What a year! 2022 has been full of art, events, and milestones. And with us every step of the way was you, our community. Whether you were uploading awesome art, being a guest on one of our livestreams, chatting about art and 3D on Discord, helping someone else on the Forum, giving someone feedback on their model, or participating in one of our challenges, you were an integral part of Sketchfab and its successes this year. Over the past 12 months more has happened than we can easily summarize. Instead, the Community Team (Bart, Tom, and Abby) is going to share their favorite events, activities, and milestones for the year. But first, here’s a quick recap of the highlights:
- In January, Sketchfab became integrated within NVIDIA Omniverse
- In March, Sketchfab celebrated its 10th anniversary
- In April, we introduced Bulk editing in Sketchfab for Teams
- In May, we launched automatic conversion to the GLB file format with 1K textures
- In July, Twinmotion launched their Sketchfab integration
- In August, TikTok introduced import of Sketchfab models into Effect House
- In October, we released Analytics in Sketchfab for Teams
- In December, Sketchfab became home to 10 million members and 5 million models
We would also like to give special thanks to the Sketchfab Masters, a talented and dedicated group of outstanding community members who are working on incredible projects, assisting other artists and developers, and generally helping to make Sketchfab the friendly, creative place that it is. Check out the Sketchfab Masters Picks articles to see their favorite Sketchfab community art from the year.
Bart
In last year’s year in review, I talked about us getting acquired and how we were beginning to settle into the broader Epic ecosystem. If 2022 had one specific theme for me, it was getting more and more connected with other Epic teams, working closely with the ArtStation, Quixel, Twinmotion and Unreal Engine teams. We have done some really cool things together, ranging from the Twinmotion Community Challenge (check out the amazing work the participants did with Sketchfab models in the video below) to joint livestreams (more about those in Tom’s piece below), and leaning on one another for expertise and feedback.
It’s really great to find yourself in the company of so many talented people with similar interests and skills, and I have found it to be deeply motivating. In 2023, we’ll be making these relationships stronger, and you can expect more cross-collaborations, bringing all our communities closer together.
What I enjoyed most about the Sketchfab community this year was the continued increase in the quality of your work. I’ve been at Sketchfab for almost eight years now, and I still see work that really amazes and surprises me. I probably spend a bit too much time on it, but helping with staff picking is still one of my favorite things. 🙂
It’s been my privilege again to spend all my time with you and look forward to a fabulous 2023 together!
Tom
This year has been a busy one, and not just for the team here at Sketchfab—our prolific members have been busy as well!
My first highlight is the ongoing contribution that cultural organizations and individuals make to the ever expanding library of historical and educational 3D models on Sketchfab. Over the past year, over 160 new organizations have joined Sketchfab on a free or discounted subscription under the Cultural Heritage Program. Our amazing cultural heritage community has uploaded thousands of new 3D models, many of which are available for free download under Creative Commons Attribution licenses. Even better, the collection of 3D models that have been dedicated to the public domain has also increased, some of the most notable additions coming from the NASA Astromaterials collection that launched in August.
The second thing that I am most pleased about this year is our continued program of livestreams. We’re always looking for new ways to showcase artworks, Sketchfab features, community members and their projects and we’ve had a lot of fun doing just that over on our YouTube channel. Whether we’re hosting an introduction to the 3D Editor, helping you take your first steps with our Viewer API, or celebrating women who create, we hope you learn something new and get inspired by this ongoing video program.
Finally, I have enjoyed working more closely with other products in the Epic Games family to demonstrate interesting and new ways that Sketchfab’s library of 3D models can be reused. In just the last month, we’ve supported ArtStation’s Game Week and highlighted exciting ways to restage 3D scenes using Twinmotion, like this streamed ancient Egyptian expo.
Abby
Sketchfab Weekly is my first highlight of the year. It was so much fun to see everyone’s creativity and tenacity on display. Some people joined in for one week, some people joined in every week—regardless of commitment level, taking the step to make some art and share it with a community of artists is to be commended. Included above are a collection of some of my favorite submissions. And if you’re seeing these and wishing that you had gotten involved with Sketchfab Weekly, it’s not too late! We have a whole year of fun Sketchfab Weekly prompts planned for 2023.
My second highlight of the year was celebrating Women’s History Month (March) and Rainbow Royale (September) with other parts of Epic. On International Women’s Day, Tom hosted a livestream with three talented women: Mieke Roth, Sophia Mirashrafi, and Nathalie Krugel. It was great to learn more about these impressive artists, their work, and how they have gotten to where they are in their careers. And in September, we were able to amplify Fortnite’s Rainbow Royale event with a special Sketchfab Weekly topic (see the submissions here) and a couple of great Art Spotlights from members of our diverse community. You can check them out here and here. As Bart said, stay tuned for more exciting collaborations like these in the new year. 🙂
Happy holidays, happy New Year, and see you in 2023!
Featured image credit: Christmas Hot Chocolate With Marshmallow Snowman by David Henson is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution.
About the author
Abby Crawford
Helping share community stories on Sketchfab.
