Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Flash manipulates vector and raster graphics to provide animation of text,
drawings, and still images. It supports bidirectional streaming of audio and
video, and it can capture user input via mouse, keyboard, microphone, and
camera. Flash applications and animations can be programmed using the
object oriented language, called ActionScript. Adobe Flash Professional is
the most popular and user-friendly authoring tool for creating the Flash con-
tent, which also supports automation via the
JavaScript Flash language
(
JSFL
).
•
3D Studio Max/Maya
: When 3D graphics come into play, 3D Studio Max and
Maya are the obvious choices, as they are recognized as industry standards.
They are well-known by artists, their export formats are included in most pop-
ular game engines, and they allow production of the best 3D graphics and
animations available. They have a price, too: both 3D Studio Max and Maya
license costs €3,900 each, VAT excluded!
•
Milkshape 3D
: For those who are not willing to pay for 3D software, there
are two options available. One is Milkshape 3D (
www.milkshape3d.com
), a
shareware software which only allows low-poly 3D modeling, and is a favor-
ite for indie game developers. It doesn't have the capabilities of more profes-
sional tools, but it's free and the community supporting it is strong and offers
several tutorials.
•
Blender
: The other option is Blender (
www.blender.org
)
, an open source tool
which is getting more and more popular and has almost the same capabilit-
ies of 3D Studio Max. The main difference is that Blender cannot be exported
in
*.fbx
format. The
*.fbx
format is a very useful graphics format which
allows to export a 3D model together with its materials, animations, and other
useful stuff. Popular game engines, such as Unity 3D, support the
*.fbx
format; so lacking this option is a disadvantage for Blender. But at least it it's
free!
•
Zbrush\Mudbox
: These software packages consist of digital sculpting tools
that are used to create extremely detailed high-poly models. They basically
use brushes, like the ones of Photoshop, to add polygons and create details
on a 3D model. The details of the high-poly models are then exported as nor-
mal maps (explained later) or displacement maps and then used on low-poly
models to fake a large number of details on a model with few polygons.
Both ZBrush and Mudbox allow full integration with software, such as 3D Stu-
dio Max and Maya, among others. The license cost is $699 for ZBrush and
$825 for Mudbox.
