‘Baking’ lighting into your models is a great way to achieve realistic images that can still be displayed in real time. You can use area lights, ambient occlusion and even caustics this way - all of which are not available using our standard WebGL lighting.
One of the 3D apps that offers such a baking system is Blender. As of version 2.71, you can use the Cycles renderer and apply it’s super-realistic lighting to your models. In order to export such models to Sketchfab, you will have to take a few extra steps. Sketchfab community member Alexander E. Smith prepared this fantastic short video tutorial to take you through the process:
Check out some other fantastic examples of baked models:
Original Gameboy by Alexander E. Smith
About Alexander E. Smith
Alex’s focus in the 3D world so far has been training others in the ways of Blender and creating 3D versions of Twitch.tv streamers’ logos for use on their shows. When he isn’t working his day job as a Linux Systems Administrator, you can find Alex on his own Twitch.TV stream, doing his best to entertain and inform regarding the finer points of 3D modelling in general, and Blender specific tools and workflows. You can also find his distilled tutorials on YouTube and reach out to him on twitter at @AlexEdwardSmith. So far, his most successful/popular works have been his Original Gameboy model on Sketchfab (see above), and the MANvsGAME logo. His portfolio can be found at www.AlexanderESmith.com.