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 – Push/Pull, Move, and Copy


The Push/Pull tool in SketchUp is where most of the fun really begins. It's just great to see 2D stuff becoming 3D! It's as easy as this:

  1. Double-click in the Component to begin modifying it. Now select the Push / Pull tool.

  2. Hover over the top of a plank until it highlights blue, and click. Now when you move the mouse, you can extrude the flat geometry into a 3D box.

  3. Make sure the extrusion is going upwards, as you can see in the previous screenshot. Now click. You could leave it like this, but to Push/Pull to a particular dimension, type in 0.02 and hit Enter. You must do this during or directly after you use Push/Pull for it to work.

  4. Did you notice the plank jumped to the size you specified? Now double-click on each plank to repeat this command. SketchUp remembers the dimension you last used!

  5. You now have a set of 3D planks saved as a component.

    Note

    Components

    A component can be copied as many times as you like, and any changes you later make to it...