https://lizhihao6.github.io/Sparc3D/ – Sparc3D – Sparse Representation and Construction for High-Resolution 3D Shapes Modeling by Nanyang Technological University. This method offers a robust alternative to traditional photogrammetry by generating detailed 3D meshes from a single input image.

https://huggingface.co/spaces/ilcve21/Sparc3D – live demo

Tencent’s Hunyuan 3D 2.1 (open source) alternative

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What is Sparc3D? A Diffusion-based 3D Mesh Generator from a Single Image

Developed by Nanyang Technological University, Sparc is a new algorithm that builds 3D meshes from just A SINGLE IMAGE! It’s a significant leap beyond anything we’ve had before.

While traditional photogrammetry captures real-world objects using multiple photos to create detailed 3D models (something we dive deep into in our Creative Shrimp Photogrammetry Course), Sparc takes a different approach. This new tech can handle complex inputs – open surfaces, intricate geometry – all from one photo, powered by the latest in diffusion models. It’s pretty wild.

This technology has serious potential to shake up our industry. I don’t particularly like the word “disrupt”, as it’s overused in all sorts of silly contexts. But it feels disruptive.

Just browse through that comment section (1100+ comments, my god!), and you’ll see what I mean.

Now, let’s see what it means for us all.

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How to Use the SPARC3D Demo

There’s a public demo online right now.

For how long? Who knows – on the one hand the authors said something about making it open-source upon receiving all permissions, but you can never rule out a sudden sale to a commercial company.

How to use SPARC demo?

• upload an image,
• hit “generate”
• and after a short wait (the queue is starting to get longer though, haha!),
• you get a full 3D model.

If you don’t get a full 3D model, then it’s most likely the fault of the source image. Try again, with a different one.

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Use Cases: Game Assets, AI Art to 3D Props, and More

So, what’ll be the most popular use case (popular as in pop songs)? I’m betting on this: turning AI-generated images (from MidJourney, ChatGPT, Stable Diffusion, Rundiffusion etc.) directly into 3D props and assets. Not that we endorse that – but let’s be FRANK, it’s the first thing that comes to mind and I can already hear the sloshing of AI slop (with occasional amber) crashing onto our shores. I’m bad at metaphors though.

And before you asked – I’m writing this article mostly in an old-school way, with just Aidy GPT being my only helper.

What is so new and revolutionary about Sparc?

Well, it does something crazy: it fills in the blanks. The underside, hidden geometry – whatever’s missing from your single image. This workflow makes mass production of 3D assets remarkably feasible, compared to an older-school photogrammetry (where abundance of input images has always been necessary, to avoid gaps and general geometry syphilis).

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Limitations of SPARC3D (And What Needs Improvement)

Is the resulting model a mess? Yeah – it’s not fully production-ready (yet). You still get dense meshes, no real topology flow, no textures (in Sparc3D at least – some other tools can do textures). It’s still a pain in the back to do retopo. It’ll probably take a few more research papers to change that.

But nevertheless, the surface quality is a generation ahead. Flat surfaces are actually mostly flat now. The connections are smoother, more coherent. The geometry actually doesn’t look that bad (I’m surprised to say that).

What sets Sparc apart from traditional photogrammetry, where meticulous coverage is key, is its ability to infer geometry on the hidden side of an object. It even tackles thin, intricate parts surprisingly well –something previous 3d reconstruction tools always struggled with.

To be fair, gaussian splatting solved thin and furry stuff to *some* extent, but this is a step forward (and it outputs good old polygons, unlike gaussian splatting).

—

The ‘Traditional’ Photoscan Apps Will Have to Upgrade Their Tech

I’m dying to see what Reality Scan’s (aka Reality Capture’s) response will be. I bet the devs are already speedrunning the ways to integrate a tech like this into their app – which is one of the best already, and just waits for that extra push. Gosh, I can only imagine the power it’ll give to the tech that was somewhat overdependent on physical world constraints (objects that are often impossible to shoot from all sides, or cars covered in birds’ excrements making it difficult to scan).

And how would it interplay with the latest advances in triangle splatting, 3d gaussian splatting and more – another tech is becoming mainstream really quickly?

—

The AI Slop Wave Incoming?

This blend of increased speed and quality of this new diffusion-based method makes it clear (to me) we’re heading for an avalanche of AI slop. Soon we’ll see a lot more models that are good enough, mass-produced and flooding the market. Like a viewer of our original video pointed out: the future will be good enough.

Putting aside the massive issue of the environment for a moment, this raises big questions about copyright, too, and how marketplaces like Sketchfab will handle it. Remember that user who uploaded 38,000 AI assets to Fab?

We’ll see more of that.

—

Blender’s Role: The Hub

So what is Blender‘s role in all that? With a huge influx of new 3D props (if and when it happens), Blender effectively becomes the hub – the central point where all elements are assembled and made sense of.

As we’ve mentioned, the Sparc-generated assets are similar to photogrammetry exported assets: messy, dense, high-poly. These will have to be prepared for exporting to Unreal Engine, Unity, Godot or other game engines, or just for using it within Blender for scene creation. From this perspective, very little will change for 3d artists… just yet.

Your skills remain valuable, YOU remain valuable and this will likely continue…

for some time.

—

If you’re looking to take these high-poly, often messy assets and optimize them for games or other production pipelines, our Game Asset Creation Course focuses specifically on retopology, optimization, UV maps and efficient asset preparation.

Just mentioning.

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Creativity vs Complacency

This new accessibility that AI-driven tools bring to life is pretty exciting – and as many of you pointed out in the comments to our video, pretty disturbing as well. If you have an image – whether your own creation or something found online, or (god forbid), ai-generated – you are now significantly closer to realizing that thing in 3D.

From there, the possibilities to build your own worlds and tell your own stories are immense.

However, as Aidy pointed out when proof-reading this article: fast and easy does not always equate to better or more meaningful. Like processed fast food, that’s usually an easy option but still best used with caution. AI should probably serve as a tool to augment our creativity, not diminish the artistic skills that make our work distinctive. Think atrophied creative muscles.

The tech like SPARC will spark (ahem) new workflows and a lot of questions: Where does it fit? Kitbashing? Concept art? What about automatic retopo, for heaven’s sake? Expect tools like ZBrush’s ZRemesher or Quad Remesher to become even more valuable, as clean topology could be in higher demand than ever.

But why, oh why, AI-based automatic retopology isn’t a thing yet.

Also, will Blender cement its role as the hub where such content is being assembled?

—

So many questions!

So, what do YOU think? Do you feel threatened, or see this as an opportunity to level up your workflow? Let us know on Discord!

That’s it from us, Gleb Alexandrov and Aidy Burrows at Creative Shrimp, keeping you updated on the latest in computer graphics.

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Links

https://lizhihao6.github.io/Sparc3D/ – Sparc3D

https://huggingface.co/spaces/ilcve21/Sparc3D – live demo

Tencent’s Hunyuan 3D 2.1 (open source) alternative

TrueDepth add-on for Blender – tutorial

Dr. Károly Zsolnai-Fehér – Two Minute Papers channel

—

Game Asset Creation Course

Photogrammetry Course: Photoreal 3D With Blender And Reality Capture

Creative Shrimp Discord

Gleb Alexandrov Youtube

—

Are We Screwed? The original Youtube video

PixelReconstruct Youtube channel – gaussian splatting and more

Photoreal Environments and Photogrammetry: an article

RealityScan

Blender

The post SPARC3D: Revolutionary Single-Image 3D Reconstruction Explained (with Live Demo) appeared first on Creative Shrimp.

This isn’t the most pristine way of fusing mesh objects in Blender though – arguably, a better approach would be to use the marvelous Offset Cut experimental tool in MESHmachine (affiliate link).

—

More Links:

The Offset Cut tutorial by Artisans of Vaul
Modeling tutorials for Blender by Artisans of Vaul

The post Smoothly Merge Two Shapes in Blender (No Add-ons) appeared first on Creative Shrimp.

Take a simple blockout object (in this example from the Game Asset Workflow: Complete Blender Guide) and have fun with it. See the world in a grain of sand!

Links:

Patreon

Game Asset Workflow: Complete Blender Guide on BlenderMarket (aka SuperHive)

On Gumroad

Blender

The post A Simple Block Blender Challenge appeared first on Creative Shrimp.

Links:

Game Asset Workflow: Complete Blender Guide on BlenderMarket (aka SuperHive)

On Gumroad

Download the source images & depth maps

Kevin Stratvert – How to Install & Use Stable Diffusion on Windows

Depth Map Script for Stable Diffusion

Materialize

Blender

Sketchfab

Sketchfab CC0 sculpture models:

01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06

The post Generate Depth Maps and Displace Super-detailed Bas-reliefs – Blender Tutorial appeared first on Creative Shrimp.

Game Asset Workflow in Blender – Blender Market – Early bird sale! 25% off till Monday 3rd March 2025.
Get it on Gumroad

The post Game Asset Workflow in Blender: Introduction / Promo Video appeared first on Creative Shrimp.

Has it ever happened to you? That anxious feeling when you start to model something, is it the RIGHT way?

There’s a lot of different ways to consider what the RIGHT or TRUE way actually is.

• Is it the fastest method?
• The easiest method?
• How much does it allow you to iterate on the design?
• Is it Non-destructive/destructive?
• Something new that you want to practice?
• Is it creating way too many polygons?
• Is it even fun? Don’t forget the fun! Maybe you want an enjoyable method to use!

If the modeling method ticks all of those boxes then perhaps you have actually really found the PERFECT way to model something! Usually though it’s some combination of easy/fast/efficient etc.

In the tutorial we’ll be speeding through all of these options :

• Extrude
• Bridge
• Spin
• Torus & Boolean
• Curve
• Skin
• Roundifier
• Curves & Mesh
• A massive can of highly impressive worms

And if you think we’ve missed an important method please let us know! Even something this simple reveals itself to be surprisingly deep in potential.

The post 9 TRUE(?) ways to model a cup handle appeared first on Creative Shrimp.

Get the full ’50 Modeling Issues from Hell’ course on Blender Market

Get the full ’50 Modeling Issues From Hell’ course on Teachable

Get the full ’50 Modeling Issues from Hell’ course on Gumroad

The post Extrusion Confusion | Blender Modeling Tutorial appeared first on Creative Shrimp.

• Knife intersection and how it can be messy
• TinyCAD addon
• Snap utilities line addon
• Mirror bisecting with an empty
• Subtitles Included

Get the full ’50 Modeling Issues from Hell’ course on Blender Market

Get the full ’50 Modeling Issues from Hell’ course on Gumroad

The post Making Corners appeared first on Creative Shrimp.

• Lofting through simple shapes
• Quick and easy Boolean cleanup
• Lofting from 1 shape to 2
• Subtitles Included
• This video is brought to you by the number 32!

Get the full ’50 Modeling Issues from Hell’ course on Blender Market

Get the full ’50 Modeling Issues from Hell’ course on Gumroad

The post Lofting Between Shapes appeared first on Creative Shrimp.

• How to setup for Retopology
• The Poly build Tool
• General retopology workflow
• Extra apps & addon options

Extra Retopo App/Addon Options

CG Cookie’s Retopoflow – Amazing Blender Addon

TopoGun – Dedicated software for retopology

ZBrush – Commercial 3D App, incredible for sculpting also contains good retopology options

3D Coat – Commercial 3D Application that has some cool retopology tools

After this video was produced another Add-on good for retopology came to our attention – The PolyQuilt Addon. A nice quick overview can be found here. Also more info can be found on the Blender Artist page.

2.8 HSM Update Youtube playlist

Hard-surface modeling on BlenderMarket (2.79 full course and 2.80+ update)

Hard-surface modeling on Gumroad (2.79 full course and 2.80+ update)

Gleb | Twitter

Aidy | Twitter

The post Blender 2.8 Tutorial | Retopology appeared first on Creative Shrimp.