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

GIMP: The free professional graphics editor


Much of the asset creation process involves manipulation of images, textures and photos, so you need a professional-level image editor. GIMP is an open source graphics editor which in the past was based mostly on Adobe Photoshop. That means if you've done graphics work before in Photoshop, you should be able to recognize most of the functions in GIMP. The reason we're using GIMP in this book is that not everyone has access to Photoshop, which is a costly piece of software, and lower cost versions such as Photoshop Elements just don't have the functions required to do asset creation. If you have Photoshop installed, you can use that instead without too much difficulty, as Photoshop has all the functions of GIMP and more.

Note

To install GIMP go to http://www.gimp.org and click on the download link. The Windows installer should be at the top of the list. For the MAC version click on show other downloads and scroll down to GIMP for Mac OS X.

Now it's...