Google-Sketchup-For-Game-Design
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Google SketchUp for Game Design Beginner's Guide Create 3D game worlds complete with textures, levels, and props Robin de Jongh PACK PUBLISHING BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI This material is copyright and is licensed for the sole use by REKHA NADENDLA on 2nd December 2011 375 N STEPHANIE ST SUITE 1411, HENDERSON, 89014 Google SketchUp for Game Design Beginner's Guide Copyright © 2011 Packt Publishing All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews. Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book. Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information. First published: November 2011 Production Reference: 1181111 Published by Packt Publishing Ltd. Livery Place 35 Livery Street Birmingham B3 2PB, UK. ISBN 978-1-84969-134-5 www.packtpub.com Cover Image by Robin de Jongh ([email protected]) This material is copyright and is licensed for the sole use by REKHA NADENDLA on 2nd December 2011 375 N STEPHANIE ST SUITE 1411, HENDERSON, 89014 Credits Author Project Coordinator Robin de Jongh Kushal Bhardwaj Proofreader Reviewers Josh Toth Colin Holgate Thomas Bleicher Indexer Acquisition Editors Tejal Daruwale David Barnes Production Coordinator Wilson D'Souza Prachali Bhiwandkar Development Editor Cover Work Hyacintha D'Souza Prachali Bhiwandkar Technical Editor Mohd. Sahil This material is copyright and is licensed for the sole use by REKHA NADENDLA on 2nd December 2011 375 N STEPHANIE ST SUITE 1411, HENDERSON, 89014 About the Author Robin de Jongh worked for many years as a Design Engineer and 3D modeler, where he became an early advocate of SketchUp. He has a degree in Computer-Aided Product Design from Nottingham Trent University, and is the author of SketchUp for Architectural Visualization: Beginner's Guide. He lives in England where works as an editor of computer software and video games' books. I would like to thank my wonderful wife for all her support. Thanks to my technical reviewers and everyone at Packt who has worked hard to make this book a success. This material is copyright and is licensed for the sole use by REKHA NADENDLA on 2nd December 2011 375 N STEPHANIE ST SUITE 1411, HENDERSON, 89014 About the Reviewers Colin Holgate has been a programming for 30 years, using a variety of multimedia authoring tools, including HyperCard, LiveCode, Adobe Director, Adobe Flash, and Unity 3D. He has been a SketchUp Pro user since 2004, and has used SketchUp alongside Unity 3D to make a virtual walkthrough of the new World Trade Center site. The walkthrough is located at http://www.wtctwo.com/. Colin was one of the two reviewers for the Packt book, SketchUp 7.1 for Architectural Visualization. Thomas Bleicher was the other reviewer. Thomas Bleicher is a trained architect with a soft spot for daylight and computer simulation. He has worked as an architect and consultant in Germany and UK. In his spare time, he develops software for SketchUp and daylight analysis. Currently, he lives in the Cayman Islands. This material is copyright and is licensed for the sole use by REKHA NADENDLA on 2nd December 2011 375 N STEPHANIE ST SUITE 1411, HENDERSON, 89014 www.PacktPub.com Support files, eBooks, discount offers, and more You might want to visit www.PacktPub.com for support files and downloads elatedr to your book. Did you know that Packt offers eBook versions of every book published, with PDF and ePub files available? You can upgrade to the eBook version at www.PacktPub.com and as a print book customer, you are entitled to a discount on the eBook copy. 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This material is copyright and is licensed for the sole use by REKHA NADENDLA on 2nd December 2011 375 N STEPHANIE ST SUITE 1411, HENDERSON, 89014 Table of Contents Preface 1 Chapter 1: Why Use SketchUp? 7 Commitment brings rewards 8 Is this book for me? 8 Can I really become a professional in the game and film industry? 9 What's SketchUp really good at? 9 How will this book help? 9 Some limitations 10 Making bags of cash-selling assets 11 The envy of the gaming community: creating custom levels 13 In-game level design tools 14 Modding assets 14 What have I learned? 14 Chapter 2: Tools that Grow on Trees 15 3D Warehouse 15 Time for action – esearr ch what's hot and what's not 16 Your best CG textures source 20 Signing up to CGTextures.com 21 Copyright issues with textures 23 Your library 23 Meshlab 24 Time for action – learning about 3D meshes in MeshLab 25 Moving around in 3D 27 File formats 28 Get your game engine here: Unity 3D 28 The pro games environment 29 This material is copyright and is licensed for the sole use by REKHA NADENDLA on 2nd December 2011 375 N STEPHANIE ST SUITE 1411, HENDERSON, 89014 Table of Contents Time for action – obtaining Unity 3D for free 29 Google SketchUp 34 Enhanced texture packs 34 GIMP: The free professional graphics editor 36 Summary 37 Chapter 3: Wooden Pallet: Texture Creation 39 Finding textures to use in asset modeling 39 Time for action – selecting the photo texture 39 Enhancing textures 42 Time for action – cropping and enhancing 42 What are pixels? 45 Texture sizes 46 Time for action – arranging multiple textures 47 Saving textures 51 Naming conventions 52 Copyright text 52 Time for action – finalouches t 52 Summary 54 Chapter 4: Wooden Pallet: Modeling 55 Your first model in SketchUp 56 Time for action – importing aexture t to scale 57 Modeling from the texture 58 Time for action – basic 3D eometryg 58 Time for action – Push/Pull, Move, and Copy 62 It's really that easy! 65 Time for action – multipleopies c 65 The power of pre-prepared textures 67 Time for action – ompletingc texturing 68 Time for action – ecyclingr textures for use on non-vital faces 72 Preparing for game use 75 Hidden geometry and layers 75 Removing unseen faces 75 Exploding geometry 77 Purging unused geometry and materials 77 Checking the face orientation 78 Compressing and resizing textures 78 Saving for game use 79 Summary 79 [ ii ] This material is copyright and is licensed for the sole use by REKHA NADENDLA on 2nd December 2011 375 N STEPHANIE ST SUITE 1411, HENDERSON, 89014 Table of Contents Chapter 5: Game Levels in SketchUp 81 Sketching out the level 83 Do game artists need art degrees? 83 Time for action – setting up theerrain t grid and plan 86 Time for action – setting up theerrain t texture image 89 Time for action – creating a color selection layer 92 The master texture 94 Time for action – creating a large seamless texture 95 Time for action – creating a tiled texture 98 Time for action – filling selected areas with textures 100 Time for action – using tileablee t xtures from the Internet 102 Have a go hero – selecting and texturing 102 Some nifty texture tweaks 103 Time for action – creating a roadside kerb 103 Time for action – emor ving white edges 105 Modeling terrain with Sandbox tools 107 Time for action – adding height to a flat terrain 107 The Stamp tool 110 Time for action – ts amping detail onto the terrain 111 The Drape tool 115 Time for action – using the Drape tool 116 Uniting terrain geometry with texture 116 Summary 118 Chapter 6: Importing ot a Professional Game Application: Unity 3D 119 Exporting the level from SketchUp 120 Time for action – preparing a model for export 120 Time for action – SketchUp Pro export 121 Time for action – SketchUp free export 122 Time for action – using the free Autodesk FBX converter 122 Importing to Unity 3D 123 Time for action – importingour y terrain in to Unity 124 Time for action – using a high-resolution erraint texture in Unity 127 Creating lights 128 Time for action – creating Sunlight in Unity 129 Setting upour y character controller 132 Time for action – setting up a st-personfir shooter style controller 132 Time for action – playing the level 133 Time for action – creating a web playable walkthrough 134 Time for action – opc ying and pasting the pallet multiple times 137 Summary 140 [ iii ] This material is copyright and is licensed for the sole use by REKHA NADENDLA on 2nd December 2011 375 N STEPHANIE ST SUITE 1411, HENDERSON, 89014 Table of