Basic Game Art Concepts - Game Character Creation with Blender and Unity - page 11

Figure 1.14
Primitives in
Blender include
cubes, cones, cylin-
ders, and spheres as
well as more com-
plex mesh forms.
Setting the Scene
One of the ways meshes are made to look like realistic objects is through the use of
materials. Materials are sets of directions in 3D programs that tell an object how to
simulate the look of real-world substances. Materials can make an object look shiny,
matte, opaque, transparent, smooth, rough, and many other types of things. 3D materials
consist of a shader , a program that describes how a material reacts to light, and textures ,
which will be described in greater detail later in this chapter.
The final elements of a 3D scene are the things that allow users to see their meshes.
hese are the lights and cameras . Lights in 3D applications are just like lights in the
real world, providing illumination and shadowing to otherwise dull scenes. In many
programs, renderings done before lights are added look very flat, whereas in Blender
the scene can appear pitch-black. The other element, the camera, simulates the eyes of
a viewer looking at the mesh. In Blender, final renders are always done from a camera's
point of view. Likewise in games, the camera is the eye of the player in the game world,
and its relation to the player character determines whether the game is a first-person,
third-person, top-down, side-scrolling, or some other style of game.
Interacting with 3D Models
To manipulate meshes and their vertices, edges and faces, lights, and cameras, use their
3D programs' transformation tools. These tools usually take three forms: translate ( move ),
rotate, and scale . These tools change an object's position on the xyz coordinate plane. All
this is done with simple keyboard and mouse commands that offer a great deal of free-
dom when creating your 3D forms.