to see the individual meshes (parts) that make up the model. In the image below, you see an example of a 3D model for a gun that is made of four parts (barrel, body, details, and slide).

Zakeke shows the various parts of the model because the 3d model was developed as divided into parts, as explained in our guides, so that you can define the customization options for the individual parts of the product.

Zakeke allows you to:

• Show/Hide parts;
• Group two or more parts (using the Group tool or simply dragging one object to one other);
• Clone parts and groups of parts;
• Rename parts and groups of parts;
• Remove parts;
• Edit position, rotation, and scale of any object.  

3. Materials

Each part of a 3D model has an associated material that gets imported by Zakeke along with the 3D meshes when you upload the 3D model.

A 3D material is basically what you layer on top of a 3D object, to control the way the object is perceived when rendered. It behaves much the way a material does in the real world - whether that’s the way light interacts with its surface, or the nuances of color, texture, transparency, and reflectivity. Usually, the materials are associated with the 3D model by the 3D artist, but if no material is associated then the 3D modeling software applies one by default.

Materials can be managed within Zakeke, meaning that you can edit the existing material of the 3D object or even create a new one to get the result that you prefer.

3.1 Managing materials

When you import a model that already includes a material, the material gets imported as PBR material in Zakeke. If you create the material within Zakeke, you can choose whether to create it as a standard material or a PBR material.

Whether you edit an imported material or create a new one in Zakeke, you are provided with a set of options to manage the material properties (such as Albedo, Opacity, Reflection, Metallic, ...), including Normal/Bump (you can add bumps and dents to a texture to give your assets a more natural texturing effect).

To edit a material, select the part of the model for which you wish to edit the material and then click on Edit material. 

Instead, to create a new material, in the Materials section in the left menu, click on New to create a new material. The new material will be created for the selected object. 

Please note

Rememeber that for a correct management of materials and meshes, only one material should be applied to each mesh. Multimaterial on single mesh is not supported.

Materials Library

Once you create a new material you can Save it in your library to re-use it for other 3D objects, within the same 3D model or even for another product, via the Import tool.

3.2 New materials

When you create a new material, you have five different types of materials that can be created:

• Standard
• PBR
• PBR Metallic Roughness
• PBR Specular Glossiness

Standard

Standard material is a basic material that allows changing meshes in color and textures.

The material, whether it is a color or a texture, reacts to the light in different ways. Here below the parameters for the Standard material on the Zakeke 3D product configurator:

1. Diffuse: the basic color or texture of the material as viewed under a light;

2. Specular: the highlight given to the material by a light;

3. Emissive: the color or texture of the material as if self lit;

4. Ambient: the color or texture of the material lit by the environmental background lighting.

Diffuse and Specular materials require a light source to be created. Ambient color requires the ambient color of the scene to be set, giving the environmental background lighting.

PBR materials

Physically Based Rendering (PBR) is a method of shading and rendering that provides a final effect closer to reality. It ensures an accurate representation of how light interacts with surfaces. In this way, the final result is more natural-looking. PBR materials will work equally well in all lighting environments.

PBR has two main workflow options: Metalness and Specular. These two versions of the PBR material are simplified versions of the general PBR for specific uses.

Metalness

The specific parameters to manage Metal/Roughness are Base Color, Metalness, and Specular.

• Base Color can be a texture or solid color for reflected color in case of non-metals materials, reflectance values in case of metals;

• Metalness is a linear grayscale texture. It is black at 0.0 for non-metals and white at 1.0 for raw metals;

• Specular: a linear grayscale texture for Fresnel values (non-metals).

  Fresnel value is a specific parameter that handles reflection and transmission of light when incident on an interface between different optical media. By changing its values it's possible to simulate glass or reflection effects.

Specular

The channels specific to Specular/Glossiness are Albedo and Specular.

• Albedo can be a texture or solid color, without reflectance values;

• Specular can be the value for the reflectance of a texture or solid color.

4. Lights 

There are four types of lights that you can set in the scene:

• Hemispheric Light

• Point Light

• Spot Light

• Directional Light

Hemispheric Light is a very accurate way to simulate an ambient environment light. This is defined by directioned to the top of the scene, towards the sky. It can be managed by regulating its Intesity, Diffuse color, Specular color, and Ground color to achieve the best results. 

Point Light is defined by a single point of light. The light is emitted in every direction from this point. A good example of a point light is a standard light bulb.

Spot Light is a cone of light that starts from a position and illuminates toward the direction set. It is defined by its position, direction, angle, and exponent. The angle defines the size of the cone of light, and the exponent defines the extension of the light.

Directional light is defined by a direction. The light is emitted from everywhere in the specified direction, and has an infinite range.

Please note

If you use PBRs for your materials, Zakeke creates a default environment texture for lights. You can change the default ones to your own custom ones only with the Scale plans.

5. Cameras

Cameras are used to make the 3D model to automatically rotate to a certain position. You can associate each camera with:

• Attributes/Options
• Groups
• Steps
• Customizable Areas (product sides)

You can create those inside the Composer. So, when your customers select an attribute (part) of your product, a group of attributes, a step or a customizable area to add a text/image, the 3D model automatically rotates to show that part to the customer.

Check this guide to discover everything about Cameras and settings related.

6. Settings

Inside the Settings section of the Scene Editor you can: 

• Upload the Environment Texture
• Upload the Skybox Texture

You must upload into the Skybox section 6 different textures, in png format, all at once.
The 6 textures must be renamed as follows:
name_px
name_py
name_pz
name_nx
name_ny
name_nz
p=positive
n=negative

You need to complete this step because a skybox is the projection of an environment onto a cube. And a cube has 6 sides. So, if you were to project a sky, a mountain environment..onto a cube, with which you cannot interact, you will create an environment around the product that fit precisely to it. Simply put, you've applied a background, which completely encloses the product. The 6 extensions are named like that because of the coordinates the 6 textures go to apply on the cube according to the diagram attached below.

• Set the level of Blur
• Enable Anti Aliasing
• Optimize Texture management, merging textures with identical names into a single texture to optimize performance. 
  
  

  Please note

  Before activating this option you need to make sure:
  1. that if you use different textures they should not have the same name
  2. that if they have the same name they are actually the same texture

  This option will eventually merge all textures with the same name into one texture, so if different textures with the same name are merged into one then you will only have 1 texture that applies to wherever it was set. Once enabled, it is not a reversible operation. You must then reload all textures.
  
  

• Enable WebP for Textures  for optimizing texture file sizes
• Use delayed materials loading (if you have lots of variants, options and materials, Zakeke won't load them all at once, but, in order to keep the performances to the top quality, will force a delay up until the customer selection of another option)
• Enable Info points. Your customers to see high-res 2D images of the product on 3D model
• Activate the AI-powered configuration generator. Your clients simply describe their desired configuration and our advanced AI technology automatically generates the perfect customized product for them. Discover more here
• Enable the Augmented Reality, and then select to make a product resizable in AR, get a faster AR Conversion client-side, or activate the wall placement
• Trigger the Virtual Try-On and the Pupillary Distance tool for eyewear

6.1 Enable the Augmented Reality view

Inside the Setting section you can also enable Augmented Reality for your 3D configured product.

Augmented reality will give them the opportuntity to check all different aspects of the configuration they've just made inside their homes, augmenting the quality of their shopping experience, making it unique and special. 

So, by clicking on Enable AR you will add this layer of Visual Experience to your products and store.

You can also: 

• Enable resize of the item in AR. By enabling this option, your customers will be able to resize the customized item while they see it with the AR. If you don't want them to be able to change the size of the item when they use the AR, disable it.
• Enable the AR conversion on the fly. For the moment this option goes only for Android devices

Then you can measure the scene for the AR by selecting an object of which you know the size and typing one of it's dimension.

Finalizing the configuration you will see the AR Preview icon on the bottom of the Scene to preview it and test it out. On the product page you will also see the AR icon for your customers to enable the AR view with the rules you choose inside the settings.