Sketchfab is known as one of the go to websites for 3D model makers to showcase and distribute their work worldwide. Today, the company has announced a new venture, Sketchfab Store, a place where people can buy and sell assets for 3D, augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR) projects.
Up until this point Sketchfab has allowed users to view the site and download models freely, and this will still be the case. It’s just now creators will be able to add their work to the new Sketchfab Store if they wish to make money directly through the sight.
Sketchfab’s CEO, Alban Denoyel said in a statement: “We’ve seen a growing need and market for 3D assets, especially as VR and AR have become more mainstream. We introduced a free download feature in 2014 and today see more than 200,000 downloads every month, for a cumulative total of more than 2.5 million downloads. We started Sketchfab to help creators distribute 3D content on every platform and get discovered. Our store is the natural evolution of that.”
For the beta launch today Sketchfab has over 4,000 models from over 170 creators are available for every conceivable 3D project from animation and VFX to videogames, 3D printing, VR and AR. Users will have access to a browser-based 3D player with an advanced “Model Inspector” (allowing every aspect of a 3D model including textures and topology to be scrutinized in real-time), helping them buy with confidence that what they see is what they get. Additionally, because Sketchfab generates an interoperable 3D format with every download, purchased files render consistently across many different destination applications.
Sketchfab has been continually expanding its support for VR and AR in recent months announcing ARKit support back in September for iOS then in November doing the same for Android devices with ARCore support. As Sketchfab adds more features, VRFocus will keep you updated.