Creating video game environments similar to the best 3D games in the market is now within the reach of hobbyists for the first time, with free availability of game development software such as Unity 3D, added to 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 that there is a constant need for game art, physical 3D environments, and the objects that inhabit these game worlds. Thanks to Google there is an easy, fun way to create professional game art, levels, and props.
Google SketchUp is a natural choice for beginners for game designing. This book provides you with the workflow to build realistic 3D environments, levels, and props to fill your game world quickly. In simple steps, you will model terrains, buildings, vehicles, and much more.
Google SketchUp is an ideal entry-level modeling tool for game design, allowing you to take digital photographs and turn them into 3D objects for quick and 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 e-mail your friends or future employers.
When you have completed the projects in this book, you will be comfortable creating 3D worlds, be it for games, visualization, or films.
Chapter 1, Why Use SketchUp?, is our introduction to Google SketchUp as an indispensable game development tool. Google SketchUp is the ideal entry-level game design tool for rapid generation of levels and props. This chapter gives an introduction to SketchUp and tells us why it's the easiest, most dependable software for rapidly creating levels and props for your 3D games.
Chapter 2, Tools that Grow on Trees, describes the tools that you need to create your own AAA game creation studio—and it's entirely free! We also do some research into what game assets sell the most, and where you can find online stores to make some money yourself.
Chapter 3, Wooden Pallet: Texture Creation, tells us how to create a realistic game texture from a photo, using GIMP, the free fully-featured image editing studio.
Chapter 4, Wooden Pallet: Simple Texturing Techniques, details about the most useful SketchUp toolset by creating a high-detail, low-polygon game prop.
Chapter 5, Game Levels in SketchUp, allows you to create a game level complete with terrain, realistic textures, and shadows using SketchUp's amazing Sandbox sculpting tools.
Chapter 6, Import to a Professional Game Application: Unity 3D, allows you to create a game level complete with terrain, realistic textures, and shadows using SketchUp's amazing Sandbox sculpting tools.
Chapter 7, Quick Standard Assets, helps you create a rusty fence, a barrel, a wrench, some quick buildings, and more, using SketchUp tools.
Chapter 8, Advanced Modeling: Create a Realistic Car in Easy Steps, describes the amazing modeling capabilities of SketchUp for game design. It also allows you to create a game level complete with terrain, realistic textures, and shadows using SketchUp's amazing Sandbox sculpting tools.
Chapter 9, The Main Building - Inside and Out, brings together all your skills into a single game, setting up the game environment including a backdrop, sky, and fog. You will create your detailed main building complete with maze-like interior and export an executable fully-playable game to send to your friends or to show off on the Web.
Appendix A, MakeHuman, makes use of the MakeHuman software to create a textured, high-polygon human model, and then shows you how to use MeshLab to reduce polygons.
All you need is a PC or Mac with an Internet connection. A 3-button mouse with a scroll wheel is also beneficial.
This book is designed for anyone who wants to create the entire 3D worlds into use in freely available game engines such as Unity 3D, CryEngine, Ogre, Panda3D, Unreal Engine, or Blender Game Engine. The book is also for all those of you who wish to create new levels and assets to sell in-game asset stores or to use in visualization or animation.
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