Game Character Creation with Blender and Unity E-Book

Chris Totten

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 399

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Beschreibung

A complete guide to creating usable, realistic game characters with two powerful tools Creating viable game characters requires a combination of skills. This book teaches game creators how to create usable, realistic game assets using the power of an open-source 3D application and a free game engine. It presents a step-by-step approach to modeling, texturing, and animating a character using the popular Blender software, with emphasis on low polygon modeling and an eye for using sculpting and textures, and demonstrates how to bring the character into the Unity game engine. * Game creation is a popular and productive pursuit for both hobbyists and serious developers; this guide brings together two effective tools to simplify and enhance the process * Artists who are familiar with Blender or other 3D software but who lack experience with game development workflow will find this book fills important gaps in their knowledge * Provides a complete tutorial on developing a game character, including modeling, UV unwrapping, sculpting, baking displacements, texturing, rigging, animation, and export * Emphasizes low polygon modeling for game engines and shows how to bring the finished character into the Unity game engine Whether you're interested in a new hobby or eager to enter the field of professional game development, this book offers valuable guidance to increase your skills.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

Credits

Copyright

Publisher's Note

Dedication

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Introduction

What Is Blender?

What Is the Unity Game Engine?

Where Do I Get Blender and Unity?

Who Should Buy This Book

What You Will Learn

How to Use This Book

What’s Inside

How to Contact the Author

Chapter 1: Basic Game Art Concepts

Game Design Workflows

Creating Game Assets

Understanding and Optimizing 3D Game Art

Working with Game Engines

Scripting Happens

Chapter 2: Blender Basics for Game Characters

Working with Blender’s Unique Features

Working with Editor Arrangement and Types

Navigating and Viewing 3D Space

Creating and Manipulating Objects

Using the Properties Editor

Know Your Hotkeys

Making a Simple Block Character

Useful Techniques

Chapter 3: Modeling the Character

Working with Model Sheets

Shaping the Torso for Low Polygon Count

Extruding the Legs and Feet

Making the Arms and Hands

Separating Body Components to Create Clothing

Creating the Head with Poly-by-Poly Modeling

Carving Out Zombie Damage

Chapter 4: Prepping for Zombie Details with UV Unwrapping

The Uses of UV Layouts

Drawing Seams

Using Blender’s UV/Image Editor

Laying Out a UV Sheet

Using Blender’s Live Unwrap Functions

Chapter 5: Sculpting for Normal Maps

The Purpose of Sculpting

Introducing the Multires Modifier

Using Blender’s Sculpting Interface

Sculpting the Zombie in Blender

Baking Normal Maps

Chapter 6: Digital Painting Color Maps

Understanding Digital Painting

Preparing for Color Map Painting

Digital Painting Best Practices

Applying Your Color Map to the Zombie

Chapter 7: Rigging for Realistic Movement

Understanding Rigging

Creating a Simple Armature

Finishing the Armature with Constraints

Linking the Armature and Zombie

Chapter 8: Animating the Zombie

Understanding and Planning Game Animation

Using Blender’s Animation System

Creating an Idle Animation

Creating a Walk Animation

Creating a Chase Animation

Creating a Run Animation

Organizing Your Animations

Chapter 9: Unity Engine Basics

Understanding Unity’s Logic and Interface

Building a Whiteblock Level with Unity Primitives

Creating and Editing Materials in Unity

Organizing Assets with Unity Empties

Chapter 10: Implementing Your Zombie in a Unity Game

Importing Models into Unity

Unity Scripting—A Crash Course

Adding Interactivity to the Zombie

Turning the First Person Controller into an FPS Hero

Adding Other Gameplay Elements

Wrapping Up

Index

Acquisitions Editor: Mariann Barsolo

Development Editor: Laurene Sorensen

Technical Editor: Terry Wallwork

Production Editor: Dassi Zeidel

Copy Editor: Liz Welch

Editorial Manager: Pete Gaughan

Production Manager: Tim Tate

Vice President and Executive Group Publisher: Richard Swadley

Vice President and Publisher: Neil Edde

Book Designer: Caryl Gorska

Compositor: Chris Gillespie and Kate Kaminski, Happenstance Type-O-Rama

Proofreader: Amy Schneider

Indexer: Jack Lewis

Project Coordinator, Cover: Katherine Crocker

Cover Designer: Ryan Sneed

Cover Image: Chris Totten

Copyright © 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

ISBN: 978-1-118-17272-8

ISBN: 978-1-118-22690-2 (ebk.)

ISBN: 978-1-118-23771-7 (ebk.)

ISBN: 978-1-118-26457-7 (ebk.)

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Dear Reader,

Thank you for choosing Game Character Creation with Blender and Unity. This book is part of a family of premium-quality Sybex books, all of which are written by outstanding authors who combine practical experience with a gift for teaching.

Sybex was founded in 1976. More than 30 years later, we’re still committed to producing consistently exceptional books. With each of our titles, we’re working hard to set a new standard for the industry. From the paper we print on, to the authors we work with, our goal is to bring you the best books available.

I hope you see all that reflected in these pages. I’d be very interested to hear your comments and get your feedback on how we’re doing. Feel free to let me know what you think about this or any other Sybex book by sending me an email at [email protected]. If you think you’ve found a technical error in this book, please visit http://sybex.custhelp.com. Customer feedback is critical to our efforts at Sybex.

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Neil Edde

Vice President and Publisher

Sybex, an Imprint of Wiley

To Clara, without whom none of this would have been possible

Acknowledgments

Books like this are the Olympian effort of not just the author but a great many people, who all deserve recognition for their efforts. I would of course like to thank the fine folks who make Blender and Unity and distribute them for the masses to use. You are doing a great thing for independent artists and game developers. A special thanks goes out to Ton Roosendaal for getting me in touch with Wiley in the first place to make this book happen. ■ I’d like to thank the teachers who introduced me to 3D art and animation back in college and pushed me to pursue a career making and studying games. I’d also like to thank the D.C. chapter of the International Game Developers’ Association for being so encouraging and including me in many of your great game projects. ■ I’d also like to thank the people who helped me put this book together, including Mariann Barsolo, Laurene Sorensen, Pete Gaughan, Connor O’Brien, Jenni Housh, Liz Welch, and Dassi Zeidel. You guys not only fixed many of my grammatical, technical, and formatting errors but also taught me a great deal about the publishing process. I also know more about Blender than I did going into this process because of you.■ I would also like to thank the administrators of www.lovetextures.com for their generous permission to use some of their texture files in the downloadable materials. They do a great job and everyone reading this should check them out. ■ Lastly, I’d like to thank my family for their love and support as I worked on this project, especially my mom and dad. Without you guys I wouldn’t have been capable of writing this. Thanks also to my fiancée, Clara, for pushing me to pursue this project and putting up with my long workdays creating art for the book.

About the Author

Christopher Totten is a Washington, D.C.–based professor of game design and 3D animation. He has participated in several independent game projects as an artist, animator, and project manager. Chris has written articles featured on both Gamasutra and Video Game Writers. He has been a guest speaker at Dakota State University’s Workshop on Integrated Design and at GDC China.

He has a master’s degree in architecture with a concentration in digital media from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Chris wants to help shape a new generation of game designers who look deeper into their designs. He works with students and other designers to challenge gaming conventions through cross-disciplinary research.

Chapter 1

Basic Game Art Concepts

Some people don’t want to take games seriously. This isn’t a lament against parents lashing out over gore or people who think that games are a waste of time. It is instead a statement about a popular assumption that making video games doesn’t involve a lot of work. This assumption is a problem in many game schools, whether they focus on the art, programming, or overall design of games.