When a client asks for “a 3D model of the frame,” they’re describing three different objects — and picking the wrong one quietly costs weeks. We build eyewear for augmented-reality try-on, which lives at the awkward intersection of two disciplines that normally never meet: the beauty of a render and the rigor of a factory drawing.
Behind the scenes3D · AR
Not All 3D Is the Same
A 3D eyeglass frame can mean three completely different things. Only one of them lets you try it on.
01 — Render
Built to be seen once. Beauty-first, one camera angle, heavy is fine.
02 — Factory CAD
Built to be made. Exact millimetres, tolerances, watertight — not real-time.
03 — AR
The hybrid. True scale + real-time light + USDZ / GLB.
The render asset — built to be seen once
An asset made for a hero shot is a performance. The geometry only has to survive one camera angle; you can cheat what’s out of frame, pile on polygons for a crisp silhouette, and let the render engine carry the rest. Nobody measures it. Nobody interacts with it. Heavy is completely fine, because it renders offline.
The factory CAD — built to be made
A manufacturing model is the opposite kind of truth. It’s dimensioned in millimetres, held to tolerances, and modelled as a watertight solid so a machine can mill or mould it. Every measurement is load-bearing — get the hinge wrong and the temple won’t fold. But CAD solids are dense; they’d bring a phone to its knees. Made to be manufactured, not experienced in real time.
The AR model — the hard hybrid
An augmented-reality frame has to be both at once, plus a third thing. Dimensionally true, because it sits on your actual face at real scale — 3mm too wide and it sits wrong on everyone. Real-time light — low poly, clean quad topology, PBR materials — to hold 60fps on a phone in a browser. And it has to travel: USDZ for iOS and GLB for the web and Android. Neither the render nor the CAD solid can do this job. One is too loose; the other too heavy.
How we build a frame for try-on
We start where the factory starts — the manufacturer’s technical drawings: front, side and top. From those we rebuild the frame at its true width in millimetres: the front, the lens openings, and the temples with their hinge bumps and ear hooks. Materials are matched to the real product down to the acetate speckle. Topology stays clean so it shades right and deforms without artefacts. Then it exports twice — USDZ and GLB — so it works on an iPhone, an Android, or a laptop.
“3D” isn’t one deliverable. It’s a question: where is this going to live? Answer it first and the model almost designs itself. Answer it last and you rebuild it three times.
Aether NY · New York