In regards to iPhone game development, I’m not a graphics designer and am wondering how visually pleasing of an app I will be able to make. Can some one shed some light on how far I can probably go using only Unity 3D?
Also, does Unity 3d use hardware acceleration?
Pretty much nowhere, as Unity (which is the name, not Unity3D 
) isn’t about creating assets. Those you create in other apps, such as Photoshop, Maya, etc.
Yes.
–Eric
Look at the titles that have been released and you can see for yourself, there’s some awesome stuff that’s been published with Unity!
Not refuting there isn’t any awesome stuff created by Unity developers. However, a developer with no graphics skill set isn’t going to create that kind of app. Given the comment from Eric5h5, that leaves a non graphics developer empty handed.
How does such a developer create a visually appealing app? Also, this is a one man show doing it on a shoestring type of setup. So, hiring a graphics designer isn’t really an option. There’s a lot one person can do and I’m sure plenty of non graphics designer Unity developers have come up with creative ways to get past this issue.
Unity makes it less difficult for iPhone developers just starting in gaming. Is there something like this for graphics that import into Unity?
Thanks.
Hey Unity takes the stress off. I am developing an online baseball MMO with Unity. I was using Torque.
Now that I switched to Unity the art pipeline is so sweet and the programming so straight forward I now have roughly double the time to work on the art assets.
At least that is something.
There really is no “Artist in a Box” type program I know of. You have basically two choices: Group with an artist or learn to do art yourself.
I am a one-man band programmer too but I am learning to do decent art. I use these programs:
Modeling: Cheetah3D - simple, cheap ($99), very easy to use.
Textures, skins, etc: Photoshop - not so cheap but does it all
Music: Garage Band - Came free with my Mac, adding some jam packs, simple to use
Sound: Nothing yet but probably Audacity or some other freebie sound editor
Here’s a really nice list of free game-related tools:
http://mmorpgmaker.vault.ign.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=7264
Thanks on the feedback. That’s a great list of tools.
@Mark O
Cheetah3D looks cool. I see it do this http://www.cheetah3d.com/img/gallery/Anim_cont1.mov and wonder why you need Photoshop for texturing. In that movie, looks as though there is lots of texturing done by Cheetah3d.
What do you export as from Cheeta3D that can be imported into Unity?
Is there anything in Unity Indie version that you are finding limiting vs the PRO?
I’m watching this video How to Create an island terrain in Unity 3D game engine « Software Tips :: WonderHowTo, which is really good. I think he is using Unity PRO. Does the PRO version include any assets that the Indie version doesn’t have? The terrain stuff he’s doing is neat but not sure the Indie version can do that.
I’m still going through the Unity 3D tutorial PDF. What assets does the Indie version come with or do I need to create everything - grass, clouds, textures, etc?
Heh, for texturing, I just splat on a whole ton of different special materials in Cheetah3D like marbles, velvets, and woods, take a screenshot of Cheetah3D rendering that, and use that as my texture. 
It works particularly well with the flat UV mapping tool…
You can create textures in Cheetah3D if you want. I use Photoshop because it’s way more powerful.
Unity imports Cheetah’s native format (.jas) automatically. I just save the model to the Unity Assets folder and it is automatically imported/updated.
I have Pro version so I’m not really limited. Lot’s of people use the Indie version just fine though.
I’m pretty sure you can do everything in the video with Indie. Not positive but pretty sure.
You can use all the assets in the demo levels and tutorials (like the Island demo) as far as I know.
Thanks. Do you have any samples or app reference created by Cheetah3D and Unity that run on the iPhone?
To answer your first question " Can some one shed some light on how far I can probably go using only Unity 3D? "
Well, Unity isn’t really a graphics design tool. It’s up to you to create the assets you need to suit your game. Of course, some people do amazing things with just the primitives available in Unity itself.
This is a little off-topic, but good design takes a good artist. There’s no reason to struggle to make something mediocre looking, when there are a lot of budding artists out there eager to work on game projects. Some for free or very cheap. There are tons of talented artists who should be working in AAA studios, but are stuck behind the cash register at 7-11. 
You might want to check out
You’ll find artists of all levels and budgets there eager to help. Talented ones like this guy:
Nope, just started using Unity a month ago. I won’t have anything worth showing for some months yet.