Vocab Flashcards
Modeling
Simply put, this is creating 3D objects. It doesn’t matter if you model with shapes and polygons or go with the sculpting route. However, no matter how you create your models, you need to make sure they aren’t too complex. Most AR is experienced through mobile phones, and not everyone has the most high-end device. After you get the hang of modeling, start looking into video game asset optimization. A lot of the same principles will apply to making AR-ready models.
Texturing
Make your models look nice! This can be as simple as creating a material, applying an image texture, or using something like Substance Painter to draw in all the detail. For AR, you’ll want to stick with 2k resolution (2048x2048) and below (lots of the AR creation tools limit you to 2k anyway). Depending on how many textures you have, you may need to go all the way down to 256x256 depending on where the texture is used. Also, try to stick with JPG vs PNG images. JPG images can have compression artifacts, but the file size difference is huge.
Rigging
If your model needs to move, it needs to be rigged. Rigging is the process of adding a virtual skeleton to your model.
Animating
Making it move! Once you have your model rigged, you are now ready to animate it! If rigging and animating aren’t your thing, check out Mixamo. With Mixamo, you upload your humanoid model and it does the rest! Mixamo will create the rig and then you can choose an animation. None of the animations are super complex, but they often are perfect for AR experiences. I’m personally not great at rigging and animating, so I turn to Mixamo fairly often for my Snapchat and Instagram filters.
Lighting
Bring it all together. The final lighting will be setup in your AR creation software (Lens Studio, Spark AR, etc), but it’s nice to setup some lighting while creating your 3D asset so you can see how it looks. This step is mostly about making your model look as good as it can.
