As a Fab publisher, you can build a media gallery in your listing to advertise any product type. The media gallery includes the option for an interactive 3D preview of your product. The preview is displayed in Fab's 3D viewer, which buyers use to examine product attributes. You can edit the preview display with Fab's 3D editor.
3D viewer in a product listing.
This page provides an overview of the 3D editor and how to adjust properties to update the display of your product in the 3D viewer. Before using the 3D editor and viewer, it is important to understand how to create a listing and the differences in the 3D viewer if you are migrating from Sketchfab. To learn more see, Publishing Assets for Sale and Migrating Assets.
The example media uses the Dino Dragon asset from Unreal Engine's Content Example project, which is unavailable for download in Fab. To learn more about the sample project, see Content Examples.
Navigation
The 3D viewer and editor share the same scene navigation. A scene is the 3D space that encompasses an asset in the viewer and editor. You can navigate through the scene with a mouse or your fingers (if you're working with a touch screen).
Navigation relies on an orbit camera. The pivot point for the orbit is the scene focus point of the scene(the camera target). The pivot point automatically adjusts as you pan the scene. To manually set the pivot point, double-click or double-tap on the part of the scene that you want to be the pivot.
Use the following controls to navigate the scene:
- Orbit around the model: Click + drag or 1 finger + drag.
- Pan the view point: Right-click + drag, middle-mouse-click + drag, Shift+click+drag, or 2 fingers + drag.
- Zoom in or out: Mouse wheel, Ctrl + click + drag or finger pinch.
- Reset camera to initial view: Spacebar or tap the background.
- Fit entire scene into the screen: double-click
- Set the focus point: Double-click or tap the model.
3D Viewer
The 3D viewer is accessible to any Fab user, including publishers and buyers. Buyers can use it to preview a product in real-time and examine various properties, such as geometry, textures, materials, and animations.
Accessing the 3D Viewer
To access the 3D viewer, click a listing and navigate through the listing's media gallery. To the left of the listing title is the gallery, which can include images and real-time 3D previews of the product. Media with a lower left-hand cube in the thumbnail indicates you can preview the product in real-time.
As a publisher, when you upload a 3D model to the media gallery, you can preview the asset in the viewer to confirm what buyers will see. To learn how to add a 3D model to the media gallery to activate the 3D viewer, see the 3D Editor section of the page.
Media gallery of a product listing.
The 3D Viewer is accessible from the following contexts:
- A web page
- A game engine plugin (for example, Unreal Engine for Fortnite)
- A software integration (for example, Adobe Substance)
- A mobile application (for example, RealityCapture)
And with the following devices:
- Desktop computer
- Smartphone (mobile)
- Tablet
Fab's 3D viewer has different features from Sketchfab's 3D viewer. The following Sketchfab 3D viewer features are not currently available in the Fab 3D viewer:
- Annotations
- AR mode
- VR mode
- Custom backgrounds
- Custom HDRI environments
Default Interface
When you open the 3D viewer, a progress bar appears in the middle of the screen. When the bar is full, the model appears with a short camera animation. By default, along with the model, the Main toolbar and Animation toolbar become available.
3D Viewer Default Interface.
| Number | UI | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Scene | 3D space of the viewer which encompasses an asset. |
| 2 | Animation Toolbar | Player utility to playback and adjust the order of animation tracks. Only appears for models with animation. |
| 3 | Main Toolbar | Commands and settings to preview an asset. |
Animation Toolbar
If your model has animation, then the Animation Toolbar appears by default. The toolbar consists of a timeline for playback along with the commands in the table below.
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
| Play and Stop | Plays and stops the animation. |
| Time Display | Shows the current time of the animation and the total time. Toggle the button to switch to the current frame of the total number of frames. |
| Speed | Toggle the button to change the speed of the animation (x0.1, x0.5, x1, x2 speed). |
| Next | Toggle the button to go to the next animation in the list. |
| Animation Dropdown | List of available animations. |
| Repeat One | Repeats the first animation in the list. |
| Repeat All | Plays all the animation and repeats continuously. |
| No repeat | Plays all the animations once and stops. |
In the 3D editor, you can set up the first animation to play automatically in the 3D viewer.
Main Toolbar
The Main toolbar includes tools and settings to examine an asset. The toolbar fades away when no interaction is detected after a few seconds. To activate the toolbar, hover over the scene.
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
| Help page | Shows the navigation controls and all the keyboard shortcuts. The window is split into two tabs:
|
| Settings | Opens a panel to turn on the wireframe mode and change its color. |
| Inspector | Opens a toolbar of render modes to view property details of the product. For more information, see the Inspector section below. |
| Reset Camera | Resets the camera to the initial view. |
| Full-screen Mode | Switches between windowed and full-screen modes. |
Inspector
The Inspector tool consists of render modes to view details of a model. When you click the Inspector, all the available modes appear in a toolbar.
Render modes of the Inspector tool.
You can hover over each mode to see a preview of the render on the model. Click a mode for a full render on the model and to navigate the scene with the mode selection. When you click a mode, a window pops up with contextual information.
Some render modes can be absent from the toolbar if they are not a part of the model.
| Render Mode | Description |
|---|---|
| Final Render | The normal render of the scene. The Information window shows the number of geometries, materials, textures, and dimensions of the scene. |
| Base Color | The color of the material. The information window shows the number of materials and textures that use this channel in the scene. |
| Metalness | The metalness material, which determines how much the shaded surface is metallic. The render mode displays grayscale values, where black (0) represents no metalness and white (1) represents metalness. |
| Roughness | The roughness material, which determines how rough the shaded surface is. The render mode displays grayscale values, where black (0) represents a smooth material and white (1) represents a rough material. |
| Normal | The normal material, which determines how light is reflected on a pixel basis. |
| Occlusion | The occlusion material, which determines how much ambient light is captured in the shader. The render mode displays grayscale values, where black (0) represents a shadow material and white (1) represents a lit material. |
| Matcap | Renders the model with a matcap lighting (with normal mapping enabled). |
| UV Checker | Renders the model with an UV checker texture. The information window shows the number of UV sets, also known as UV channels. |
| Wireframe | Renders an outline of the topology of the model. |
3D Editor
Fab's 3D editor provides a toolset to create and modify the display of a 3D preview for your listing. In the editor you can set up your display scene to showcase an asset. The editor is available on desktop and mobile devices.
Adjustments to the display of the 3D preview with the 3D editor.
You can add 3D previews to demonstrate an example of how to use your product, which may include assets that aren't in the downloadable files. For example, individual standalone assets (the assets for download) in a larger 3D environment with extra components that are not for download. However, for the case of selling a single 3D model, at least one 3D preview must accurately represent what's for sale.
To clearly distinguish assets that are not part of your product, add a note in your listing description. We recommend also indicating if additional effects such as animations or lighting you use in the preview are not included in the product.
Enable the Editor
To create a 3D preview and activate the editor, follow these steps:
- In your listing, navigate to the Media gallery section.
- Under Add media, click Upload.
- Follow the on-screen instructions and wait for the upload to complete.
- Click Edit 3D settings to open the editor.
3D previews in the media gallery must be less than 500MB. For additional resolution and content requirements information, see Asset File Format and Structure Requirements.
Upload a 3D model to enable the 3D editor.
The media gallery you see while editing your listing reflects the gallery that buyers see when they're previewing your products. This means you can examine the product in the 3D viewer to make sure it displays properly before you publish. To set the thumbnail image, adjust the view of the model and click Save thumbnail.
Default Interface
When the 3D editor opens, the following default interface appears.
Default interface for the 3D editor.
| Number | UI | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Scene | 3D space of the editor which encompasses an asset. |
| 2 | Menu Bar | Contains information and action about the scene. Expands into an essential and advanced panel for specific settings. |
| 3 | Save Button | Saves all the latest changes on the scene and updates the 3D viewer. |
Menu Bar
The Menu Bar consists of menu options for specific scene and asset editing commands described in the table below.
| Menu | Description |
|---|---|
| Scene | Information about the asset in the scene and tools to adjust its transforms. |
| Lighting | Tools to edit the lights in the scene. |
| Materials | Tools to edit the materials of the model. |
| Camera | Tools to edit the camera and visual effects of the scene. |
| Look | Tools to add special post effects on the final image, such as vignette, tone mapping, and color balance. |
| Animations | Tools to play and change the animations of a model when applicable. |
| Inspect | Toggles the render modes. These are the same render modes the buyer sees in the 3D viewer. |
| Editor Settings | Additional settings for history, display, selection, camera, and animation. |
Essential and Advanced Panel
Beyond the default interface, the 3D Editor has two modes which you access from the Menu Bar.
-
Essential Mode: Shows a panel with the core parameters to edit. The panel appears by default over the Menu Bar when you click a menu option.
-
Advanced Mode: Shows a panel with in-depth parameters to edit. The panel appears on the right side of the scene when you click the Show Advanced Panel icon.
 |
 |
|---|---|
| Essential Panel | Advanced panel |
Scene
Essential panel of the Scene menu.
The 3D space of the viewer is defined as the scene. You can adjust elements of the scene, such as lighting and background to better display your product. When you click the Scene menu, the Essential panel appears with the title of the listing, along with the number of materials, geometries, and triangles.
The Essential panel also includes a set of fields to change the transforms for the model. A transform gizmo appears on the model for direct manipulation along with the Transform panel at the top of the editor. Use the Transform panel to toggle the visibility of the gizmo and enable snapping.
The Transform panel is also available when you click a model outside the Scene menu or a light in the Lighting menu. You must enable the model selection mode for the Transform panel to appear. For more information, see the Editor Settings section of the page.
Advanced Panel
Advanced panel of the Scene menu.
The Advanced panel in the Scene menu includes the transform operations and an outliner of the separate geometry of the model. You can use the search bar to filter the geometry pieces. In addition, the outliner includes the option to toggle the visibility and camera focus on each piece.
Lighting
The Lighting menu includes fields to edit the lights of the scene. You can adjust the position of three lights in addition to an environment light.
Essential panel of the Lighting menu.
Light
When you select a light, the panel changes to the properties of the light and the transform panel becomes visible.
Light types and properties.
You can choose from the following light types in the table, each with different fields. For all light types, you can select a color.
| Light Type | Settings |
|---|---|
| Spot | Emits light from a single point in a cone shape. Power: Defines the power of the light source (as you would find in real life), expressed in lumens. Angle: Defines the half angle in degrees of the spotlight (from 0 to 90 degrees). Softness: Defines how sharp the spot disc is when projected on the lit surface. Cast shadows: Defines if this spot light casts shadows. Shadow bias: Defines a shadow casting offset to avoid banding artifacts on the surface. Enabled only if Cast Shadow is true. The Attenuation Radius and Spotlight Constant Intensity settings are available in the Advanced panel. |
| Point | [INCLUDE:#Point |
| Sun | Emits light in one direction, similar to the sun. Illuminance: Defines the quantity of light received by a surface perpendicular to the sun, expressed in Lux (Lumen by square meters). You can add real life values. Cast shadows: Defines if the sunlight casts shadows. Use the Advanced panel to set the Shadow Bias. |
Environment
The Environment tool opens a panel with properties to configure the environment lighting. Environment lighting pulls light source information and colors from a 360 degree image to simulate the lighting in the scene. To change the source image, click the current environment. A list of environments to simulate opens. To filter the list, click and drag the list to scroll the images or use the search bar.
Environment light properties.
You can toggle the environment image to disable the light simulation and display only the image in the scene. To keep the light simulation but hide the environment image, use the Background tool in the Look menu.
For each environment, use the properties in the panel to adjust the appearance of the lighting in the 3D viewer.
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Orientation | Rotates the environment around the scene in degrees (from 0 to 360). |
| Brightness | Increases or lowers the exposure of the environment. |
| Casts shadows | Toggles the shadows cast by the environment. Adjust the Shadow Bias value in the Advanced panel. |
| Reflection | Toggles the reflection lighting (screen space reflection). Adjust the intensity value in the Advanced panel. |
| Occlusion | Toggles contact shadows of nearby objects. When active, you can control the radius and intensity, along with the bias in the Advanced panel. |
Advanced Panel
Advanced panel of the Lighting menu.
The Advanced panel has additional settings for the properties in the Essential panel.
| Light | Advance Setting |
|---|---|
| Spot Light |
|
| Point Light |
|
| Sunlight | Shadow Bias: Defines the shadows intensity and proximity to the cast object. |
Materials
When you upload a 3D format, part or all of the model may have missing textures or materials that don't appear as expected. Use the Materials menu to add the correct textures and make adjustments to channel parameters. The Essential panel opens with the list of the materials by default. You can search for a material at the top of the panel or scroll horizontally through the list.
Model with missing textures.
To edit the texture of a channel, click the associated material. You can add new textures by doing the following:
- Drag multiple images into the Essential panel for the editor to automatically apply to the proper channel.
- Drag an image into a specific channel.
- Click a channel to drag images into the search explorer or use the Browse option.
Use the Clear button to remove a texture from the channel. To add a new channel, scroll to the end, click the plus icon (+), and choose from the list.
Add and assign missing textures.
When you change the materials and associated textures in the editor, it affects the render modes in the 3D viewer.
Advanced Panel
Advanced panel of the Materials menu.
The Advanced panel includes parameters to adjust the values and visibility of each channel. At the top of the panel you can choose PBR (Physically Based Rendering) shading or Shadeless (no lighting). Shadeless removes the effects of any lights from your materials. This is often a good option for 3D scans, or models with baked lighting.
Channels
Channels are groups of parameters that represent a feature of the material. For a quick description of the channel, hover over the question mark icon (?). Each channel has a similar interface with the same widgets for value adjustments.
Channel properties interface.
| Number | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Slider | Adjusts the value of the specified setting. |
| 2 | Texture / Color | Presents a texture and/or a color option. The color button displays a color picker and the texture button displays a texture browser popup. Follow on screen directions. |
| 3 | Clear Texture | Removes the texture from the channel. |
| 4 | Texture Settings | Opens a panel with options to:
|
Not all channels are visible by default in the Essential panel of the 3D editor and Inspector of the 3D viewer. To change the visibility of channels, toggle the slider next to each channel name in the Advanced panel. Below is a description of each channel along with additional values not present in the shared interface above.
| Material Channel | Description |
|---|---|
| Base Color | Sets the color of the material in PBR material definition. This channel can take an optional texture which color will be multiplied with the color field. |
| Metalness | Determines how much the shaded surface is metallic. The channel can take a grayscale texture, where black (0) represents dielectric material and white (1) represents metallic material. |
| Roughness or Glossiness | Roughness determines how rough the shaded surface is. The channel can take a grayscale texture, where black (0) represents a smooth material and white (1) represents a rough material. The invert of roughness is glossiness, which determines how shiny the shaded surface is. |
| Specular Level | Determines the reflectivity of non-metallic surfaces. |
| Normal | Determines how light reflects per pixel to create bumps, dents, and other surface details. The pixels in the texture represent the normalized direction in tangent space. You can choose the DirectX or Opengl normal map convention. |
| Bump | An alternative to normal mapping that determines how light reflects per pixel. It uses a bump map that is a grayscale texture defining the height of the pixel in tangent space along the normal axis. |
| Occlusion | Determines how much ambient light is captured in the shader to create soft shadows. The channel can take a grayscale texture, where black (0) represents a shadow material and white (1) represents a lit material. |
| Emission | Creates a glowing effect based on color and intensity. |
| Anisotropy | Emulates light reflection on surfaces, with thin scratches or stripes. Used for brushed metal or hair. |
| Sheen | Simulates the way light interacts with lots of small threads. You can add a second texture for Roughness or Glossiness. All light types, including environment lighting, affect sheen. |
| Clear Coat | Emulates an additional translucent layer over the base surface. For example, car paint or nail polish. It includes additional properties:
|
| Transmission | Determines how light is transmitted into a medium. Used for refractive transparency. Includes a Thickness property that defines the global thickness of the refractive medium. |
| Displacement | AAdds depth and details by displacing each point on a surface. You can adjust the Distance and Offset of the displacement. |
| Cutout | Defines what pixel is visible on a surface with an option to invert the texture. |
| Opacity | Sets the surface to be transparent or semi-transparent with the option to invert the texture. Includes the following opacity types:
|
Camera
Essential panel of the Camera menu.
The Camera menu contains several fields to control how the camera behaves, including the initial view of the camera (the one used by default when opening the 3D viewer).
| Camera Menu | Description |
|---|---|
| Edit Default View | Shows the camera view to frame the model and set the default loading view. Field of view: Sets the angle of the camera to establish what is in view. The default value is 45 degrees. This is the half angle of the camera and might match a 90 degree field of view in Unreal Engine. The maximum value is 90 degrees. Click Screenshot to see a preview of the default view. To apply the new angle as the default loading view, click Save. |
| Brightness | Controls the exposure of the camera. It's rescaled on a range of -5 to 5, similar to a mobile phone camera. |
| Bloom | Makes the highlights of the scene glow. Click the button to adjust the sensitivity, intensity, and radius values. |
Advanced Panel
In the Advanced panel, brightness is replaced by Exposure Compensation, which simulates a real-life camera. In addition, you can adjust the Near Clipping Distance value to determine at what distance from the camera the model is not visible.
Look
Use the Look menu to enhance the final render of the scene.
Essential panel of the Look menu.
Tone Mapping
Tone mapping adjusts the brightness and contrast of the final image. The following tone mapping methods are available:
- Linear
- Reinhard
- Filmic
- ACES
For each method, you can control the exposure, brightness, contrast, and saturation.
Vignette
The Vignette tool darkens the corners of the final image. You can toggle the visibility, and control the amount of darkness and hardness.
Vignette properties.
Background
The Background tool sets the backdrop of the scene. You can set the background to the current environment image or to a color. For additional control, set the blurriness and brightness of the background.
If you toggle the background off, the backdrop becomes transparent but keeps any active environment lighting.
Ground
The Ground tool creates a transparent flat surface below the model and casts soft shadows on it. This effect gives the impression the model is on the ground.
The following properties are available:
- Intensity: Controls the strength of the shadows on the ground.
- Border Fade: Fades the shadows at the edges of the ground for smoother transition with the background.
- Height: Sets the horizontal position of the ground.
- Shadow Diffusion: Controls how much the soft shadows spread.
Advanced Panel
Advanced panel of the Look menu.
In the Look menu, the Advanced panel includes the same tools as the Essential panel, with the addition of the following post-process effects.
| Effect | Description |
|---|---|
| Vignette | Darkens the corners of the final image. You can toggle the visibility, and control the amount and hardness of the darkened areas with sliders. |
| Grain | Adds a noise effect to the image. You can toggle the visibility, control the grain factor with a slider, and toggle animation. |
| Chromatic Aberration | Shifts the red, green, and blue channels to produce an old lens effect. You can toggle the visibility, and control the intensity with a slider. |
| Color Balance | Adjusts the intensity of colors with the following:
|
Animation
Essential panel of the Animation menu.
If your model includes animation, the buyer has access to animation information in the Essential panel. For reference, see the Animation Toolbar section of this page.
You can use the panel to confirm the animation tracks and set default settings for the 3D viewer.
| Number | Command | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Play and Stop | Toggle to play and stop the animation. |
| 2 | Time Display | Shows the current time of the animation and the total time. Toggle the button to show the current frame of the total number of frames. |
| 3 | Speed | Toggle button to change the speed of the animation (x0.1, x0.5, x1, x2 speed). |
| 4 | Next | Toggle button to go to the next animation in the list. |
| 5 | Animation Dropdown | List of available animations. |
| 6 | Repeat One | Repeats the first animation in the list. |
| 7 | Repeat All | Plays all the animation and repeats continuously. |
| 8 | No repeat | Plays all the animations once and stops. |
Advanced panel
Use the Advanced panel for all the settings in the Essential panel and to change the animation order visible to the buyer.
Inspect
Render modes of the Inspect menu.
The Inspect menu has render modes to view attributes of the model. When you click Inspect, all the available modes appear in a toolbar. The render modes are the same as the Inspector in the 3D viewer. As you make adjustments in the Materials menu, use the Inspect menu to confirm channels appear correctly.
Editor Settings
Additional editor settings.
The settings panel for the editor contains additional properties and commands for history, display, selection, camera, and animation, along with their associated hotkeys.
| Setting Section | Description |
|---|---|
| History | Has Undo and Redo buttons to rollback and reapply recent changes. |
| Display | Options to toggle different visualization tools.
|
| Selection | Switch between selection modes:
|
| Camera | Options to focus on selection and reset the view. |
| Animation | Play and pause animation. |
When you close the editor, the settings here revert to default.