This week, we’ll learn about creating colliders and analyze their role in the game development pipeline. Through this discussion we will also talk about the importance of prefabs and how we can use them to aide in the game development pipeline.
Up until now, we have been working entirely in Modo and Photoshop. We have focused our efforts on learning how to build game art assets. Today, however, that all changes as we begin to work directly in our game engine, Unity 3D. This week, we will focus on establishing the workflow for transferring files between Unity and Modo. In addition to examining the process of exporting the geometry of our scene, we will also carefully explore the pipeline for cleanly transferring our materials and textures.
Up until now, we have been working entirely with Modo and Photoshop to create our textures files. With a series of baked images, we have used the layering system in Photoshop to help craft a compelling network of images that helped us create photorealistic texture maps for our models. Integrating Photoshop into our texture pipeline allows us to control the placement and quality of specific images on our model, but this workflow creates a series of workflow problems when texturing larger objects, like buildings. This week, we are going to explore the process of creating tiling textures and apply them to our models in Modo. In addition to discussing the application of tiling textures, we’ll also explore how to create, place and align our UV Islands to support the tiling texture workflow.
As video game modelers, we need to remember that the objects we model will directly be controlled by the player. These players will spend hours in this world, so we better make it look awesome and engaging. Creating game art is about creating worlds. This week will be begin to explore the process of flushing out an entire scene in Modo and then transfer our models into our game engine, Unity3D.
Out here in the real world, the environment is going to influence how the surface of our meshes are going to look. Over time, erosion will slowly chip away at our surface and create little bumps, grooves and scratches on our surface of our model. As 3D modelers, we need to look to include these subtle changes in surface height in our models. Including these fine details into our texturing system will help our audiences understand how our models are going to look in the game engine. This process of creating surface relief, or height, is called a Bump Map and we’re going to take a look at how to build these new maps types today.
This week we are going to stimulate the left side of the brain and focus on the art of hard-surface texture painting. We are going to spend most of our time exploring how to create convincing textures and materials in Photoshop. Using nothing more than a few photographs and some paint brushes, we’ll develop the creative process for painting an awesome, and accurate, diffuse texture map.
This week, we will explore the process of working inside Photoshop to create our texture maps. Here, we’ll learn how to use the integrated brush system, applying custom color and basics of using masks. In addition, we’ll cover the production pipeline between Modo and Photoshop and discuss how the two application can work seamlessly together. This is going to fun! Lets do it!
This week we will be exploring the process 3D modeling with reference images. The goal is recreate our object right down to the last nut and bolt. Before we get started however, we must explore the process of taking reference photos and how to use them in Modo. Also, we’ll examine the procedure of aligning our reference photographs to each other; an important step in the 3D modeling pipeline.
This week, we will be exploring how to bake texture maps from Modo. At the conclusion of the lecture, you’ll be able to bake out a series of texture maps that will help you work more efficiently in Photoshop and add high-resolution texture information from the model in Modo. We’ll be exploring the workflow for creating Ambient Occlusion, Surface ID and Alpha texture maps in Modo. Texture baking opens up a series of new possibilities and ultimately you are only limited by your creativity. Lets check out how to create baked texture maps in Modo!
Lets explore the interactive painting and image manipulation suite of tools in Photoshop. This week we’ll take a look at how to bridge Modo and Photoshop by exporting our UV Maps from Modo and getting them into Photoshop correctly. Our conversation will focus on the basic workflow of creating 2D images in Photoshop and explore the tools we’ll need to make our texture files. We’ll wrap up our journey inside of Photoshop by discussing the process of applying our completed texture maps on our models back in Modo.