What is the best GLTF / GLB creation software / platform

glTF glTF: Art Workflow
#1

Hi,
I have been trying to create good quality GLB models using Cinema 4D and Blender.
I’ve had trouble getting accurate colours on my texture maps and features like “clearcoat” are simply not supported.

What is the best 3D package to use to make an industry standard fully featured GLB model?
I’ve noticed platforms like Sketchfab are capable of making materials that are far superior to Cinema4d or Blender.

If there is no “good” 3D software, what is the best way to create GLBs? - I have read the documentation, but I’m still searching for more info.

Thanks!
Chris.

#2

Big question here – can you say more about what your goals are? There’s no one tool that’s best for everything. I’d say that on the authoring side, some tools with good support for glTF materials include:

  • Blender
  • Substance Painter
  • Gestaltor

Those tools are all capable of writing correct colors, and Blender and Gestaltor (at least) support some of the newer PBR features in glTF like clearcoat. However — tools like Blender don’t exist just for exporting, they have tons of material features that can’t be exported, so you’ll need to refer to the documentation about which features are supported for glTF export.

Also test your models in viewers like glTF Sample Viewer, it’s easy to get color management wrong if you’re building your own viewer, or to misconfigure things like tonemapping.

As viewers some popular options on the web are Sketchfab, three.js, and Babylon.js. All of those support the glTF format pretty well, but they’re not authoring tools.

#3

Thanks Don - we are making 3D models for Three.js webapps, pretty standard stuff.

We’ve found that your threejs_org/editor is great for inspecting and even repairing badly exported GLBs
We also use glTF Sample Viewer to test output.

I would be able to do most of what I need to do in threejs_org/editor - fixing texture channels etc, but every model I import into it exports out 5 times bigger.

Gestaltor looks good - and may be the solution for us.

Thanks again

1 Like
#4

The editor might be converting JPG to PNG textures, since it’s unpacking everything into the scene and not retaining data from the original file. Converting the textures back to JPG (or compressing them further with tools like https://squoosh.app/) can reduce the size again, or there are dedicated glTF optimization tools like gltfpack or RapidCompact. But in any case, Gestaltor will do a better job of making edits while preserving 100% of the original glTF data.