The purpose of this article is to guide you through Sketchfab's implementation of PBR, as well as the Sketchfab material editor. It is not intended to teach you how to use PBR in general. There are many great resources on PBR theory and practice, including Allegorithmic's PBR Guide.
What is PBR?
Physically Based Rendering (PBR) is a method of shading and rendering that provides a more accurate representation of how light interacts with surfaces. It can be referred to as Physically Based Rendering (PBR) or Physically Based Shading (PBS). Depending on what aspect of the pipeline is being discussed, PBS is usually specific to shading concepts and PBR specific to rendering and lighting. However, both terms describe on a whole, the process of representing assets from a physically accurate standpoint. - Wes McDermott, Allegorithmic PBR Guide, Vol. 2
PBR is a methodology, not necessarily a hard standard.
PBR on Sketchfab
The PBR material tools are available in 3D Settings.
- From your model, click Edit 3D Settings or add "/edit" to the end of any model URL.
- Select the Materials panel in the top left.
See also Materials and Textures.
Shading mode must be Lit for PBR lighting and reflections to work. Using an Environment to light the scene is typically the best option. See Scene and Lighting for more details.
PBR Maps
PBR has two main workflow options: Metalness and Specular. See PBR Maps.
Anisotropy
Anisotropic reflections are stretched across a surface due to patterned roughness on that surface. Some common use cases are hair and brushed steel. See Anisotropy.
Roughness / Glossiness
The Roughness or Glossiness channel describes a material's surface irregularities and how they affect the reflection of light. See Roughness / Glossiness.
Displacement
The Displacement channel can move a model's vertices. See Displacement.
Normal Map / Bump Map
The normal map or bump map channel adds bumps, dents, and other details to the surface of a model. See Normal Map / Bump Map.
Sheen
The Sheen channel simulates the way light interacts with lots of small threads which absorb and scatter colors. See Sheen.
Subsurface Scattering / Skin
The Subsurface scattering (SSS) channel simulates the effect of light scattering inside an object. It is useful for translucent materials like skin, wax, and ice. See Subsurface Scattering / Skin.
Clear Coat
The Clear Coat channel simulates the effect of a thin reflective layer on top of a surface. A common use case is the transparent coating on top of car paint. See Clear Coat.
Ambient Occlusion (AO)
The Ambient Occlusion (AO) channel defines large areas of occluded light. See Ambient Occlusion (AO).
Cavity
The Cavity channel defines small areas of occluded light. See Cavity.
Transparency / Opacity / Alpha Mask
Sketchfab supports several transparency modes: Blending, Refraction, Additive, Dithered, and Mask.
See Transparency for details.
Emission
The Emission channel can make a material glow. See Emission.
Faces Rendering
The Faces Rendering option allows you to display just one, or both, sides of a material surface. See Faces Rendering.
Saving
Once you've made your adjustments, including position and orientation, be sure to update your model's thumbnail image and default position with Save View and/or save your changes with Save Settings. You can return to your model by clicking either the model's name or Exit.
Also see:
Comments
50 comments
Is it possible to have separate Metalness and Specular materials?
I just can't add a moving custom environment, it is static, what do I do wrong?
@somchith3d - Not at the moment: Switching between them will change the workflow for ALL materials in the scene.
@auslander - I'm not sure what you mean, can you elaborate?
Hello, I have imported my model as a .STL. I am a product design engineer, not a rendering or 3D artist type, so I was quite surprised to see our favourite formats of .IGES and .STEP are not supported. I had to faff about and work out how to export an STL to get it into Sketchfab. The problem I have now is, the model is made up of several parts. There is a case and it has buttons on it. I need the buttons to be another material to the case. The STL seems to have imported in such a way that it treats the buttons and the case as the same 3D object. I cannot workout therefore how to apply a different material to the buttons than the case. I have a horrible feeling that I wont be able to do this. If this is the case, can you tell me how I might be able to get round this, bearing in mind that as a design engineer, I don't use 3DS max or any of the graphic/art type modelling systems.
Thanks.
in the future can we have emission map, but based on gradients normals?
or maybe in near future we can have a stand alone sketchfab win applications. for better adjustments, say setting up color animations; its graph etc before publishing it...
Hi @rubykamen - Sounds interesting. Do you have an example of this kind of emission map?
hi @james - glad you interested... its for faking SSS, X-ray materials or maybe making some kind of xplosion ( sadly currently we cant make it with voxels ) with emission value controlled from the gradient normals...
I still cant get my textures to show up on my models, it just dose the color of the texture. i am using blender.
@whitejackal Are they properly UV unwrapped and embedded in the .blend file? https://help.sketchfab.com/hc/en-us/articles/209143886-Blender-Materials#blender-textures
Could you post a link to the upload so I can take a closer look?
@James i don't know how to UV yet, they are generated textures. https://sketchfab.com/models/8a0cd3a2261a4c5ca7415129d066f18d
this is what its suposed to look like
Thanks. I just saw your email. I'll reply there.
We only support UV mapped textures in Blender at the moment.
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro/UV_Map_Basics
Hello, I recently uploaded a 3D model that is supposed to have different materials/textures assigned to different parts of the model. In Maya, I have 5 different materials, each with their own unique texture that is currently 2K resolution. However after previewing it in 3D Settings on Sketchfab, under the Materials tab I only see "Scene - Root" as the only material. How can I assign different textures that I upload to different parts in Sketchfab to get my model to display correctly? Thanks
@mmkh - I'm sorry you're having trouble. What file format did you upload? Have you tried the Maya Exporter plugin? https://sketchfab.com/exporters/maya
I have the same question as hocusproducts . Why has no one answered?
@doboindesign @hocusproducts - Sorry about that. We support IGES files now, but it might not be the most robust support. Otherwise, you'll need to convert your model to another format.
James, thanks for the reply! My problem is not so much converting files. I use rhino and can convert to many file formats. the problem I'm having is how to assign different textures to different parts of the object. Like hocusproducts said, my models have differenbt components except the layers for each component is not being imported to sketchfab. i just see something called "scene root". I'm a total noob here so I'm most probably overlooking something. However, i have come here because I still can't find info on how to assig different textures to different parts of an object.
Hmm, do you mind sending my an example Rhino file so I can take a closer look? You can email support@sketchfab.com
I've sent you an example... thanks !
Great, thanks :)
Is there a Maya material preset (ShaderFX or Stingray PBS or other) that would map 1:1 to a GL material Sketchfab is using?
@scanlabstudio I'm not very familiar with Maya's material presets, but most likely those will not translate 1:1 if they are unique to Maya. However, you can use our material/texture naming conventions to automatically match and apply PBR channels:
https://help.sketchfab.com/hc/en-us/articles/202600873-Materials-and-Textures#textures-auto-pbr
I'm talking about a GLSL material you use to display WebGL content at Sketchfab, nevermind Maya.
Oh, sorry, I'm not sure about that :-\
How should I upload my scene to have separate materials? Or the only option is making atlas?
What software and file format are you using? We support multiple materials in a scene, they just need to have unique names and be exported correctly.
I am using 3ds Max and export in .obj and .fbx. How should I esport it properly?
Are you using textures?
1) You can use the 3ds Max Exporter plug-in, which includes texture options:
https://sketchfab.com/exporters/3dsmax
2) FBX: make sure to enable "embed media" in the FBF export options.
3) OBJ: make sure to include the .MTL file and textures in the upload
Hi James!
I uploaded a 3d model from clo, it is a shirt. I'm trying to add a print to the main fabric by uploading a jpg file to the 'specular' > 'albedo' thing, but it's not working. Now I wonder if I'm trying to upload it in/with the wrong tool or if it's not possible at all to add it in sketchfab..
Would you give me a hand?
Thank you in advance for your time and patience :)
Hi, I've just made some tests to add a miror on a room.
I'm having the reflection on the room on the mirror. so It's working fine, exept that the HDRI using to create the reflection is very zoomed.
Is there any way to adjust the size of the reflection?
Thank you very much for your support!
Matthieu
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