So I want to create my first game but I don’t know what softwares and programs to use.
Is this right (forgive but please correct if I’m just saying bs):
-3d modeling, animation and rendering I’ll use Maya (my friend has got it)
-programming I’ll use Unity engine
-Pictures I’ll use Photoshop
-Sound, I don’t know somebody please tell me what to do with this
IS THIS ALL RIGHT? PLEASE CORRECT AND ADD
Also do I need to use Photoshop for pictures or is Maya capable of doing that to?
Please tell me what else I need to use because I’m really confused but extremely keen to devote all my time time into this.
Unity is not a programming IDE, it’s a realtime rendering engine with emphasis on interactivity. Maya, 3DS Max, Cinema4D or any other 3D modelling tool have different learning curves and concepts you will have to adopt to, you do not pick a 3D modelling tool just because a friend has it (unless he wants to give you a license for free), you pick software that you can work with in the best possible way.
Photoshop is very good for bitmap image manipulation, but creating normal maps and so forth would also be dependent on the 3D modelling tool of your choice.
For Audio i personally like to use Adobe Audition because i have worked with it before, but there are literally tons of different solutions out there you can use, it all depends on what you want to achieve.
The best tools does not make the best product if the person in between cannot use these tools, experiment and learn what fits your workflow the best.
You do program for Unity, but Unity is not “for” programming. When you program for Unity you use MonoDevelop, Visual Studio, Xamarin or for that matter a standard text editing tool to write these scripts. Unity will compile these scripts, but you will not do programming within Unity itself.
Maya also has a very strong rendering component to it, but you will not use this rendering engine to render your game, you will use Unity. You do not have to use Photoshop, but i would not expect Maya to get you very far when creating bitmaps (though normal maps and so forth it would be ideal for).
And stop making things complicated for yourself, learn one tool at a time and find out what you need to learn. Start with learning what Unity3d is and how it behaves, write some functionality and from there find out how to construct the assets you will need.
I’m seeing a red flag here. You’re asking about all the programs you need to make a game. This is usually a sign of a (usually subconscious) mindset that if you just have the right tools, actually making a game will be a trivial process. This is a false and dangerous assumption. Having a paintbrush does not make you a painter. I could buy a premium-quality paintbrush and still only be capable of drawing stick figures, meanwhile a real artist is making a masterpiece with finger paint.
It definitely is important to choose the right tools, but that choice is only the beginning of your journey.
-Unity does the rendering for you unless in Maya you are refering to the character animations being rendered and baked
-Photoshop is not only capable of doing pictures, it can also do all sorts of stuff like textures, concept art, screen banners etc.
I’ll just say when making my games, I use C4D, Unity and Photoshop.
My tip is to first do a test game only using Unity and then go onto using 3d models imported made with Maya in Unity on your next game and then on the next game, use Maya Photoshop and Unity together. There are lots of great tutorials out there, it’s up to you to find and learn from them.
Thanks so much everybody. Like everybody mentioned I’m going to stick with Unity and learn the basic concepts of it. Once I’m good enough in Unity I’ll learn Maya and Photoshop. I’m currently taking Unity tutorials on Lynda.com.
Also I can choose to learn the Unity 3.5 tutorials or Unity 4.3 tutorials. Which one should I learn? I know the obvious answer would be 4.3 because is there really a big leap from 3.5 to 4.3? I want to take the Unity 3.5 course because the instructor that teaches the Unity 4.3 course is a bit too intimidating for me.
Should I learn Unity 3.5 tutorials or stop being a pussy and learn the 4.3 tutorials?
Unity 3.5 and 4.3 both have the same fundamentals, how it works and all are mostly the same, it’s just a few things like the 2D system which you’ll have to learn from a 4.3 tutorial.
I suggest going for the 3.5 if it better suits you, and then when you want to learn more features of Unity 4.3, look at the other tutorials.
The update from Unity 3 to 4 didn’t change much for me, only really new features.
Everyone has their own way of learning, but I say go with the easiest to understand as they usually cover ground basics and then progress to more advanced tutorials.
I’d suggest doing some youtube tutorials in the following order…
1.) Introduction to the editor and building a simple game
2.) Learning some basic modelling and texturing and how to import into Unity
3.) Learning some basic scripting/programming (same thing in Unity)
Its hard to explain these things on a forum, once you see people doing things on youtube it will all start to make sense.
Thanks lemo 76 I’ll do just that and Meltdown the tutorials on Lynda.com for unity cover everything and more on what you mentioned. It’s just that the Unity 4.3 tutorial requires you to have pre defined knowledge on animation and 3d modelling.
Well you can always use Blender which is free and has tons of tutorials, go through making a couple of games with Video tutorials… Just make sure you go out of your way to understand why something happens as opposed to just dumping the code to memory. It will save you a lot of headaches in the future. Here are some links to help:
Unity does not exactly require you to have pre-defined knowledge on animation or 3d modeling as the engine is built to simply work with external files you plug into it, 3D modelling and animation is done in ways that would simply not make sense for any Unity3D tutorial to follow unless it is regarding implementation like using animation with Mechanism or making materials for a model.
3D modeling work flow depends on the program you use and any introduction to these programs would teach you the basics of how 3D models are structured and textured, it’s generally very hard going from one 3D modelling suite to another. I do not know how the Lynda tutorial you found is structured, but it they are using any 3D modelling software to make models and such, then you should not outright follow their workflow, find out what software works the best for you.
Focus on learning the core of Unity and the worry about content creation.
