Export Model Including Textures For Online Viewers
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Hello,
I have a lot of old models of products that we would like to put on our website so that customers can look all around them in 3D rather than just flat images.
I've played about with some online viewers and getting the models in is easy enough but I don't know how to get the materials in. All these models were done in the standard renderer and most of them use procedural materials. Each model typically uses between three and five materials. I've heard something about 'Baking Materials', is that what I need to do? If so how do I go about doing it?
Many Thanks
David -
Watch this video if you are using Standard C4D render (not RS):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqDT1waOUsYAnd here's Adrian showing how to bake using the Redshift Bakeset object.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa-rlJmduWA -
I needed to do this kind of thing, a while back, for Amazon. In that case, it needed to work for augmented reality, so people could preview the products in their local environments. But regardless, we needed to utilize the glTF format.
Unfortunately, Cinema (and RS particularly) aren't necessarily the best tools to create those open source files. I needed to quickly learn some basics in Blender, so I could use that to do the final work on those files, once exported from C4D.
Not saying this is the route you need to take, depending on the format you need for your website, but there are some nice advantages to using the glTF format. -
@entry-newspaper Hi, thanks for the info. I don't really have time to start learning Blender at the moment unfortunately. The first thing I need to understand is how to make my materials into images (I think?). In the tutorial above the materials use bitmap textures but as I explained in my post mine are all procedural. It's very frustrating as the model side of things works great, the geometry is perfect. I just need to learn how to get the materials to work too
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The materials, most specifically, are why I even commented. Those were 100% the reason why I was forced to (awkwardly) use Blender.
glTF has many supported functions; reflections, blurred reflections, clearcoat, normal maps, anisotropy, etc.
And Blender can natively create those materials - as both those are Open Source.
But you're not going to be able to get procedural-based materials to work the way you want. Even the Blender / glTF route still involves a great deal of compromise and re-working of materials. -
@entry-newspaper Hi, thanks for the info, this is where I'm really struggling, I don't know what to do to make my materials compatible. I am aware that the Cinema 4D procedural materials that I've made will not export out into a compatible format but this is exactly what I'm asking about. (I'm still at the beginner stage when it comes to Cinema so I may even be using all the wrong terminology) I was under the impression, (although I may have got this completely wrong) that I'd need to do something called baking to turn my materials into bitmap images that could then be used in something such gITF?
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...The first thing I need to understand is how to make my materials into images (I think?). In the tutorial above the materials use bitmap textures but as I explained in my post mine are all procedural.
By Baking a material you are essentially taking any procedural information and making it a bitmap... but depending on how your material is constructed, you may need to do more or less preparation.
simplify the project, leave a single object with a single material (delete all other materials form the Manager) and save a project.
Send a link here and I'll take a look ... -
@noseman Hi Mr Noseman, thanks for this. I've added a link to a simple cylinder that is intended to look like a rod that has been turned on a CNC machine. Apologies if my material is not very good but I just experimented until it looked good enough for images of our products. I tried to imitate the cutter marks in the steel as it is turned. This is one example of a material I need to be able to export for things such as gITF.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1F52SLKFDLmxybAb6hqrXSenuPFuHk5al/view?usp=share_link
Kind Regards
David -
Thank you for sending this. I am asking around to see if I can get some information. I haven't dealt with glTF so I need to look into it...
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@noseman Thanks Mr Noseman, very much appreciated
Kind Regards
David
