Working with Unity3D
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.
Unity 3D is an industry standard game engine that can be employed on both Mac and PC. The chances are really good that you have played a game that was authored in Unity3D if you play a lot of mobile games. Unity3D is dominating the mobile space, at the moment, due to its strong toolset, cross-platform development environment and stellar distribution methods. Unity also hosts a wide spectrum of cutting-edge game development tools and techniques. From real-time shadows to occlusion culling; Unity3D has it all. Want to publish your game for a Mac and PC? No problem! Using Unity3D's publishing engine, we can quickly publish our game for multiple platforms, including mobile devices and consoles!
I think you'll find working in Unity3D a breeze. The developers have spent a lot of time working on establishing an easy, but powerful, user interface. The authoring environment has been masterfully crafted to give the user an easy, but powerful, development environment. The familiar drag and drop interface will allow us to quickly prototype our 3D scenes and begin to develop the interactivity our games require. Let's jump and begin exploring how to use Unity3D in our 3D modeling pipeline.
Blacksmith Shop - Environment (50pts)
Project Due: Week 13
Now that we have our blacksmith shop completely modeled and textured, we need to change gears and start working on the surrounding environment. In Part 3 of the blacksmith shop project, you will design and build a unique environment for your blacksmith shop. Unity3D comes with a great terrain generation tool that allows us to build and sculpt the terrain right in the application.
Before you start building your terrain, analyze what you are going to need to build in order for your blacksmith shop to make sense in the environment. Does you shop need to have a river running next to it? What about a path that leads up to the front door? What type of trees are around the house? Grass and shrubs? These details really help establish the realism of this location and increase the game engagement. Please ensure your project includes the following required elements before you complete this assignment:
- Mesh Item - Blacksmith Shop
- Mesh Item - Water Wheel
- Mesh Item - Props (like an anvil, tools, crates, ETC.)
- Diffuse texture maps for all mesh items
- All model and textures correctly imported in to Unity3D
- Environmental Terrain built in Unity3D Trees, bushes, shrubs, etc.
Examples of Successful Projects
Check out these awesome projects! The images below are example of successful student projects. Use the following images to help guide you to your end results. Notice that all of these images include a high degree of detail on the surface of the geometry, accurate materials/textures, and stellar lighting set-ups. In addition, each of these images properly showcase the model, the focal point of the render, by utilizing a good sense of composition and framing. Great work!
All Finished with your Homework?
After you have saved the project file on your personal external storage device (like a thumb drive), please upload your compressed Unity Project Directory (.zip) to the Blacksmith Shop Environment dropbox on D2L.
Before you upload your files to D2L, please ensure your files meet the following naming conventions:
Submit Your Assignment- lastname_gcom_424_blacksmith_shop_env.zip
Importing Assets (25pts)
Project Due: Week 13
Getting models and textures out of Modo and in to Unity3D can be a little bit of a challenge. Transferring model files between two apps is never fun, but we have to do it! In this exercise, you are to take the supplied model file and correctly import the assets in to Unity3D. Once you are finished, Zip-up your Unity Project Directory and upload it to D2L. Please ensure your project includes the following required elements before you complete this assignment:
- 3D art assets correctly imported into Unity3D project directory
- 3D art assets applied to scene and placed at the origin of the scene
All Finished with your Lab Assignment?
After you have saved the project file on your personal external storage device (like a thumb drive), please upload your compressed Unity Project Directory (.zip) to the Importing Assets dropbox on D2L.
Before you upload your files to D2L, please ensure your files meet the following naming conventions:
Submit Your Assignment- lastname_gcom_424_lab_importing_assets.zip
Important Documents
Check out these awesome learning resources! I've collected a number of assets that I think will help you conquer this week's homework and laboratory assignment. Please download the following materials to your local hard disk or flash storage device (AKA thumb drive).
Links
Here are some important links for this week's learning materials. Make sure you add these important assets into your personal library by bookmarking them!
