Learn how to use C# Static Members to share data between scenes.

In this Unity Cookie Quick Tip, we’ll take a look at sharing data between scenes using C# Static Members in a Scene Manager script. I use a global scene manager to share data and between scenes that doesn’t need to be saved to disk. By using Static members, I can call my scene manager script without having to have a reference to it. The idea is that I am using my scene manager as Singleton. My scene manager is only instanced once and provides utility functions for managing global aspects of my game.

In this video, I will show how to commit user-defined data to the Scene Manager and recall that data in a separate scene. I also wrap the Application.LoadLevel into the Scene Manager to create a helper function for loading scenes.

Scene Manager Script

using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;

public class SceneManager : MonoBehaviour {

	#region STATIC VARIABLES
	public static string userData;
	#endregion

	//STATIC FUNCTION
	public static void OpenScene(string sceneToLoad)
	{
		Application.LoadLevel(sceneToLoad);
	}
}

Creating Custom Pivots in Unity

In this Unity Cookie quick tip, we’ll take a look at creating custom pivots. You can’t directly manipulate pivots in Unity. You can either choose to transform an object using it’s center or pivot, but you can’t change the pivot. Most of the time this is not an issue as you’ll be working with 3D content from your 3D application and Unity will respect the pivot position as imported from the 3D object. However, there are times when you are working with native Unity objects where you need to adjust or create a new pivot.

Using a parent pivot object will allow you to not only create a custom pivot, but will also allow you to place a transformation at a higher level such as when you might need to separate the rotation and position transformations. This is common in camera follow scripts.

Drawing Gizmos

In the video, I also talk about helper scripts that use the Gizmo class. I use the Gizmo class often in my project to create helper editor objects when building my games. Here is the code mentioned in the video to draw a simple wireframe sphere in the editor.

using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;

public class Gizmo : MonoBehaviour {

	public float gizmoSize = .75f;
	public Color gizmoColor = Color.yellow;

	void OnDrawGizmos()
	{
		Gizmos.color = gizmoColor;
		Gizmos.DrawWireSphere(transform.position, gizmoSize);
	}
}

Learn to create a tracer effect using the Trail Renderer Component

This Video Q&A question comes from Unity Cookie member, Clint Willard. In the Q&A forums, Clint asked the following question.

Firing a weapon in a shooter game using Raycasting how can I make a bullet visible, like a tracer round with gravity drop coming from the rifle nozzle?

In this video, I show a method for creating a tracer effect using the Trail Renderer Component. The Trail Renderer is used to make trails behind objects in the scene as they move about and makes light work of creating tracer effects for projectile objects.

The technique consists of create a material using an additive particle shader. I use a simple “faded dot” texture to modulate the color of the trail effect.

The Trail Renderer component is attached to the projectile game object.

Learn to animate a line draw using the Line Renderer Component

I recently worked on a project where I needed to draw a line from one game object to another. That is easy enough to do using the Line Renderer component, however, I wanted to animate the line renderer moving from point A to point B. In this video quick tip, I show you how I accomplished this effect with just a small bit of scripting.

Finding a position along a line

The key to animating the line is to calculate a position along the known distance of the line and feed this updated position to the line renderer component’s “SetPosition” method. You do this in the Update function.

To calculate the postion along the line, I used the following steps.

1. Get the unit vector in the desired direction
2. Multiply by the desired length
3. Add the starting point.

In order to actually animate the line, I increment a variable that is interpolated between 0 and the known distance of the line. The interpolation is handled by using Mathf.Lerp.

We got the chance recently to chat with David Lesperance, a 6 year game industry artist who has worked with such studios as Blizzard, Midway, 343 and most recently at  Valve.

To start off, could you give a brief description of who you are and what you currently do?

Currently I work at Valve with a TON of very very smart people. My focus is around helping out with art needs and I’m also slowly learning programming. I also really enjoy teaching on the side as well.

So working at Valve with all of there great franchises has to be fun, which one of their games do you like the most?

Counterstrike is amazing, even though I suck at it. Love the Left for Dead franchise and of course Half-life.

You’ve had a very successful career in the gaming industry, did you know in school this is the direction you would go?

I started working professionally when was about 16 or 17. I was doing automotive related 3d in Michigan where I grew up. I’ve always enjoyed games and film. So choosing to do it professionally really aligned with my love of computers as well as trying to find a job that was somewhat safe during the recession. As far as knowing about having a talent for it, I don’t really feel like I have talent for it now lol. I just love what I do and try to do the best I can.

Your portfolio is very impressive, specifically the amount of detail you get in each piece. Can you give us a breakdown of your common creative workflow?

Its honestly super organic. I would call it a mess but I have a lot of fun with it which is the most important thing. I really try to focus on composition and try to give as much detail without it being too busy. I also study a lot of photography which really really helps. I basically keep hitting the art piece till it either looks right or I can’t stand to look at it any more ha!

What are you favorite tools of the trade to create and how would you want those tools to evolve in the coming years.?

I’m a max dude along with Zbrush. I use whatever I can get a hold of to make my life easier. For my personal work I render with Vray. Honestly I would love to actually see some kind of big change in terms of workflow throughout all of the software thats floating around. The current year to year release is a mess in terms of actually making something good or worth buying. The lack of true innovation is what needs to change. Great things are happening with Modo which gives me hope. I also would like to see them make the software more accessible to those who want to learn it. You should be able to learn it for free and not get hammered with watermarks. It encourages piracy in my opinion. Someone working on their portfolio won’t can’t afford to shell out 4 to 5k for a software license. Its not realistic.

What’s the time of day you love working the most?

For my professional career. I like to work a very sustainable shift. I tend to start at 8 or 9 am. Work till about 6 or 7pm. I don’t really agree with game crunches or death march hours. It can really hurt your development and really burn you out. For my personal work I tend to do the 12 am to 2 or 3am shift.

If you could meet any other artists living or dead whom would it be and why?

Bernini is by far my favorite artist. Given the chance I would love to meet him. He is hands down in my opinion one of the greatest sculptors to have lived. I really think we lost something when we go back and look at baroque and Renaissance art. Bernini’s understanding of composition in a 3d space is something that most modern artists will never come close to. He’s a true master.

If you were not working in games what do you think you would like to do?

Actually I think about this alot. I think it would have to be being a doctor. Honestly it’s something that I’ve always wanted to do.

If you could talk with your younger self, what would you advise him?

I really wouldn’t tell him much. I think that when you are presented with choices in life you make the best you can with what you have then and they’re…actually thats not true. I would tell me to buy a ton of Apple and Google stock.

Lastly, if you could be the front man of any band, who would it be and why?

Slayer or Motorhead. I wouldn’t want to replace the singers or anything because Tom and Lemmy are gods, but I think it would be pretty gnarly to rock out Reign in Blood or Killed by Death with the greats would be epic. Thanks!

Check out David’s website: http://david-lesperance.squarespace.com/

Learn how  to create polygon hair for game characters

In this video walk-through, we are going to take a look at creating polygon hair for game characters. I’m going to showcase my workflow for creating polygon hair for my character, “Mr. Grumples.” I used this technique for the Mr.Grumples demo asset I created  for GDC 2013.

In the video, I use Maya 2014, but the technique can be used in any 3D application. Although the tutorial uses Maya to demonstrate the technique, it’s not Maya specific and any 3D app can be used.

Modeling and Texturing

This video will show how to model a simple band of polygons that can then be distributed across the surface of the head of a character. We will then look at painting a hair texture with opacity to map to the polygon bands. We will also look at creating a specular map for the hair.

Maya MEL Script

The MEL script, spPaint3D is shown in the video to quickly distribute the polygon hair over the head. This script is not needed and only shown as a helper tool. Maya users can download spPaint3d from Creative Crash for free.

*spPaint3D is a free MEL script I used to distribute the polygon hair over the model

We caught up recently with Tony Zeffiro, a 13 year game industry veteran and a Lead Animator at NetherRealm Studios in Chicago. NetherRealms is (formily MidwayGames) is responsible for Mortal Kombat  and most recently the release of Injustice: Gods among us.

What made you get into the game industry and choose animation?

My first animation job didn’t work out, and I kind of fell into the video game industry by chance.  I knew I loved bringing something to life, and in school I began to learn all about computer animation, which made me want to focus on the growth that it was going through with feature films and game cinematics.

At the time, Midway was looking to hire and I had 2 years of animation work experience, so they hired me to work on MLB Slugfest.  I learned all about motion capture, which was some deviation from traditional hand key, but soon I realized that all the layering on top of motion capture and using motion as just a base of movement, can be such a powerful and creative technology.  Games especially need animations to be output at a rapid pace so having that base motion is a huge help.

How important is a traditional art background in your position?

It is important to go to school for at least a couple of years and learn more about the technology and focus solely on what you are interested in.  It can take anyone a couple years just to figure out what you want to do, but when that happens, learning from some of the best instructors who have had experience in your field of study is priceless.  Animation in particular focuses on motion, and knowing the body, how it’s built, how it moves, is something you learn about all the way back to Life Drawing classes.  You also need to be able to express ideas through drawing, and all the basic art classes help further your skills.

How challenging is it creating the fight animations found in Mortal Kombat and Injustice?

It can be challenging to re-invent the fighting styles of characters for each game, but we bring in martial artists and we have a very talented design team to help make each character feel unique.  The best part about working on Mortal Kombat is the over the top fatalities we create.  The ideas for those come from various people in the studio and it’s our job to bring those to life.  This is where traditional hand key ability comes into play more, as many of the movements are so crazy that obviously we can’t motion capture everything.  Injustice is similar with the Supermoves that each character has.  With the addition of flying characters, making them feel like they are actually floating, dynamic, and still look realistic, is challenging and so much fun at the same time.

Who was your favorite character to animate in the MK games? Who was the least?

It’s hard to pick just one character who is my favorite, with all the history of Mortal Kombat, but I’d have to say the most fun to animate is Goro because of his 4 arms.  No one really knows how someone with 4 arms would move, attack, and react, so we have a lot of creative input to bringing him to life.  A close second is Scorpion because of his combination of martial arts and special abilities.  My least is probably someone who is more of just a guy off the street who’s a good fighter, like a Stryker, but honestly, every character has something unique about them that make animating them such a blast.

When you are not creating art, what do you do to fill your time, or relax?

When I’m not creating art I try to spend as much time as I can with my wife, my family, and my lab.  I try to stay healthy by working out because the hours can get very intense, and it helps me stay focused and alert.

 If you were not working in games what do you think you would like to do?

If I wasn’t working in games I’d probably be a chef.  I say that not being able to cook for the life of me, but I’ve always thought it was such a creative field.  I have to admit that I am a little addicted to some of those cooking shows, but I’ll leave the actual cooking to my beautiful wife, for now.

What advice can you give people looking to do what you do?

My advice would be to go to school to find your true passion.  You need to be able to learn from people who have experience in your field, and eventually create a demo reel to be able to show employers what you’ve learned and your potential.  Constantly study your surroundings, how everything moves, and take video reference to try an mimic in your animations.  The last thing is always be humble and willing to learn.  Criticism is a huge part of any art field and you have to be willing to take that criticism and grow.

Lastly, in the spirit of the newly released Injustice game, if you could have one superhero power, what would it be and why?

Another tough question, I mean, who wouldn’t want Xray vision?  Seriously though, super strength would be nice, but I personally would love to be able to fly.  Dating back to a little kid watching Superman, that’s what always stood out.  If I can’t punch someone up into space with my strength, than at least I can travel the world  and be back in time to create the next big thing.

Thanks to Tony for taking the time for the interview!

Images are screen shots of the games Injustice and MortalKombat available on their respective websites from NetherRealm Studios in Chicago

100 Total Textures Ready For Use In Your Game!

I’m excited to announce we have partnered with GameTextures.com to provide top-notch, ready-to-use texture packs through our CG Cookie Shop. Each of these texture packs comes with a large number of tiled textures, complete with their diffuse, normal, specular, glossy, and height maps. All of the textures are expertly crafted, with a great attention to detail. Check them out on the shop for more details and a complete listing of all the included textures.

Asylum Texture Pack

Originally designed as their first actual theme pack, this texture package has some incredible textures which will allow you to construct an old, gross asylum in no time flat. Check out the Padded Wall Textures, the heavy set steel locked doors, and all of the rest of the decorations to match.

Sci-Fi Texture Pack

The GT Art Team built this package slowly over the last year, and includes all of the gems in our sci-fi material library. You’ll find walls, floors, blast doors, crates, laser blast marks, ship damage, and much much more inside. Having this arsenal of tools in your pocket will allow you to create any sort of space station, mars research station, or abandoned asteroid mining ship with ease and speed.

Medieval Texture Pack

Inside, you’ll find beautiful brick walls, shiny used castle (and commoner!) doors and windows, ground textures and more! This pack was created over the course of the last year, and has quite a few of our favorite materials which are sure to make your dungeon, castle, village, or throne room stand out.

Be sure to check out GameTextures.com for even more textures.

]]> http://cgcookie.com/unity/2013/04/19/game-texture-packs-available-now-cg-cookie-shop/feed/ 2 http://cgcookie.com/unity/2013/04/18/understanding-gpu-vertex-count/ http://cgcookie.com/unity/2013/04/18/understanding-gpu-vertex-count/#comments Thu, 18 Apr 2013 14:17:45 +0000 Wes McDermott http://cgcookie.com/unity/?p=5885 Learn how and why vertex counts ]]>

Learn how and why vertex counts differ on the GPU and Unity

Have you ever noticed that your 3D application and Unity tend to not agree on the vertex count of your models? Smoothing groups and discontinuous UVs have a direct impact on vertex count as the geometry is interpreted by the GPU. The key to creating optimized models is in understanding how the GPU processes the vertices.

In this video, we are going to take an in-depth look at how the GPU processes vertices and how this affects the vertex count of your geometry. We will look at smoothing and UV splits (Split Tangents)  and how this affects the vertex normal in terms of tangents.

Definitions discussed in the video.

During this tutorial we get pretty technical so here is a break-down of the key topics discussed if you want to get right down to the details.

Vertex normal

The vertex normal is the normalized average for the surface face normals. They are influenced by smoothing.

Tangent

Tangents are mostly used in bump-mapped shaders like normal maps. A tangent is a unit length vector that follows a mesh surface along horizontal (U) texture direction. Tangents in Unity are represented as Vector4, with x,y,z components defining the vector, and w used to flip the binormal if needed. The binormal is the cross product between normal and tangent, and then multiplying the result by tangent.w.

Binormal (Bitangent)

The Binormal is the cross product between normal and tangent, and then multiplying the result by tangent.w.

Unity statistics window showing GPU vertex count

GameTextures.com is a great new resource and the creator was kind of to give us an interview!

Site: http://gametextures.com

Based out of Seattle, Washington,  http://gametextures.com is a library of pro-made, ready to use video game materials. The site is a fresh new texture site to hit the industry this past year and is already making a mark for itself. Recently featured in the 3DArtist magazine and 3D Total.  The site offers a  paid subscription which gives you access to their entire library of textures starting at $14/mo. The founder of GameTextures.com,  Tanner Kalstrom was kind enough to sit down with CG Cookie to give us some insight into the workflow and life at Game Textures.

If you meet somebody in public and they ask you “What do you do?” How do you answer?

I tell them that I make Video Game Art – Then my face usually lights up into a beautiful bright-red color when they probe further. Most people (outside our world) have no idea what a Texture Artist does, it seems!

What motivated you to take up the career of staring at computers all day making rad textures?

This is a good question, starting a texture site has always been something that I wanted to try. Ever since I got into doing 3D stuff I have been extremely disappointed with texturing resources, but the idea didn’t come around until I was unemployed with some money in my account trying to figure out what to spend it on. I figured, hey, what the hell. I love making textures and I’ve always been alright at it. Why not make a library of images people can use? So I did.

I would imagine you have a well defined texture creation pipeline, can you overview this or a brief walk through of what each final texture had to go through to get the GT stamp of approval?

Our pipeline is pretty cool actually, when a texture request comes in from a customer, or I just have an idea, I’ll sit down with a 4″ by 4″ sticky note (I like them because they’re square) and draw a rough concept out in black and white. Next, I assign an artist who can deliver a kick-ass result. From my experience, all of the artists I work with have different strengths, and I definitely play them to those. Some are great at organics, some are great at sci-fi metal type things. So, I’ll find the artist who is free, and capable and send them the info I have. Once they create the final product they send me a PSD. We have a pretty great little program we wrote which takes the PSD, makes a 3D preview image, all of the other preview images that we upload to our site, and then exports each texture out in all of the different resolutions users can download, and then it bundles them into corresponding .zip archives, all nicely organized and ready to be uploaded. 

Do you have a favorite type of music to listen to while creating textures, or a go-to playlist?

Lately, I’ve just been hitting Pandora pretty hard. I don’t think I could live without it, but in the past I’ve been a huge fan of the RadioLab podcast. The types of topics they hit really help me find a zone in my mind where I can be creative and work. I think I’ve listened to all of them! I think that’s several hundred hours worth of listening. I’ve tried listening to books on tape, but they really get in my way of focusing on tasks.

Are the majority of your textures hand painted or from photo ref?

Hand painted, by far. We did go through a phase when we were initially building where we used some photo-ref though.

What has been the coolest texture you’ve created thus far?

My favorite textures I’ve created are, either my Blast Crater Decals, Rubble decals, or maybe the Mars set.

What is the first thing you think of when you wake up and the last thing you think of before you go to bed?

Hah, if I’m being honest, usually my cat (named Cat.) He follows me around and talks to me, unfortunately that also means that he talks through my door at me while I’m trying to sleep. I’m strangely talented at compartmentalizing work when I’m at home. Mornings are different, I usually get up around 6-7 AM, and my brain snaps right to the target at hand, which is of course, GameTextures.

If you could travel anywhere to shoot photos for textures, where would it be and why?

Last March I had the opportunity to travel to Luxembourg and gather a HUGE library of photo-reference for us. It was amazing, it was the right time of year to go, the sky was completely grey at all times, and slightly rainy. Perfect for taking texture reference. I joke that I’m the only person that plans my “vacations” based on when it is going to be rainy and cloudy at my destination, so I can get better texture photos!

I see that you accept texture requests, any obscure ones which have come in?

My favorite texture request that came in, and weirdest, was for a tiling texture of my own face, which we did eventually make and send to the  customer. I’m still concerned as to what it could possibly be used for. I’ve never heard back about it! Maybe it was a joke, either way, it gets a laugh out of me

What do you feel is the main benefit from a studio or artist having a resource such as Game Textures in their arsenal?

From what we’ve heard, the biggest benefit is the time savings in development. One small company was able to put together their prototype game (and make it look great too!) in just a few weeks utilizing our library. It’s a strange thing to make an environment, and then be able to [mostly] skip the texture-creation part, and go right from modeling to applying already made materials, and just as quickly throw it in game for the final result. So, thanks to what we do, rapidly creating environments is a possibility. Taking the texture creation phase out of development can cut time for environment creations by 30% or so, and that savings is a huge boost on smaller teams.

Great thanks to Tanner for the time for the interview and be sure to check out their site at http://gametextures.com.