Jo De Ridder leads Partnership Development at Twinbru. In the interview, he discusses the Twinbru production process of photorealistic 3D textures replicating real-world fabric brands, such as the marvelous Fabric Library and FibreGuard. He also offers meaningful insights for designers and ArchViz artists working with the free textures.
Hi Jo, would you please tell us a bit about yourself?
I was born and raised in Belgium, and I currently lead Partnership Development at Twinbru—the digital twin division of the Bru Group. Bru is one of the world’s largest textile converters, specializing in upholstery and drapery fabrics.
I genuinely love what I do. It allows me to travel, meet interesting people, and get to use the newest technologies.
What are the main objectives of Twinbru?
Our core mission in Twinbru is to create high-quality digital twins of our physical fabrics, making them accessible to interior designers, furniture manufacturers, retailers, and wholesalers around the world. This allows them to design in the digital realm with the same materials they’d use in the real world.
We focus on the group’s two main brands—FibreGuard and Fabric Library—and work hard to partner with the leading libraries and tools in the 3D space. BlenderKit is a prime example of a tier-one partner for us. Our goal is to provide the world's most photorealistic fabric textures, and we believe we’re doing a damn good job in this regard.
But it’s about more than just visuals. Designers are constantly bombarded with new products and brands. We believe they should be able to use the exact fabrics they know and love—often from sample books—directly in their digital renderings. That’s how we help close the gap between “dreams and bytes.” Later, when those renderings turn into real projects, we want the specifications to point back to the exact SKU the designer had in mind—closing the gap between “bytes and fabrics.”
How do digital twins of physical fabrics help furniture designers and ArchViz artists?
Digital twins make the workflow of furniture designers and ArchViz artists much more efficient and accurate. Typically, a designer will envision a space and create a mood board, which is then passed on to a visualization team or 3D artist. In most cases, the artist searches through libraries—like BlenderKit or others—to find a fabric that looks similar to the one intended. They then spend time tweaking and recreating the material to match the real product, which is time-consuming and often less precise.
With Twinbru’s digital twins, that step is eliminated. The designer or artist can find the exact fabric on BlenderKit, import it directly into their scene or onto a product, and get a 100% accurate digital replica of the physical fabric—saving time and significantly improving visual realism.
Twinbru has an in-house team producing photorealistic 3D fabric textures. What does the process look like?
Our in-house team of top-tier talent is based across Ukraine, Portugal, and Malaysia. These experts are responsible for scanning physical fabrics using high-end scanning technology. All post-production is done internally to ensure the textures are seamless, artifact-free, and of the highest quality.
Once the textures are perfected, we run them through our own conversion scripts to generate the file formats required by our partners. We've been refining this workflow since 2016, and it's been thoroughly battle-tested. As a result, we manage to produce exact 3D replicas of physical fabrics, including some of the most challenging types like velvets and sheers.
We were very excited to welcome into BlenderKit the digital twins of Fabric Library. How would you describe the brand?
Fabric Library is all about luxurious and decorative high-performance fabrics. The brand offers an extensive range of on-trend textiles designed for interior furnishings, all while meeting the highest environmental standards.
These fabrics are not only luxuriously soft and fully washable but also Oeko-Tex certified—ensuring they’re completely safe and non-toxic. Designed specifically for drapery, Fabric Library’s collections bring elegance through their flow, texture, and rich color palette.
Whether it’s delicate sheers or bold blackout and dimout solutions, each fabric combines visual impact with practical versatility—enhancing privacy, ambiance, and energy efficiency in any space.
Another amazing addition to our library were the digital twins of the upholstery fabrics FibreGuard. How would you depict it?
At its heart, FibreGuard is about living more and worrying less. It offers stylish, durable, and luxuriously soft upholstery fabrics with built-in stain-resistant technology. Thanks to advanced stain-free innovation, everyday stains—from juice to ink to oil—can be easily removed with just water and a bit of soap.
Tested against over 100 performance standards, FibreGuard is made for real life—whether it’s a family home, a busy office, or a hotel lounge. The collection also includes FibreGuard Pro for demanding commercial spaces and FibreGuard Outdoor for exterior use, delivering the same trusted performance wherever it's needed.
What other interior fabric brands can we look forward to?
One brand to look out for is FR-One, our premium fire-retardant fabric line that meets the highest global standards for fire safety. It’s widely used in commercial, hospitality, and public spaces—and may become available on BlenderKit soon.
In the meantime, you can already explore the Twinbru library on BlenderKit, which features a curated mix of top-tier fabrics from across our collections.
Twinbru shares all its stunning 3D textures for free via BlenderKit. Why?
Our goal isn’t to sell textures—we see them as a key service to our customers. By offering our 3D fabrics for free, we ensure that designers can easily use our products in their digital workflows, with photorealistic results. It’s all about making our fabrics accessible wherever design happens, not creating a business around the textures themselves.
Do you have any recommendations for designers starting to experiment with digital twins?
Absolutely: Dream. Create. Build. Start experimenting. Don’t worry about getting everything perfect—just explore, play, and see where it takes you. Digital twins open up incredible possibilities, and the best way to learn is by doing.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
Yes—on BlenderKit, every Twinbru product links directly to a landing page where you can view all specifications and, if you're a company, request physical samples of the fabrics. In case you’d like to explore our full collection of over 15,000 materials, feel free to visit our website.
