We’ve unveiled two exciting new features at SIGGRAPH this year that will be available to Sketchfab community members very soon. Stay tuned for launch details.
Subsurface Scattering
A feature that many have you requested; we are proud to unveil support for subsurface scattering, sometimes known as SSS. Subsurface scattering simulates the effect of light as it enters translucent materials like skin, ceramics, wax, or milk, as light enters the surface of the material, and is scattered (hence the name). It’s a phenomenon most of us are accustomed to seeing when holding our hand up to a bright light, where the edges of our fingers appear to glow as light passes through them.
The effect is often subtle but critical to giving a more realistic appearance. Here’s an example in action:
Use ALT/OPTION plus your mouse to change the rotation of the environment to better see the effect on skin as light conditions change. On mobile devices, drag with three finger touch.
We’ll have more detailed information to share soon, but you can see from the panels on the left-hand side of this view of our online editor that we have a very comprehensive SSS solution allowing you maximum flexibility with your work:
Scene Inspector
We’ve also significantly upgraded the ability to share and understand the material, texture, and topology make up of Sketchfab scenes with our new Scene Inspector.
The Scene Inspector, accessible through the Sketchfab player’s UI wherever it is embedded will allow you to more closely examine aspects of a scene, including a breakdown of all PBR textures, normal maps, ambient occlusion, cavity maps and many more. Wireframe topology views, a UV checker view to visualize UV stretching and even 2D views of the textures and topology used in your scene round out a comprehensive new tool.
The Scene Inspector is a great way to show off the quality of your workflow or to learn more about how other creators have approached their work.
Stay tuned
We’ll have plenty more information to share on both new features, so stay tuned for release dates and more soon.
About the author
Paul Chambers
Artist Evangelist & Community outreach at Sketchfab, freelance CG Generalist, render-farm tinkerer. Zelda worshipper.
Such awesome features, the future is bright! 🙂
Wow, nice! I’ll have to try the SSS immediately once it’s released. There will be so many new possibilities for all kinds of materials! 😀
super hyped for this!!!!!
The new Scene Inspector sounds great, GJ!
Heck yeah, you guys are awesome! Thanku
Any update on when this will release?
We’re still working on fine tuning the user interfaces. Shouldn’t be too long now anymore, but we never give off release dates, as there can always be unexpected delays.
feels a bit out of focus, constantly ..cool feature though
this is so good!!
Very cool 🙂 !
Good Job sketchfaber !!! well done ! sacre bleue ! enfin ! 🙂 more and more for artist !
🙂 Thanks Faz! Hope you’re doing ok!
Great features! Good job. Just keep it up 🙂
Wow, cool feature! However, not many visitors are going to use it unless you write a tip/post a tulip which says they can do it. i would never guess.
Absolutely – we will once the features have been released 🙂
Great to see you are using my old mech model. Have fun with it 🙂 The textures were actually painted in photoshop, before substance painter… maybe i should reskin the mech with the new tech i know now.
Greets
Cant wait to try the sss on my model
Being a 3D animator for years I didn’t hear about subsurface scattering before, what a shame. But this article described me very well what it is about. Unfortunately I can’t see that effect at your example project, am I the only one? Maybe it would be helpful if you would provide a model with and without subsurface scattering.
Here’s a much more pronounced example from our team member Maurice:
https://sketchfab.com/models/d6b85e8dc4b54269b3df6c7e1e5541ba
This much more clearly shows how light shines through the translucent material.