• Library Guided Playlists Live Streams Articles Downloads Educators: Blender Teaching Guide What's Coming Soon Upgrade your membership Podcast
  • Questions & Answers Student Gallery Discord Channel YouTube Channel Citizen Membership Perks ✨
  • Kent Trammell Jonathan Lampel Wayne Dixon Paul Caggegi
    • Full Library
    b

    Final questions

    bango
    posted to: Final Fixes and Exporting to Unity

    I've finally watched the course to the end and I was hoping that you're going to show us how your modular building workflow will work with the selfmade grid in Unity at the ned. However, I still have some questions.


    But perhaps I should first explain what I mean by a mesh, an object or an asset so that there are no misunderstandings afterwards:

    Mesh = A net of connected polygons/faces (e.g. a wooden board)

    Object = Consists of either one mesh or a group of meshes (e.g. a wooden board with screws )

    Asset = Is the final product, can consist of multiple meshes and objects. (e.g. a cupboard)


    For my following questions I take one of my assets I'm working on at the moment as an example, which btw is an office cupboard. The office cupboard does have multiple pull-out parts, where each part is seperated as an object and consists of multiple meshes.  Those parts should then be interactable by the player in flat games as well as in VR:

    1. Do I have to rig or use animations for the parts also if I want them to be interactive in VR?

    2. Where should I set the Origin of the main object if I want to use it for modular building and if it also should be a placeable asset in game?

    3. Do I actually have to seperate those parts as individual objects or could I join them together as one ?

    4. Does already exist a tutorial which covers the modular building workflow you've mentioned at the beginning of this course?

    Reply
    • Jonathan Lampel replied

      Hey bbango , that's something I'd like to cover in another course! To answer your other questions: 

      1. Nope! That can be done programmatically.
      2. Probably the top back left or right corner if you want it to easily snap to the wall, ceiling (if it's that kind of cupboard), and the other modular objects next to it.
      3. If you want to interact with the doors without a rig, they need to be separate objects with their own origin points. If you do want to use a rig, then you can combine them into one object.
      4. Here's one we made for our tower defense series: https://cgcookie.com/course/modeling-modular-game-assets

      Hope that helps! I love how you're applying these concepts to your own projects. Good luck!

    • b
      bango replied
      1. Okay, nice! Then at least I was right about my guess ^^
      2. Okay, I used to set the main origin always on the bottom left corner as I was told in a tutorial I'd watched some months ago but I can't remember the reason. I was thinking about to let players/developers or designers decide themselves where they want to put the asset and how. It doesn't have to be snapable at all but it should be an option. I also thought that maybe setting the origin to the bottom centre of the asset would be a good choice but honestly, I really don't know what to do right now. I have to clear my head again first ^^
      3. I want to offer this asset for flat games as well as for VR, so I probably have to keep the objects seperated for both. But should I parent the objects or isn't this necessary?
      4. I've already seen your modular building course called "Level Design with Modular Assets" that depends to the linked series but you didn't use the grid you've mentioned in the first video of this course here. Can you already predict when we can expect your high level workflow tutorial(s)?

      I really do appreciate your help and want to thank you for this!

    • Jonathan Lampel replied

      Parenting is a good idea! That helps keep the hierarchy clear. 

      Can you already predict when we can expect your high level workflow tutorial(s)?

      I plan to show how to set up the grid, which pieces to make to fit the grid, how to problem solve when things don't quite line up, how to optimize the level once everything is in place, etc... For now, I'd recommend posting your WIP to the Community! If you get stuck while making your level, @ mention me and I'll be sure to help out! 


    • b
      bango replied

      Okay, then I'll try this.

      So you still don't have a plan when you'll release the tutorial? ^^

      At the moment I don't have a game concept or anything like that. For now, I'm just trying to prepare a collection of assets that can be used for all kinds of applications. With these assets I want to build up a portfolio and then I will possibly offer the assets online to have a secondary source of income, while I will then focus on other projects.

    • Jonathan Lampel replied

      Unfortunately no timeline yet, I have a few other things I need to finish up before thinking about it again. Sounds like a good plan!