appendix C Modeling a bench in Blender
In chapters 2 and 4, we looked at creating levels with large flat walls and floors. But what about more detailed objects? What if you want, say, interesting furniture in the room? You can accomplish that by building 3D models in external 3D art apps. Recall the definition from the introduction to chapter 4: 3D models are the mesh objects in the game (that is, the 3D shapes). In this appendix, I’ll show you how to create a mesh object of a simple bench (figure C.1).
Figure C.1 Diagram of the simple bench you’re going to model.
Although appendix B lists a number of 3D art tools, we’ll use Blender for this exercise because it’s open source and thus accessible to all readers. You’ll create a mesh object in Blender and export that to an art asset that works with Unity.
TIP
Modeling is a huge topic, but we’ll cover only a handful of modeling functions that will allow you to create the bench. If you want to keep learning more about modeling after this chapter, look at some of the many books and tutorials on the subject (to start with, look at the learning resources at www.blender.org).
WARNING
I used Blender 2.67, so the explanations and screenshots come from that version of the software. Newer versions of Blender are released frequently, and there may be slight changes to the placement of buttons or names of commands.