☀️ Lighting & Shadows

An outline of illust's creator studio lighting, shadow, and environment features and functionality

Glossary of Studio Terms

Lighting Module: the name of an area in illust creator studio where a creator can configure an AR scenes lighting, shadows, reflections, environment maps, and skybox

Lighting

Configures the placement and color of directional light

Color: the actual color of the light source in an augmented reality scene

Intensity: the intensity of the light in the AR scene, on a scale from 0 to 1, with 1 being the strongest and 0 being 0 light

Position: the placement of the positioned light, relative to the model/AR experience. When you change the X, Y, Z coordinates, it will move the lighting around the Studio Preview. You will also notice that it changes the shadow directions and how intense reflections come through in the AR mode.

Change the X,Y,Z coordinates to move the lights direction.

Real-time Environment Map

In AR mode, uses the camera for reflections instead of the skybox/HDR environment map. This is great for providing a realistic look to your augmented reality experience for those engaging with it on location.

[Insert video showing the difference between realtime reflections and environment map reflections]

Skybox color override

When selected to on, it changes the color of the skybox. It also removes the AR camera and leaves the user with the AR experience in a fully colored environment.

Skybox Color: the background color of the skybox. Uses a palette or R,G,B for selection

View on the left is the "Studio Preview", view on the right is the "AR View" via skybox color override

HDR Environment Map

Use an HDR env map for reflections. Will be overridden by realtime map in AR if enabled. This will also change the preview window of the Studio. Below are a couple of examples of what your new creation environment will look like. If realtime reflections are turned off, the following HDR maps will be what's reflected when you run the experience in the Augmented Reality Mode.

Path: upload file - the file used for the .hdr or other equirectangular env map file.

Sample 1: Warehouse (right click and save the link to the file path)

Sample 2: McCarren Park (right click and save the link to the file path)

Sample 3: Cool Lounge House (right click and save the link to the file path)

Cube Map

Add a cube environment map for the AR scene

Cube Map Directory: the file uploader for a cube map. URL for the folder that holds the cube map files. The files in the folder should be named px, nx, py, ny, pz, nz + the extension.

Cube Map Extension: let the studio know what type of file extension you're using for the cube map.

Shadows

When turned on, it gives the AR experience a shadow depending on the direction of the light source.

Opacity: gives a strength to the shadow plane. 0 mean no shadows and 1 means stongest shadow.

Shadow Map Size: controls the size of the shadow map. Use it to make the shadows more or less detailed. Based on the following increments 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024