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 – making a human


  1. Download and install the latest stable version of MakeHuman from http://www.makehuman.org/.

  2. You also need MeshLab which we discovered in Chapter 2, Tools that Grow on Trees. We haven't done what we would have liked with MeshLab in this book because it's "work in progress" software and didn't produce stable and repeatable results. Let's have a look at it in the appendix, where it's safe to experiment!

  3. When these are installed, start MakeHuman. You can experiment with all the settings to adjust Gender, Age, Muscle Tone, Weight, and Height. Those are the basics.

  4. Now go to Files ¦ Export and deselect all the options. Select Wavefront obj .

  5. Type in a filename and click on Export. That's all for now with MakeHuman.

  6. Go to Meshlab and open the file you just exported. You should find it in My Documents | Makehuman | Exports or something similar.

  7. Here he is in MeshLab:

  8. Did you notice how many polygons (faces) he's made up of? 27,500! That's way too many for game use.

  9. Go to Quadratic Edge Collapse Decimation (with texture) and try typing in 3000 faces. That should do it. Here he is now with the Smooth view button pressed:

  10. Go to File ¦ Save As and select 3DS format and Save. Make sure you save him in the same folder as the texture.

  11. In SketchUp, import the 3DS file. Here, he is:

  12. Turn him with the Move tool so that he's standing upright. Right-click and Explode once, and then use the Soften/Smooth tool.

What just happened?

You just made a textured, high-polygon human in MakeHuman, crunched the polygons down to a manageable level, and imported it into SketchUp. He is now there in all his low-polygon glory, texture and all. Here's a quick render in Shaderlight so you can see the realism even with vastly reduced polygons. You can now use him as a dressmaker's doll to help you model assets such as armor, weapons, or clothing, or work on him much in the same way as you did with the terrain and the car to create a game character or monster.