Keeping it Simple

Community Showcases
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Hi
Last week my son-in-law was watching as I loaded the Bootcamp Demo into Unity. He was impressed with the textures and effects, but because he’s not an artist and 3D modeling has never really entered his head, he asked me how easy was it to get models into Unity and make them work.

I loaded up Sketchup and created a couple of simple models, exported them to FBX and imported them into a new Unity scene. Then with the First person controller we had a look at what i had just made. He was impressed. Then he asked; could I make a simple game not using any textures at all?

Sure, I said. I’d been mulling over the idea of a children’s driving game with a learning aspect. As a retired teacher I’d often thought that there must be better games than FPS and other shoot’em up type games, for the younger age set. Also I wanted to make a game that didn’t have the parents cringe when their child asked “can I play on the computer”. Now I’m not against FPS and other shoot’em up type games, after all I enjoy the Call of Duty series, and play Crysis and a few other of those genre. I also from time to time make models for VBS2 which is a military training simulator.

One thing I like about the Sketchup → Unity pipeline is that it is simple. I export in FBX and apart from having to reset the scale in Unity (default FBX import is set to 0.01, why? I have now idea), the models import nicely. Sometimes I use another 3D app to reset the pivot points on some objects within the models; for wheels and other objects that require animation.

Another thing about Sketchup modeling is that I can choose colors rather than textures to create the models. I’m not against textures, but for a childs game, and I’m talking 4 thru to 6 or 7 year olds here, plain colors are ideal. While I’m not giving too much away here about the actual game premise, I would like to share with you that simple models can look great when colored. Also the models themselves are not complicated and can easily be created with Sketchup, without the need of expensive 3D applications.

As I also do woodwork and make paper models each of the models in the game will be able to be made in both wood and paper. Which, for those who have money making in mind, could be a source of income for further development and the purchase of Unity Pro.

Anyway, here’s the first batch of models off the Sketchup to Unity piplene. each of the models took only a few hours to create, and the bus in the background drivable already.

well enough for now. I have a large list of toys to make :slight_smile:

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Games do make fantastic learning tools, and indeed sometimes we let sophisticated graphics bog things down. Human imagination, particularly in children, doesn’t need much to set it off and I think you can gain a big boost in the scope of what you can do when you simplify things. I’d like to see how this goes, so do keep us updated. I quite like how it’s looking already.

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Hi Novodantis
Thanks for your reply. I’m currently creating the assets for the game, which is fun, as while I’m using the real world objects for reference, I’m creating a simplified version which still retains a sense of the original, but with a toy-like aspect. While away from the keyboard I’m developing the educational side of the game using our (New Zealand) national curriculum as a guide. My target age group is 4 to 7 year olds as stated, with markets aimed at parents, homeschoolers, and national schools. With the latter two in mind I’m looking at including work books and sheets as well.

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Nice project Colonel.

In my project i also dont use any textures on the characters.

Its amazing what you can achieve just by playing with unity materials.

Good luck!

Hugs!

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Exactly! I was quite amzed when I found that Unity kept the colors I used from Sketchup. Also this project is being created in Unity Indie without the need of the pro features.

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This is why I love using sketchup to. For what it’d take me a day to do in some other app, I can do in a few minutes in sketchup, and get my desired result. All my unity games use sketchup, and despite what people say you can UV map in it (It’s a shame that bit is a long long process though). My Blobworld game uses sketchup and unity’s terrain stuff to create a shiny, sunny world. All the characters are sketchup-ed too, and can be animated (if you model them with no internal polys and no backfaces showing)- which reminds me, I desperately need to sell some of my models to pay the guy that animated themm…
But that’s beside the point.
Sketchup is a great tool, it’s easy, clean and doesn’t take hours to master. Exports into unity-readable formats and more. I actually think this is where modellers should start off- and maybe move to more advanced packages later on. In my case, I think I’ll stick to sketchup. Thumbs up dude, my fellow SU user!

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Hiya Fishman92
Thanks for the thumbs up.
I couldn’t agree more. Sketchup is the ideal learner’s 3D modeling too. I wish it was around when I first started 3D modeling on the Atati ST. I used a very expensive program called Cyber Studio (which is probably the forerunner of the 3D Studio Max as we now know it). It took quite an effort to model anything of note in Cyber Studio. I think the first thing I managed to create that looked reasonable was a champgne glass. No textures just a 3D model of a glass. Nowadays programs like Sketchup can create more complex objects with very little practise. Nowadays Max is just a link in the pipeline which often or not gets bypassed as models can export directly to Unity from Sketchup.

A while ago I worked on a method of “unwrapping” models in Sketchup. It requires a bit of work, and is better for planar type models, although I have unwrapped some more complex shapes the same way. It just needs a bit more work.

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Just a small update. Have created the street sections and now adding buildings.

In keeping with the “keeping it simple”, instead of creating individual windows on the city blocks, I’m using small repeating window and wall section textures.

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I’m really inspired by this thread.

I also love the attitude and ethos that is driving this project of yours.

From a pipeline perspective, may I suggest an extension from the Unity marketplace? It’s called something like Extending Primitives and basically just adds lots of primitive objects into unity itself, things like cones and other geometric shapes whose names escape me. You could then build all the objects from inside Unity itself.

May I also suggest that you think about changing the sky texture? Maybe to something alittle less realistic. I’m thinking a simple gradient would do the trick, as the realistic clouds look alittle in-congruent with the rest of your world.

I look forward to seeing more.

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Thanks SkipKickCrash. I was starting out with something a little more upmarket originally, but as a newb just getting the grips with Unity I thought something less complicated would make a better start. I’m actually quite pleased with the results so far. getting the vehicle to work reminded me of one of the first oaddons I made for Operation Flashpoint many years ago. Quite a thrill to see something you made moving in a 3D environment.

I’ll look into that. My biggest problem is that I have Unity on a non- internet computer so gaining access to the asset store is a bit of a bother.

My son’s have both commented on the sky already. They suggested a more toy like sky with cotton wool type clouds. It’s on my to do list :slight_smile:

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Update on game asset progress.
The past week has been concentrated on creating the assets for the game, particularly the urban buildings.
After discussing this with my son, I’ve decided to make the game more toon-like in style for the younger age group. Some new developments for the content is that screen shots from the game will be used to illustrate accompanying children’s reading and coloring books.
I can see an investment in Unity Pro is in the near future;

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It’s looking great! Perhaps you may want to add a Blob shadow to your car to give it a better sense of its position in the world. The colors look great although the car’s highlight may be a little too bright but that’s just probably my tired eyes talking.

Also will there be long roads like this? When i often think of toys i usually think of things being closer together and in abundance since kids often don’t have whole living rooms to spread out long cities. Perhaps some taller trees or a cross road would help break up the “emptiness” or “edge of the world”. Heck you can even pull a Disney look and add some flattening cartoony looking hills as a backdrop/skybox which will create a sense of a fuller world and hide the endless space of 3D.

Can’t wait to see more! You’re doing a fantastic job.

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Hi FLintCLeaver
Thanks for the feedback. Atm I’m just creating the assets and laying them out to get a feel for the concept. As the child character will be riding a smaller vehicle, say pedal car, the streets will be far shorter and more numerous, than what the pic suggests.
yep there will be a defined backdrop. These will be areas where the player moves to after completing the various levels.
As it is an educational game the levels will be based on the local environment/s where the player collects various items that and solves puzzles according the to level difficulty.
Yeah the car highlight is a little strong. I may dispense with shiney objects, although the concept is that the objects/vehicles are painted with shiney bright colors.
will blob shadows work with Unity Indie? I might have to investigate that a bit more.
Cheers

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I think the shiny colors will work if used appropriately and subtle to not be too distracting. :]

Also, yes, Unity free version CAN use blob shadows. And you can even change the texture it projects so the shadow can match the shape. This is not necessary for your style though and the down side about custom blob shadow textures is that it won’t animate like a DYNAMIC shadow will.

One work around to this could be attaching two blob shadows to one character. This could be useful if u ever decide to have a walking character. You can shrink down each blob shadow to conform to the feet and write a script that moves the shadow back/forth depending on the height of the foot. you can even probably script them to rotate relative to the player’s Z-Direction.

Of course your game would be perfectly suited to have simple ‘O-shaped’ blob shadows as well if you find doing all that other stuff would stand out too much.

Here is a classic N64 game that used a similar style to create visually pleasing yet simple blob-like shadows for a running character:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLrSweIcHUA

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I like that game.Reminds me on legos somehow :smile:

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i love that game.

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as do we all lol.

Can’t wait to see some more great stuff from Colonel!

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Small update. Been busy with asset building which includes Zac’s hotrod and granny’s house. Added toon outline effects and am very pleased how this is shaping up.
I did some pretty rough pencil drawings of the characters in this game. And when I say rough, they are rough. The main characters are based on a cartoon character I created when teaching many moons ago, and ones who feature in a number of children’s reading books I have written. The characters are more defined now.
I’m developing a whole family, Zac being the eldest (around 18). Then Ziggy (7), Zeena(5), and Zubz the baby. Then off course there is Dad, Mum, some uncles and aunts, cousins etc.

The ideas are developing quick and fast on what I’m wanting to do with the game, and its subsidary offshoots (story books, coloring books, the wooden toys, and paper models. Plus another idea I’m developing).

One thing I can say, though, is the Unity community is very helpful. I’ve found a lot of answers to some of the problems I’ve encountered.

I meant to add that while I’m happy with using just material colors and toon shadding and outline, I’m looking seriously at doing some textures so that i can change the way the objects render for my coloring and reading book illustrations. more on that as it gets developed.