Create a 3D scene: understanding lighting and materials

A successful 3D scene helps users understand their configurator with a clear visual representation.  That can rely on a number of settings described througout this Help. This walkthrough guides you through all the necessary steps to get your first 3D scene working. 

The steps below are a quick-start to defining the foundation of your scene.  There are many ways to go about this, and many settings that may be more suited to your particular application.  Use this walkthrough as a starting point to inspire your own procedures and settings.

Prerequisites

Before starting this How-To, you should already...

• have access to a configurator environment, usually the "dev" environment.
• have a general idea of the object/s you would like to render, and if they would normally appear indoors, outdoors, or in a neutral space.
• have a general idea of the types of materials seen when viewing this object.  Are the surfaces shiny or dull?  Are they made of a common material, like wood or plastic or glass? 

Step-by-Step guide

Scenes are best built by following these steps:

Create your scene

1. Log in to your environment, and click the administration gear icon:  
   The administrative menu appears.
2. Click the scenes menu icon:   
   A list of scenes in this environment appears.  This list may be empty.
3. At the bottom of the list, click the "Add" button to create a new scene.  Give it a name. Then specify how it will be used:
   • If you don't have a configurator yet, you can choose "Standalone" (this is a setting you can change later in the 3D Scene Top Toolbar). 
   • If you do know the configurator you want to use, you can specify it here.
4. Your new empty scene appears in the 3D Scene Admin Tool.

Create primitives

Insert a simple primitive object or two, so you can see the effects of your upcoming materials and lighting.

1. From the menubar, choose Create > Polymesh > Box.  The box appears.  
2. New items are always inserted at the origin: at the XYZ point of 0,0,0.  Move the box up and over, so it's above the origin and there's space for another object.  You can either...
   1. Select the move cursor, and move the box manually:
      
   2. Or click the box to select it, and then in the "Properties" tab on the right, under the Transform section of the Box properties, enter the following translations to move it precisely:
      
   3. From the menubar, choose Create > Polymesh > Sphere.  The sphere appears.  Translate it as well:
      
      (note the x axis translation is negative.)
      
      
3. Preview your work: Click the "Run" button in the Top Toolbar to save your work and run it in a new tab.  Since you have no lighting or materials applied, your scene appears very plain. Close the tab to return to the scene editor.

Create a lighting scheme and environment

Objects in your scene can have different appearances, depending on the lighting, their material, and the scene which surrounds them.  As you develop more skills, you can explore each of these areas.  This walkthrough will help you apply a pre-built group of settings that will work in most situations.  You can always tailor these settings later.

1. Open the Material Library.
   1. To open, click the ^ caret just below the timeline.  The timeline slides up to reveal the library.
   2. To close, move your mouse onto the thin white line just below the timeline, and double-click it.  The timeline slides down, hiding the library.
      

Add an appropriate HDR environment from the library

Under "collection", select "HDR Environments".  You'll see a list of environment thumbnails appear. HDR environments bundle up lighting, along with images that will be reflected in the surface of your objects if they have a shiny material.

• If your object is large and would exist outdoors, double-click the "sunny field" environment.
• If your object is smaller, and would most commonly be seen indoors, pick the "classroom" environment.

Double-clicking the environment from the library adds all its components to your scene's own Material Library, which appears beneath your objects in the tree.  You don't need to do anything with these materials or settings which have a yellow icon.

Create materials

1. Select one of your primitive objects: you'll see the selection brackets appear around it.
2. Again in the Material Library, under "collection", select "PBR Materials".  You'll see a list of material thumbnails appear as spheres. Materials are what give your objects an appearance, like wrapping paper around a present.  Scroll through the list of materials until you see one close to your needs.  It doesn't need to be exact.
3. When you find a material, double-click it.  The material will be applied to the selected object, and be inserted into your scene library as a new material.  The material has a red icon next to it, and has the default name of "Physical".  You can re-name this new material by clicking on it, and editing its properties.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for your other primitive shape.  For our discussion, choose a metallic surface with a mirrored, shiny surface.

Test Materials and lighting

Click "run" again to see your results.  You should see the same simple objects, but this time with the materials you've selected.  If you are using a very reflective material, you should see reflected in the object the classroom or sunny field environment you selected before.

• If you want to change a material, return to the scene editor and drag a material listed in the tree (represented with a red ball) onto the object to paint it.
• If you want to add a new material, return to the PBR Materials and double-click another one.
• If you want to delete a material, select it by the red ball in the tree and press delete.  The material will be removed from your scene's library, and any object painted with that material will turn grey again.

(Optional) Style the scene 

Now that your objects are lit and have a material assigned, you can optionally adjust the scene itself.  The scene is the environment in which your objects exist. Usually, there is minimal styling of the environment: you don't want to call attention away from your configured object.  But here are some ideas.

These options are all under the scene properties.  To access the scene properties, in the tree on the left, select the scene itself: the topmost object in the tree.  You may need to scroll up the tree to see it.

Once your scene is selected you can...

Show a background

Since you loaded a cube map for the reflections when you applied the HDR environment, you can use this same cubemap for the scene.  

1. With your scene selected, look at the "Properties" tab on the right.  Under the "Environment" section, Notice that "image-based lighting" has been set to an environment map, called "EnvironmentMap".  This map was created for you automatically when you imported the HDR environment, and it was set to drive the lighting here as well.
2. Below that, in the "Background" section, note that the "style" is set to default.
3. Change the Background Style to the same "EnvironmentMap".
   

Show the origin plane as a flat surface

A flat table-like surface can be useful to show objects.

1. With your scene selected, look at the "Properties" tab on the right.  Under the "Environment" section, set the "Background" to a light grey color.
2. under the "Player" section, look for the "reflective floor" subsection.  (Scroll to the very bottom of the "Player" section... it's one of the last entries.)  
3. Click the "enabled" checkbox to turn it on.  New attributes appear.
4. Set "Fresnel Strength" to "-1" for more realistic reflection behavior.
5. Set "Metallic" to "0.5" for a reflection.  This can range from 0 to 1.