3D Wizard using AI+Spline

I wanted to try Spline for a while, and my portfolio wizard update was a great excuse.

Screenshot of Spline interface with the beginning of a sculpted head
Screenshot of Spline interface with the beginning of a sculpted head
Screenshot of Spline interface with the beginning of a sculpted head
Screenshot of Spline interface with the beginning of a sculpted head

Process

  • Generating a satisfying "3D low-poly" wizard shot using Midjourney, and that had similarities with my overall look

  • Sculpting on Spline, using as little polygons as possible

  • Texturing

  • Environment effects (light, background, shadows, bloom etc…)

  • Adding interactions and animations using Spline physics, states and transitions

  • Optimizing export

PS : Something I didn't realize and didn't show in Spline performance test is the impact of using MatCap textures on material -> it's heavy on the GPU, and adds a lot of data to download.
After removing all MatCap textures, my scene went from 1.1mb to 126ko and drastically reduced GPU usage to a bearable point.

Thoughts after experiment

Pros:

  • Simple to get your hands-on 3D for the web, qualitative interface

  • Great tutorials

  • Lots of possible web interactions (dragging, look at event, following cursor, responsive etc…)

  • Lots of export formats (Web, 3D, AR, iOS, Android…)

Cons:

  • A bit pricy (around 30$/month)

  • Few minor bugs (mainly lags, sometimes freezes)

  • Resource-demanding especially for tablets and phones, even if my 3D scene is pretty light (125kb), because spline needs to download mandatory packages of about 1,5mb on the first run.

I see a lot of great 3D content posted on social media made on Spline, but only very few of them are actually running smoothly online for most devices. Still, it's a very promising tool when you carefully craft your scene, and can give a lot of interactivity and playfulness to your website.

Step by step evolution

The model I generated:

And the evolution:



Let the magic within you ignite!

Please fill out this form to get in touch—I’m excited to hear about your project. At the moment, I’m not accepting interns, but thank you for your interest.

Let the magic within you ignite!

Please fill out this form to get in touch—I’m excited to hear about your project. At the moment, I’m not accepting interns, but thank you for your interest.