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

Summary


We've come a long way in a very short time. In this chapter, you have learned how to create a car from some photos and some blueprints taken from the Internet. You've achieved a low-polygon sporty automobile for your games using only simple tricks and techniques. I'm afraid this is as far as you can go using these shortcut methods. To get any further in terms of realism, you now need to either export your model to Blender and learn how to create UV maps for your texture, or gradually add in more detail piece by piece. Once you have a detailed model, you can apply non-photo materials and render it for greater realism.

Of course, for a really stunning vehicle you also need to model the interior and the occupant, but those are a topic for another book. Who knows, now you've caught the SketchUp bug, maybe you'll end up writing it.

In this chapter, you learned how to:

  • Model from orthographic 2D drawings

  • Create a quick approximate form by intersecting three views

  • Start refining the model by...