Mind-Melding Unity and Blender for 3D Game Development : Unleash the Power of Unity and Blender to Create Amazing Games

Add Blender to your Unity game development projects to unlock new possibilities and decrease your dependency on third-party creators Key Features Discover how you can enhance your games with Blender Learn how to implement Blender in real-world scenarios Create new or modify existing assets in Blender and import them into your Unity game Book Description Blender is an incredibly powerful, free computer graphics program that provides a world-class, open-source graphics toolset for creating amazing assets in 3D. With Mind-Melding Unity and Blender for 3D Game Development, you'll discover how adding Blender to Unity can help you unlock unlimited new possibilities and reduce your reliance on third parties for creating your game assets. This game development book will broaden your knowledge of Unity and help you to get to grips with Blender's core capabilities for enhancing your games. You'll become familiar with creating new assets and modifying existing assets in Blender as the book shows you how to use the Asset Store and Package Manager to download assets in Unity and then export them to Blender for modification. You'll also learn how to modify existing and create new sci-fi-themed assets for a minigame project. As you advance, the book will guide you through creating 3D model props, scenery, and characters and demonstrate UV mapping and texturing. Additionally, you'll get hands-on with rigging, animation, and C# scripting. By the end of this Unity book, you'll have developed a simple yet exciting mini game with audio and visual effects, and a GUI. More importantly, you'll be ready to apply everything you've learned to your Unity game projects. What you will learn Transform your imagination into 3D scenery, props, and characters using Blender Get to grips with UV unwrapping and texture models in Blender Understand how to rig and animate models in Blender Animate and script models in Unity for top-down, FPS, and other types of games Find out how you can roundtrip custom assets from Blender to Unity and back Become familiar with the basics of ProBuilder, Timeline, and Cinemachine in Unity Who this book is for This book is for game developers looking to add more skills to their arsenal by learning Blender from the ground up. Beginner-level Unity scene and scripting skills are necessary to get started. Table of Contents Melding Unity and Blender Gathering Our Resources Entering the Blender Zone for the First Time Asset Assimilation: Returning to Unity On the Level: Making Modular Scenery Living It Up: Adding Fun with Animation Prep Work: Materials, Grids, and Snapping Laying Out the Level Secret Weapon #1: Deploying ProBuilder Secret Weapon #2: Animating with Timeline We Could Be Heroes: Blender Character Modeling It Was Rigged!: Character Rigging Animation and Movement In-Game Endgame: Adding Spit and Polish Cover Copyright and credits Contributors About the reviewers Table of Contents Title Page Preface Section 1: There and Back Again – An Asset Roundtrip with Unity and Blender Chapter 1: Melding Unity and Blender What is Unity? Top 12 Reasons for Using Unity What Is Blender? Top 8 and a Half Reasons for Using Blender Requirements for this Book Knowledge Prerequisites Software Prerequisites Hardware Prerequisites How to Read This Book Getting Additional Help Summary Chapter 2: Gathering Our Resources Technical Requirements Creating Our Unity Project The Unity Hub Selecting a Project Template Your new project Creating the project folders Defining Our Mini-Game Level Mini-Game Gameplay Mechanics Using the Asset Store What is the Asset Store? Searching the Asset Store Using the Package Manager Getting ready for Blender Installing the FBX Exporter package Exporting the turret Additional Assets to Download Audio Assets Textures Summary Chapter 3: Entering the Blender Zone for the First Time Technical Requirements Introducing Blender The Toolbar (Area 1) Editor, mode selection, and mode menus (Area 2) Pivot, Snap, and Proportional Editing (Area 3) Header menu bar (Area 4) View modes and tools (Area 5) Axes Gizmo (Area 6) Zoopancamper! (Area 7) The Outliner Panel (Area 8) The Properties Panel (Area 9) The Status Bar (Area 10) Monkeying Around with the Monkey Head Translation: Moving the Monkey Rotation: Twirling the Monkey Scaling: Mushing the Monkey The Sidebar Applying your transforms Getting ready to move on Entering Edit Mode Creating a Monkey-corn Altering the Turret Carving Out a Lid Creating the launch tube Creating the Struts Fixing a flaw Summary Chapter 4: Asset Assimilation: Returning to Unity Technical Requirements Preparing the Turret for Gameplay Importing the Turret Restructuring the Turret Texturing the turret Creating a material for the missile tube Applying the material to the tube Planning the turret behavior Adding in iTween Scripting the Turret Setting up turret actions Tag, you're it! Creating a placeholder player hero Finally, Scanning! Testing the ScanAction Preparing for the ShootAction Creating the ShootAction Testing the ShootAction: Pew! Pew! Pew! Preparing for the LaunchAction Creating the LaunchAction Testing the LaunchAction Code Checklist for the Chapter The Ultimate Advanced Unity Tip Summary Section 2: The Right Stuff: Scenery, Props, and Characters Chapter 5: On the Level: Making Modular Scenery Technical Requirements Understanding Modular Level Design Setting our Goals The Humble Floor Walls and corners Blocking Out our Level A Quick Recap of our Blender Know-How Navigation and hot-keys Knowing Your Numpad Creating Floors Creating a Wall Creating a wall corner Texture Mapping, UV Mapping/Unwrapping, and Materials UV Mapping 101 UV Unwrapping 101 Materials 101 Unwrapping and texturing the Wall Working in the UV Editing Workspace Unwrapping and texturing the wall corner Summary Chapter 6: Living It Up: Adding Fun with Animation Technical Requirements Understanding Basic Animation Concepts Keyframes Animating in Blender Frame rate Working with Keyframes Auto-keying Markers Creating Animated Blastdoors Blastdoor creation scheme Creating the Blastdoor Doorframe Creating the Simple Door Animating the Simple Door Creating the Complex Door Animating the complex door Texturing the Blastdoors Texturing the Doorframe Texturing the Simple Door Texturing the Complex Door Exporting Your Goodies Summary Chapter 7: Prep Work: Materials, Grids, and Snapping Technical Requirements Getting Our Act Together: Collecting Our Great Stuff in Unity Importing into Unity Living in a Material World: Materials for Walls, Doors, and Floors Creating our new materials Snapping and the Scene Grid Changing the color of the grid lines Vertex Snapping Summary Chapter 8: Laying Out the Level Technical Requirements Laying Out the Level Level Layout Tips Areas A and B Area C Area C2 Area D Area E Area F Area G The Sky's the Limit: Adding a Skybox Sounds Like Trouble: Adding some Audio Effects Summary Chapter 9: Secret Weapon #1: Deploying ProBuilder Technical Requirements An Introduction to ProBuilder ProBuilder vs. Blender History of ProBuilder Installing ProBuilder Exploring The ProBuilder Toolbar Orange-Colored Options – Tools and Editors Creating Objects with ProBuilder Blue Colored Options: Selection Modifiers and Actions Green Colored Options: Object Editing Tools Red-Colored Options: Element Editing Tools Other ProBuilder options Bridgework – Making Movable Scenery Summary Chapter 10: Secret Weapon #2: Animating with Timeline Technical Requirements Introducing Timeline When to use Timeline for animation Timeline Tracks Prepping the Prism: Getting our asset ready to animate Creating the Prism Prefab Captain to the Bridge!—Animating our Bridge with Timeline Creating a Timeline Creating an Animation Track The Plan for the Bridge Recording an Infinite Clip Animating the prism walkway Previewing your Animation Finishing the bridge animation Adding Audio Summary Chapter 11: We Could Be Heroes: Blender Character Modeling Technical Requirements Blender Command Review 3D View Commands Miscellaneous 3D View Commands Edit Mode Commands Pro Tip: Faster Command Access Prepping for the marine Organizing the objects in your scene Randomizing Colors Modeling the Marine Head Torso The Arm The Hand The Leg The Boot Touchups Parenting Finalizing the Model and the File Summary Chapter 12: It Was Rigged!: Blender Character Rigging Technical Requirements Just One Thing... UV-Unwrapping and Texturing the Marine UV Unwrapping Refresher Loading the texture image into the UV space Getting started with the Marine Processing the Head Processing the Torso Processing the Arms Processing the Hands Processing the Legs Processing the Feet Rigging the Marine Exporting the marine Getting started with Mixamo Doing excellent things with the marine Downloading Animations Summary Section 3: Assets Assemble! Putting It All Together Chapter 13: Animation and Movement In-Game Technical Requirements Getting the marine ready for duty Creating and applying the marine material Creating the marine prefab Animating the Marine Adding lights to the level Marine movement and Camera Control Camera Tracking with Secret Weapon #4: Cinemachine Animating the Scenery Animating the Blast doors Animating the Bridge Summary Chapter 14: Endgame: Adding Spit and Polish Technical Requirements Make with the shooting already Preparing to Shoot Adding Sound to the shooting Scripting the Shooting, Part I Scripting the Shooting, Part II A Marine Checklist Making the Turrets Go Boom A Checklist for the Turret and Missile Debugging the Mayhem Creating a Main Menu Changing the menu text Adding audio to the menu Setting Up Scene Loading Adding Post Processing Creating the Final Room Summary Other Books You May Enjoy Index **Add Blender to your Unity game development projects to unlock new possibilities and decrease your dependency on third-party creators** * Discover how you can enhance your games with Blender * Learn how to implement Blender in real-world scenarios * Create new or modify existing assets in Blender and import them into your Unity game Blender is an incredibly powerful, free computer graphics program that provides a world-class, open-source graphics toolset for creating amazing assets in 3D. With Mind-Melding Unity and Blender for 3D Game Development, you'll discover how adding Blender to Unity can help you unlock unlimited new possibilities and reduce your reliance on third parties for creating your game assets. By the end of this Unity book, you'll have developed a simple yet exciting mini game with audio and visual effects, and a GUI. More importantly, you'll be ready to apply everything you've learned to your Unity game projects. * Transform your imagination into 3D scenery, props, and characters using Blender * Get to grips with UV unwrapping and texture models in Blender * Understand how to rig and animate models in Blender * Animate and script models in Unity for top-down, FPS, and other types of games * Find out how you can roundtrip custom assets from Blender to Unity and back * Become familiar with the basics of ProBuilder, Timeline, and Cinemachine in Unity This book is for game developers looking to add more skills to their arsenal by learning Blender from the ground up. Beginner-level Unity scene and scripting skills are necessary to get started. 1. Melding Unity and Blender 2. Gathering Our Resources 3. Entering the Blender Zone for the First Time 4. Asset Assimilation: Returning to Unity 5. On the Level: Making Modular Scenery 6. Living It Up: Adding Fun with Animation 7. Prep Work: Materials, Grids, and Snapping 8. Laying Out the Level 9. Secret Weapon #1: Deploying ProBuilder 10. Secret Weapon #2: Animating with Timeline 11. We Could Be Heroes: Blender Character Modeling 12. It Was Rigged!: Character Rigging 13. Animation and Movement In-Game 14. Endgame: Adding Spit and Polish