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

Time for action – research what's hot and what's not


  1. Go to the Google 3D Warehouse at http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/.

  2. Select Advanced Search as shown in this image:

  3. You now have a whole host of search criteria you can use. Select the ones circled in the next screenshot.

  4. Enter the asterisk symbol (*) in the top search box that says Find items with all of these words in the title.

  5. Click on Search.

  6. Make sure the sort selection box is set to Sorted by popularity.

  7. You now have a list of all the 5-star quality SketchUp models sorted by popularity. The most popular ones are the models that have been downloaded the most.

  8. Scroll through these using the page navigation tool shown below and take a look at what's hot.

  9. You can also do the same with unpopular (single-star) models, too.

  10. Click on a model and use the 3D View button to look around it.

  11. You can tell how many views and downloads this model has had, as you can see marked in the previous screenshot.

  12. Click on the graph icon.

  13. You can now see how many...