Book Image

Google SketchUp for Game Design: Beginner's Guide

Book Image

Google SketchUp for Game Design: Beginner's Guide

Overview of this book

Creating video game environments similar to the best 3D games on the market is now within the capability of hobbyists for the first time, with the free availability of game development software such as Unity 3D, and the ease with which groups of enthusiasts can get together to pool their skills for a game project. The sheer number of these independent game projects springing up means there is a constant need for game art, the physical 3D environment and objects that inhabit these game worlds. Now thanks to Google there is an easy, fun way to create professional game art, levels and props.Google SketchUp is the natural choice for beginners to game design. This book provides you with the workflow to quickly build realistic 3D environments, levels, and props to fill your game world. In simple steps you will model terrain, buildings, vehicles, and much more.Google SketchUp is the ideal entry level modeling tool for game design, allowing you to take digital photographs and turn them into 3D objects for quick, fun, game creation. SketchUp for Game Design takes you through the modeling of a game level with SketchUp and Unity 3D, complete with all game art, textures and props. You will learn how to create cars, buildings, terrain, tools and standard level props such as barrels, fencing and wooden pallets. You will set up your game level in Unity 3D to create a fully functional first person walk-around level to email to your friends or future employers.When you have completed the projects in this book, you will be comfortable creating 3D worlds, whether for games, visualization, or films.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Google SketchUp for Game Design
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Is this book for me?


If you work (or want to work) in any industry that uses 3D assets, this book is for you. If you are an enthusiast, it's for you, too. You can follow everything in here, either on a PC or Mac. You can do it completely for free with the free version of SketchUp and free file converters. Best of all, the game engines you'll be using are also free. See the next chapter for more details about Unity 3D . As well as these obvious industries, web designers are catching on, too. There will be a large market for asset designers for Google Earth now that you can explore inside a building as well as outside it. The potential for replicating every store, museum, and park within Google Earth is immense, and so is the possibility for advertising revenue. Will Google shift their entire search engine into 3D web space? What if it does?

Can I really become a professional in the game and film industry?

As you've already seen, there is enormous crossover between the two industries. In the future, there will be no difference between the 3D assets used in the film and the game spin-off. Gamers will walk around the same sets that were used in the film, simply because the film sets will be entirely digital assets. This also means that the bar for entry into the film industry is lowered significantly. If you are a skilful SketchUp asset creator, you will be able to create a set for a fraction of the cost of the real thing. This means as long as you can afford a couple of actors and a blue screen setup, you're well away to being an Indie Film Director. Okay, that's simplifying it too much. It may take a larger team than just you to create a full-length film, but there's no reason why you can't be a spoke in a bigger wheel, or even the hub itself.