Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
The creation of normal maps is a basic skill for any 3D artist and it is a feature avail-
able with any modeling software we mentioned. You can learn more about it at
ht-
The use of materials for 3D models could cover several topics by itself. Modeling
software and 3D game engines offer a plethora of tools to create amazing materials
for your models, for example, animating materials that represent the way snow
slowly covers objects in a game environment.
You can find more about it starting from
http://www.3d-tutorial.com/
.
UV Mapping
It is very likely that the game objects your artists create for a game will not be as
simple as a brick wall. Most of the time, they will need to create complex models of
irregular game objects, such as cars, space ships, or humanoid characters.
To put a flat texture on a complex 3D model, there is a very popular technique used
by artists called UV Mapping. It basically consists of converting the configuration of
the polygons of a 3D mesh into a flat plane. The image representing the texture of
the model is then aligned to this map, so that each part of the texture covers the
corresponding part on the 3D mesh. If you think of a six-faced die and the way you
can unfold its faces to get a flat representation of it, you can understand what the UV
Map of a 3D mesh is. The operation of converting a 3D model into a plane is com-
monly called unwrap.
The following figure represents the unwrapping of a cube:
