Generating assets at instant
How we identified, designed, and built a solution that helped our client to speed up their workflow tenfold.
Background
As part of collaboration with a long-term client we noted a significant bottleneck in their production workflow: the time-consuming process of tweaking 360-degree environments (to be used as skyboxes).
Original workflow included searching through hundreds of stock images to match the one a designer had in mind, filling out a form for a purchase, and then spending hours tweaking and customizing the environment to their liking — going back and forth between Photoshop and Unity.
We developed an AI-powered asset creation tool that can produce seamless 360° panoramas and skyboxes almost instantly. The tool is a web application hosted locally on the client’s premises.
Building features
When we started our design process, we first closely observed the existing workflow, making notes and talking to team members to understand their pain points. Going in a loop of ⋯→ making adjustments based on feedback → testing it with the users → getting feedback →⋯, we were able to sketch, implement, and adjust all the necessary features for the app.
For example, one of the core functionalities designers needed was the ability to jump back and forth between equirectangular projection (projected on a sphere) and a 6-sided net (projected on a cube):
We’ve also added the possibility of inpainting objects directly in skyboxes — both in unwrapped view and 3D preview. Because the unwrapped 2D images can get confusing, we’ve added a grid, which can be toggled on and off.
Layers help designers to combine adjustments from different diffusion steps and correct AI mistakes (they happen!) quickly.
Another great addition was the possibility of quickly choosing some environmental presets, such as changing the time the day or weather.
Result
Our 360° skybox generator has significantly reduced the time our client spends on creating and adjusting these environments. What used to take days can now be done in a fraction of the time.
Here’s some of the technology we used for this project:
- Figma for initial wireframing and prototyping
- Our own design system with Lucide icons and carefully designed color palettes
- Svelte 5 for high-fidelity prototypes and final product
- Unity for testing skybox mapping
- ImageMagick and shell scripting for conversion between different mapping types
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