Creating 3D Game Art for the iPhone with Unity

Creating 3D Game Art for the iPhone with Unity

by Wes McDermott
Released October 2012
Publisher(s): Focal Press
ISBN: 9781136129414

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Book description

Revolutionize your iPhone and iPad game development with Unity iOS, a fully integrated professional application and powerful game engine, which is quickly becoming the best solution for creating visually stunning games for Apple's iDevices easier, and more fun for artists. From concept to completion you'll learn to create and animate using modo and Blender as well as creating a full level utilizing the powerful toolset in Unity iOS as it specifically relates to iPhone and iPad game development.

Follow the creation of "Tater," a character from the author's personal game project "Dead Bang," as he's used to explain vital aspects of game development and content creation for the iOS platform. Creating 3D Game Art for the iPhone focuses on the key principles of game design and development by covering in-depth, the iDevice hardware in conjunction with Unity iOS and how it relates to creating optimized game assets for the iDevices.

Featuring Luxology's artist-friendly modo, and Blender, the free open-source 3D app, along side Unity iOS, optimize your game assets for the latest iDevices including iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad and the iPod Touch. Learn to model characters and environment assets, texture, animate skinned characters and apply advanced lightmapping techniques using Beast in Unity iOS.   In a clear, motivating, and entertaining style, Wes McDermott offers captivating 3D imagery, real-world observation, and valuable tips and tricks all in one place - this book is an invaluable resource for any digital artist working to create games for the iPhone and iPad using Unity iOS

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Halftitle
  3. Title
  4. Copyright
  5. Contents
  6. Acknowledgments
  7. Prologue: Thump’n Noggins
  8. Chapter 1: Getting to Know the iDevice Hardware and Unity iOS
    1. iDevice Hardware
      1. ARM CPU
      2. GPU
    2. Determining Your Game Budget
      1. Frame Rate Budget
      2. Rendering Budget
      3. It All Sums Up
    3. Summary
  9. Chapter 2: Creating Game Objects Using modo
    1. Planning the Vertex Budget
      1. Testing Performance
    2. Sizing Things Up
      1. What Is a Game Unit
      2. Setting Up Modo
      3. Importing into Unity iOS
    3. True Vertex Count
      1. Degenerate Triangles
      2. Smoothing Angles
      3. UV Seams
      4. Using Lights
    4. Modeling Tater and Thumper
      1. My Workflow
      2. Creating Geometry
      3. Reducing Geometry
    5. Summary
  10. Chapter 3: Understanding Textures and UV Maps
    1. Creating UV Maps
      1. Planning Your UV Maps
      2. Creating UVs for Tater
      3. Creating UVs for Thumper
    2. Fundamentals of Game Textures
      1. Texture Formats
      2. Texture Size
      3. Texture Compression: PVRTC
      4. Using Mip Maps
      5. Multiple Resolutions
      6. Texture Budget
    3. Creating the Diffuse Map
      1. Faking Light and Shadow
      2. Texturing Tater
    4. Summary
  11. Chapter 4: Creating Game Objects Using modo
    1. Level Design
      1. Creating a Style
      2. Breaking Down into Sections
      3. Batching Revisited
    2. Creating the Level
      1. Determining the Vertex Count
      2. Using Texture Atlas
      3. Building on the Grid
    3. Texturing the Level
      1. Measuring the Scene
      2. Creating the Textures
      3. Creating UVs
    4. Summary
  12. Chapter 5: Animation Using Blender
    1. Matching Object Size
    2. Unity iOS Blender Support and FBX Workflow
      1. Using FBX
    3. Understanding Skinned Meshes within Unity iOS
      1. VFP-Optimized Skinning
    4. Rigging Tater in Blender
      1. iPhone and iPad Rigging Essentials
      2. Creating the Basic Skeleton
      3. Weight Painting
    5. Summary
  13. Chapter 6: Animation Using Blender
    1. Completing the Rig: Adding IK
      1. Setting Up IK for Legs
      2. Setting Up IK for Arms
      3. Tidying Things Up
    2. Animating Tater
      1. Using FBX
      2. How Animation Data Works in Unity iOS
      3. Animating in Blender
    3. Summary
  14. Chapter 7: Animation Using Blender
    1. Unity’s Animation System
      1. Route 1
      2. Route 2
      3. Creating Animations Using Blender’s NLA Editor
      4. Blending Animations in Unity iOS
    2. Using Dynamics in Blender to Animate Objects
      1. Setting Up Rigid Body Dynamics in Blender
    3. Summary
  15. Chapter 8: Creating Lightmaps Using Beast
    1. Beast Lightmapping
      1. Beast and HDR
      2. Correct Lightmap UVs
      3. Autogenerate UVs
      4. The Process
      5. Using Dual Lightmaps
      6. Beast Settings
      7. Adjusting Lightmaps
    2. Summary
  16. Chapter 9: Working with Game Assets in Unity iOS
    1. Prefabs
      1. Creating Prefab for Environment Props
      2. Target Prefab
      3. Camera Control Kit
    2. Setting up Colliders
    3. Texture Compression
      1. Mip maps
    4. Optimized Shaders
      1. Using Physics in Unity iOS
        1. Setting Up the Target Object
        2. Adding Particles
        3. Optimizing Physics Using the Time Manager
      2. Publishing Your Game
        1. Player Settings
      3. Optimizing Your Game
        1. Tuning Main Loop Performance
        2. Internal Profiler
      4. Summary
  17. Bonus Resources
  18. Creating Tater’s Training Trash Yard
  19. Index

Product information

  • Title: Creating 3D Game Art for the iPhone with Unity
  • Author(s): Wes McDermott
  • Release date: October 2012
  • Publisher(s): Focal Press
  • ISBN: 9781136129414