Learn to use Blender modeling for Unity

To celebrate the end of this DK30, I decided to put all of the (relevant) assets I produced into a single project and make a small proof of concept out of it. This isn’t anywhere close to an actual game since there’s 0 gameplay, but it gets the idea across. Eventually I want to make this into a full fledged sniping game with a similar feel as this proof of concept.

I haven’t done too much more since my last update. As per usual, my productivity has dwindled a bit in the later stages. My goal right now is to add just a few more objects and then focus on getting it all into a Unity project as a proof of concept. The modular buildings goal seems far to complicated on second thought to attempt here, so I’m going to stick to something simple instead.

So in the spirit of adding a few more objects, I’ve given my character model some clothes and other items to wear. Below is an example of a character wearing all of them at once. As you can see, I’ve got a bandana, a hat, sunglasses, some ammo bandoliers and a cigarette (if you look closely).

Also in order to have some sort of building in my POC scene, I decided to throw together a quick sort of flat looking building. Nothing special and will only serve to house some character models.

So as mentioned before, my next goal is to throw this all into Unity and make a quick little proof of concept demo with the assets. Maybe I’ll add one or two more simple models, but that’s about it.

Since my last update, I haven’t had as much time as I would’ve liked to, but I did manage to complete some more course items. After learning the basics, the next part of the course goes through a bunch of simple objects and teaches some more lessons while making those. So I thought I’d show off my progress by adding the models I’ve made since the sniper rifle.

First up are some simple trees. The course began by making a Christmas tree and then went into a more regular kind of oak tree. After that I decided to add some branches in as well. Pretty nice low poly trees that I will likely be able to use in my game as well.

Next was a simple model of a house. Again in the low poly style. While it looks very cute and I enjoyed making it, it doesn’t fit the overall style that I am going for, so I don’t think it’ll be making an appearance in my game.

After that the course went into some character creation. Since I do need some characters to be able to shoot at, this was a perfect opportunity for me to try some character modeling myself. This isn’t exactly what the course taught, but more of my own making but with help from the course. Pretty happy with how it turned out. Once I learn more about animation I’m going to see if I can make this little guy move around.

One of the last models I made were some simple fences. This was an opportunity to be taught about how to fuse models together using the Union boolean modifier. I knew about joining objects already, but this actually fuses them in a way where it appears to just be 1 solid object.

Lastly I was taught how to make a simple bridge/ pier. The exciting part about this however was the fact that I finally got to play with some textures! Now I know how to apply a simple texture to an object, but also scale and rotate it around. I even tried out the texture painter where you can actually free form draw on the image. Super fun and a very important skill that I’m going to be using a lot!

As mentioned in the last update, I finished the General Knowledge part of my course. Before I wanted to move on to more advanced topics, I wanted to try my hand at some modeling. See how far I could get with the knowledge I gained thus far. It would be a nice challenge and it could also show me what areas still gave me trouble and what I needed to work on.

So I started to model a sniper rifle. I begin with some reference images and started building up from there. The first step was to make a stock on which the barrel can be fitted. Which ended up looking like this:

A nice start and I was quite happy with how that turned out, but of course there was a lot more work to do. So next I decided to put a scope on the rifle, along with the relevant mounts and whatnot.

This already looked pretty close to what I was going for, but I was missing some detail. A few screws here and there to give the whole affair more of a detailed look. The bolt part of the bolt action and some knobs to tweak the scope settings. My final result ended up looking like this:

All in all I’m super happy with how it turned out and even though I definitely ran into a few issues, I think I got pretty far with the first part of the course. Next up I’m going to continue with some more lessons and see what else I can learn!

EDIT: I’ve also uploaded the model to SketchFab, so you can check it out in all it’s glory!!

Today I finished the General Knowledge part of my course! I learned to use a few new tools like boolean operators and how to bend objects. However the most interesting and inspiring tool I learned to use was an add-on called Cell Fracture. This can basically cut an object into a bunch of pieces, where you can control how random it looks, what the margin between pieces is and a few more options like that. As a practice exercise I simply fractured a standard cube into a fairly random pattern, but it already looks pretty good! I’ve included a screenshot below to show you what that looked like.

I continued my progress today and picked up several new tricks. Most notably were the Knife and Bevel tool. These are used respectively to cut out pieces of an object and smooth the edges. I think I’ve seen people import a photo of something they want to make and then just cut lines across a big cube to match said photo. That way you can get a rough shape going of what you want to make. I might try that some time, see how it goes.

I also learned a few new selection methods like box select and lasso select, and learned more about removing doubles and how to move objects between layers. Lastly I was taught how to join and separate objects, manipulate the 3D cursor and rotate objects around their rotation point.

As a small demonstration of me playing around with the Bevel tool I’ll include a screenshot of my street lantern object, with a before and after comparison. I think I overdid it a bit with the bevel tool, but it can definitely create some interesting effects. I’m glad to have been able to add it to my arsenal of modeling tools!

Today was another great day! I was able to complete the next portion of the course, trying out every new tool as I learned about them and having a lot of fun with it. The most important two tools I learned about today were Extruding and Scaling. Using those I was already able to make some basic shapes and start fiddling with ideas. Besides those I also learned to Rotate, Subdivide, Dissolve and how to select, cut and slide loops.

As a first little challenge I decided to start shaping something. At first I wasn’t really sure where I was going, so I picked something simple; an old-timey street lantern. It can also be a pillar or something like that. But the important thing is, it’s something and I made it myself! I’m really happy with this progress and I’m starting to feel like I can actually put shapes together to form objects! Check out the model below.

After the slight setback from the last update, I am happy to report that the !isitdown command is working as intended! The Blender website came back shortly after and I’ve been able to download the software without any further setbacks.

Today I’ve started the first part of the actual course. Having watched the introductory part already, I started learning about basic controls in Blender. Things like how to move around, how to (de)select objects, add meshes and move objects around the scene. Everything is explained in a lot of detail, so I feel confident and excited to move on to actually editing objects and starting to form shapes!

Next up, I’m going to learn about shaping objects. Things like extruding, scaling, rotating and subdividing are next on the course list. For now I’m just going to let this sink in a bit. I’m quite happy with the way this course is structured so far, since I’m a complete Blender noob, it allows me to enter at a very low level and slowly build up my knowledge.

It took me a few days to find the time to get started on this. Between working on a programming project that I’m really excited about and playing Red Dead Redemption 2 which I recently picked up (great game btw, highly recommend!), I hadn’t been able to find time to get started with this project.

So today I finally sat down with my Udemy course, watched the introductory part and wanted to download Blender to actually get started. However that’s where life just said “Nope! Not today.” As it turned out the Blender website had literally gone down just a few hour prior. So I double checked with a good friend of mine and also with a website that specifies in this kind of deal. Jup, blender.org is definitely down. Meaning I can’t actually get started on my project.

However instead of letting this setback get me down, I decided to turn it into the inspiration for something else. So I made a new command for Neuro, called !isitdown. Which does what you might expect; it tells you if a certain website is down or not. You can also then track said website to get a PM when it’s back online. So that seems to be working fine at least. Now all that’s left for me to do is to wait until Neuro sends me a message, telling me that blender.org is back online and I can actually get started with my project!