Moving from 8th Wall to Mattercraft

If you’ve been building WebAR with 8th Wall, you’ve likely heard the news that the platform is winding down. While existing hosted projects will remain live for a time, many developers are now asking a practical question:

How do I move my existing 8th Wall projects to another platform without starting from scratch?

Short answer: Export your assets from 8th Wall, rebuild interactions in Mattercraft using those assets as reference, then preview and republish before platform access ends.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through exactly how to rebuild an 8th Wall project in Zappar’s Mattercraft tool, using 8th Wall's World Effects template. This blog follows the same flow as the accompanying YouTube tutorial, so you can read, watch, or do both as you migrate your own projects.

We've also created a full migration guide for teams moving from 8th Wall to Mattercraft, with a clear comparison of the two tools and step-by-step guidance on how to get started.

How to Migrate from 8th Wall Studio to Mattercraft in 5 steps

If you’re looking for a straightforward way to move projects off 8th Wall Studio, this is the fastest path. The steps below apply to all 8th Wall projects, including world tracking, image tracking, face effects, and general WebAR experiences. You’ll reuse your existing assets, rebuild interactions in Mattercraft, and republish without relying on 8th Wall’s hosted tools.

This section provides a clear, high-level overview before delving into the full tutorial and technical walkthrough.

1. Export your existing assets – Download your 3D models, textures, and script files from 8th Wall while you still have access.
2. Create a new Mattercraft project – Start in Mattercraft with the template that matches your experience type (e.g., world tracking or marker-based). Mattercraft supports intuitive 3D scene building, scripting, and live preview.
3. Import and rebuild your content – Bring your downloaded assets into Mattercraft. Rebuild your interactions and behaviours there, using your 8th Wall scripts as a reference since you can’t drop them in directly.
4. Preview and adjust interactions – Test on device frequently. Set up interactions, animations, and behaviours in Mattercraft’s editor and scripting environment until things feel right.
5. Publish and share – Once everything works, use Mattercraft’s publish tools to generate shareable links or QR codes for your rebuilt WebAR experience.

Why now is the right time to migrate from 8th Wall

8th Wall has announced that its hosted services,  including the Cloud Editor, Studio, and Asset Lab will be shut down in stages. Hosted experiences will continue functioning through February 28, 2027. After that, hosting services will be decommissioned and project data deleted per the platform’s retention policy

At the same time, 8th Wall is preparing to release many surrounding tools, documentation, and non-proprietary components as open-source software. These releases are intended to help the community build, experiment, and self-host even after the hosted platform closes. However, some parts of the platform, especially the core engine’s proprietary tracking and computer vision technology, will not be open-sourced and instead will be distributed as closed-source binaries under a license that is still being finalised. 

This combination of continued access, open-source components, and eventual shutdown makes now a good time to:

• Rebuild active projects in platforms with long-term support
• Preserve logic and interaction patterns while you still can
• Reuse assets and UX patterns in a modern web-native workflow

Mattercraft is designed around these same web standards, which makes it a natural fit for rebuilding 8th Wall projects rather than reinventing them.

What you can and cannot reuse from 8th Wall

Before diving in, let’s clarify what you can take with you today:

You can reuse

• 3D models such as GLB files
• Textures and images
• Design logic and interaction patterns
• Script logic as a reference for rewriting

You cannot directly reuse

• 8th Wall JavaScript scripts as drop-in code
• Hosted project settings or live URLs

While you can’t just copy scripts from 8th Wall into Mattercraft, you can download them and use them as a blueprint for how logic should behave.

Rebuilding an 8th Wall Studio project in Mattercraft from start to finish

In the tutorial below, I'll show you how to rebuild a world-tracked WebAR experience in Mattercraft using the 8th Wall World Effects sample project. 

Step 1: Export your assets from 8th Wall

Start by opening your 8th Wall project. In my tutorial, I’m using the World Effects sample project, but any project will work.

From the Assets panel:

1. Download any 3D models you want to reuse
2. Download textures and images
3. Download scripts for reference

Once you have those files locally, you’re ready to move into Mattercraft.

Step 2: Create a new Mattercraft project

If you haven't already, sign up for a 14-day trial of Zapworks. Once inside your Zapworks workspace:

1. Select 'New Project'
2. Choose Mattercraft from the tools listed
3. Choose the World Tracking – Real Scale template 

This template takes care of much of the world tracking boilerplate for you, similar to what 8th Wall provided. After the project loads, delete the default chair and begin adding your own content.

NB: If you're creating an image, face-tracked, or maybe a headset project, please use the corresponding template from the template library. 

Step 3: Rebuild your content as reusable components

Mattercraft uses a component-based approach.

In the example:

• I import a tree model
• I place it into a Z component (similar to a prefab)

This component can be instantiated each time the user taps on a real-world surface.

To add animation:

• Add an animation layer
• Create a timeline called “Grow”
• Animate scale from zero to full size

Setting the default state with zero scale and rotation avoids visual glitches when the object spawns.

Step 4: Enable plane detection for placement

To replicate tap-to-place behaviour, add Plane Meshes under the World Tracker.

These represent detected surfaces from ARKit and ARCore. Set their visible property to false so they’re only used for interaction, not display.

Step 5: Set up a clean hierarchy for spawned content

Create a new group called 'Content Group'. All spawned trees will be added here to keep the scene tidy and manageable.

Step 6: Rebuild tap-to-place logic with a custom behaviour

Add a custom behaviour script to the plane meshes. This script:

• Listens for taps on detected surfaces
• Instantiates a new tree component at the tap point
• Applies a random scale between min and max values
• Adds the instance to the content group

Expose min and max scale values in the Mattercraft editor so they can be tweaked without touching code.

Step 7: Trigger animation on spawn

Once the tree is instantiated, trigger its “Grow” animation so it scales up smoothly from zero to full size,  closely matching the feel of the original 8th Wall version.

Step 8: Listen for tap events on planes

Plane meshes expose an OnPointerDown event. In your behaviour:

• Register a callback
• Capture the world-space hit position
• Pass it into the spawn function

This gives precise placement directly where the user taps.

Step 9: Customise the splash screen

Once your interaction is working, you can customise what users see on launch.

In index.html, adjust:

• Splash screen colours
• Background image or logo
• Text elements

You can use hex values, RGBA, or even simple colour names.

This step helps visually align the experience with your brand or creative intent.

Step 10: Preview and publish

Finally:

• Test with Live Preview on your phone
• Validate placement, animation, and interaction feel
• Click Publish
• Enter a version number

Mattercraft gives you a shareable QR code and link you can distribute broadly across all devices.

How 8th Wall’s open-source plans fit into this

8th Wall’s transition plan includes publishing many non-proprietary pieces as open source:

Open-source components (planned)

• Standalone runtime and ECS
• Developer tools like the desktop app and MCP server
• Documentation and sample projects

These releases will help developers self-host or build with parts of the 8th Wall ecosystem outside the hosted platform. However, core engine internals, including SLAM, proprietary tracking, and features like hand tracking and Spatial VPS, will not be open source. Instead, those capabilities will be distributed as a closed-source engine binary with a license that's still being finalised by 8th Wall.

This means that while some pieces of the 8th Wall technology will live on in the community, the long-term viability of full-featured WebAR using those components depends on your ability to host and maintain them yourself. For ongoing projects and client work, transitioning to a tool like Mattercraft or Zappar's Universal AR SDK ensures continuity without reliance on hosted services that will disappear.

Final thoughts

Migration isn’t just about copying files. It’s about preserving the intent, interaction design, and user experience you’ve worked hard to build.

By following this workflow, you’ll be able to:

• Reuse your assets and mental models from 8th Wall
• Rebuild experiences in a web-native, future-proof environment
• Maintain control over your deployment, hosting, and updates

Now is the ideal time to move projects over before platform access ends. If you’re reading this alongside the video, pause and adapt each step to your own project.

Thanks for building, and happy migrating!