First steps in 3D design
There’s something you’ll quickly realize when you start playing with Unity. It’s the fact that you won’t go far without some basic knowledge of a 3D editor. I’ve been using Blender for my Flash 3D experiments, but I can’t honestly say I knew anything about it. I was able to model some very basic shapes, and whenever I needed something more complex I’d ask someone who’s more experienced or just find a free model on the Internet. With Unity it just doesn’t make sense. You won’t be able to understand half of the functionality if you don’t have a 3D editor to work with. By the way, I’m not the only one who noticed this.
As a logical consequence, I decided to take a step back and learn Blender. I don’t want to go into details on the choice of software. If you prefer Maya or Cinema4D, fine. I grew to like Blender, but I know it makes a horrible first impression. The thing about Blender is that it’s free, and that’s a huge advantage for beginners.
After some time of modeling, texturing and setting up lights and I started to really love that. I felt like I was taken 10 years back, at the time when I was discovering Flash, HTML, building my first “home page”. I’m sure you all know the great feeling when you start to understand something new and your skills grow every day. There’s nothing like it! (Ok, there are other things better than that, but let’s stay within our geeky subject).
At first I wanted to get just enough skills to continue with Unity3D development. But soon I realized that this might be what I’d like to do for a living. Wait, what? Can you imagine? I’m in my thirties. I’m doing pretty well in flash development business. Is there anything more stupid that dropping all this and becoming a 3D designer? And how many years I would need to become any good at this? Or maybe it’s just a matter of a couple months to master the tool and I’ll be all set? But maybe I don’t have what it takes to be a 3D designer. However a fundamental thing I believe in, is that there’s no such thing as innate talent and all you need is enough persistence…
I’ve been struggling with those questions for a while, and I don’t have any answers yet. In the meantime I ordered some books, found some tutorials and kept learning to keep all the options open. I still have a long way to go, but I can already see some results.
As my modeling skills grow, I feel much more confident as a 3D developer because I can understand where the assets come from, how they are built, how visual effects are achieved. Those things were like a black box to me before. Now I can even build some 3D stuff myself. It’s so much worth the effort even if I’ll never work as full time 3D designer.
The two Unity examples above are my first, modest 3D modeling experiences. One is a mini game. It features a scenery that I populated with a few models including my first car model. Apart from modeling the scenery elements I used that as a testing ground for many Unity features like the terrain engine, line and trail renderers, rigid body physics, car simulation, particle systems and of course scripting. The end result is a bit random, but I don’t remember having that much fun for a long time!
The second is a small interior scene (really small!). I couldn’t grasp how lightmaps work in Unity until one morning I woke up and I just knew (yeah, that’s how it happens sometimes!). During the day, I quickly threw up this demo to test if my understanding was correct. I think it was, even though in the end the shadows came out too subtle. Anyway, I’m doing more experiments on that subject now and maybe I’ll write a separate post on how to work with lightmaps in Blender & Unity.
That’s it for now! I’ll see where it takes me, but you should expect more 3D modeling related posts on this blog from now on. Also, I’m not giving up on coding… yet ;)
Hey Bartek, I love your enthusiasm, and it encourages me. All the best in your direction! :D
Great post. There’s no reason why you can’t learn 3D and still do Flash development. Learning new things is always important, and learning Blender and Unity just adds another feather to your bow!
Great post Bartek,
I was trying blender to but i had 2 problems with blender . The first
problem was the axis changed and the second was the mesh collider, that
always have the diferent size of the original mesh and the axis changed in collider.
You had the same problems ?
Cheers
You certainly have enough 3D knowledge to become a great 3D designer / modeler.
I took the opposite path, went to school for computer animation learning 3D software and then pursued a career in Flash.
Unity is the perfect place to play if you like both:)
Yeah, unity is great fun, isn’t it? It’s without question the most fun tool I have seen in the entire industry… Beats virtools, beats torque, and sure as hell beats all the half-cooked inhouse game-tools I’ve seen… :)
A few years back I was looking at Blender and as much as I wanted to like it, the interface was just too unintuitive and weird… So ultimately I settled on modo and am very very happy with it. It’s not cheap though. Another _free_ tool that I have seen people do fantastic stuff with is wings3d…
When you’re up and running with your basic 3D skills you might wanna try an commercial 3D program like Studio Max, Cinema 4D or Maya. Some have non-commercial of student licences, and there’s bittorrent. That will give you a feel for the differences in these 3D editors (and the way Unity works with them), and also some experience in the tools most of the professional 3D artists use. In my personal experience Blender is nice, but does not compare very well to 3D Studio or Maya.
“But soon I realized that this might be what I’d like to do for a living. Wait, what? Can you imagine? I’m in my thirties.”
I don’t think that’s a crazy thought. In fact, I think most Flash/Flex developers are thinking the exact same thing. I know I am!
We hire you for the next 3D model job :) Good luck.
Bartek,
I hope you get to read this, because I went through the 3D Design route and now am trying to get into programming. I started a small contract, which laid me out flat that I have a lot to learn. Design patterns, other languages, and so on. I can only say it’s easier to look for 3D design help as a programmer first, than the other way around.
However, since I am a 3D designer, I can make some great looking products. The trick to good 3D modeling and design is detail. I see that you added some texture to those walls in the cell-room you have. Try and add a floor drain, or a sprinkler pipe and spout, giving the reason to the dingy texture you have.
With every scene try to think of it as designing a forest. What you would need is not just trees, but bushes and grasses, and leaves, and stray tangles of webbed vining. All of those start to add up and make a beautiful picture that you wish you could stray into in some dream.
Therefore, you don’t have to be the best 3D modeler, just remember to have a good design sense – lighting and shadow are the hardest parts, but give you the best depth and point of view. With the correct lighting and shadow maps you can make practically anything look good.
Please email me with any questions about 3D concepts you might have. Take care, and good luck!
Bartek,
I find your post and your “new” direction most intriguing. I find myself in the reverse situation having worked in 3D imaging for some 15 years and now contemplating taking up programming – something I’ve been trying to avoid for as many years. Plus I’m on the cusp of entering my forties too. Life can sure take some interesting paths sometimes.
Couldn’t speed up enough for the ramp :) nice hidden feature!
@janwos you found the turbo boost, right? ;)
@jeff Thanks. I was thinking about Cinema4D, mainly because it’s price seems reasonable. However first I need to buy Unity Pro :)
If you are interested in 3D modelling software for free then check out this post here for a comprehensive list of free software for working with 3D:
http://ninjarabbits.blogspot.com/2009/11/do-some-3d-modelling-for-free.html
Totally understand your thoughts about becoming a 3D designer. It’s one of the many areas where I’d like become more proficient. But a man’s got only so much time. I’ve once started character design in Maya, came pretty far, then dropped it because of lack of time (mainly because coding contract work interfered) but I’d like to catch up someday again and get to the rigging part and all. Problem is that 3D design and particularly character design is all a whole life-occupying task by itself. There must be a way somehow though, it’s too tempting, isn’t it?!
Have you had any luck using Flash AND unity together? I find the Unity GUI very limiting. I would love to be able to make a HUD in flash and overlay it on top of Unity. Every attempt has failed. Unity seems to want control of the Z order no matter what. Any ideas?
I tried the car race game, it has late reaction on users input. I press left or right, and car responds only after a second.