Muse • 3D Website Builder
Building a no-code 3D web editor
What's the story?
While at UCSB, my friends and I built websites on a contract basis to fund our education. We noticed a rising demand for 3D websites, and uncovered an unmet need in the market: clients had 3D modelers who lacked tools to build worlds as websites. We reached out to these artists and learned about the community of 'worldbuilders' yearning for accessible solutions.
Our company, rooted in storytelling, discovered these worldbuilders had untold narratives. This inspired Muse, a no-code 3D website builder empowering creatives to bring their stories to life.
How'd it do?
It was amazing to see the creativity demonstrated by our users. Some stats throughout our 3 years operating:
over 5,000,000 unique site visits
over 150,000 collective publishes
over 50,000 assets uploaded to our servers
over 15,000 unique sites created
My contributions
I worked incessantly to help build the company from 0 to 1. To share a few contributions I'm proud of:
Enterprise Builds
I worked on numerous enterprise builds as the sole builder, working directly with enterprise clients to ideate their vision, break down all requirements into actionable items, then work relentlessly to turn that vision into a reality. I was responsible for all modeling, optimization, revisions, and delivery of a web-based experience, nearly always within 1-3 day turnaround times.
Templates
I created 23 templates over the span of 4 months that could be offered to all Muse creators as a starting point to build their world. I was responsible for the creation, optimization, modularity, and forkability of all templates. These 23 templates were forked over 15,000 times as a starting point for creators to build their dream worlds.
Tools
I was directly responsible for rapidly prototyping and shipping tools as React Three Fiber components to our user base on daily and weekly iteration cycles. All tools-to-build were re-prioritized weekly based on user needs we uncovered in user interviews. Just a few tools I helped design, build, and ship were a native IDE, custom texture swapping of 3D models, interactivity for 3D models with animations, and more.
Futher contributions
Built and contributed to our server-side and client-side asset optimization pipeline; files that previously would have hit target device VRAM and CPU caps were on average reduced by 90% on GPU and CPU payloads
Built and populated content library with 1000s of assets to serve our users
Breakdown graphics and real-time rendering pipeline concepts to less technical creators via verbal communication and written documentation
Outsource 3D assets for projects with tight turnaround times, communicating clear expectations and constraints for delivery
Sponsor open-source packages, collaborating with package maintainers to set clear and achievable goals for package updates
Incessantly talk to users and assess prioritization of product decisions with my four person team