Noob Question... Literally - Game Asset Creation from Start to Finish
Hey guys! I'm a game developer with zero experience in the field of graphics creation. Within the last few weeks I've just about completed the code framework for my game! Thanks to Unity for making that possible. Now I'm finally ready to create the part of the game that people will actually see 
. I debated using character and environment assets from the Unity Asset Store; but obviously, to have an original looking game, I need to have original assets.
Anyway, in an effort to find out where I should begin, I googled, browsed polycount's wiki and tech forum, and I searched and I searched and... holy crap! I knew it would be hard; but, as far as I can see, it doesn't even look possible for just one guy to do it all (everything from concept to modeling to animating and everything in between).
Is there any hope for a loner like me? If so, what are the best options as far as asset creation workflows and software are concerned? By best, I mean creates the best looking results in the quickest amount of time (learning curve is not an issue with me) without any unnecessary extra stuff.
Any and all advice will be appreciated!
Forgot to add one detail... This regards 3D, not 2D assets.
. I debated using character and environment assets from the Unity Asset Store; but obviously, to have an original looking game, I need to have original assets.Anyway, in an effort to find out where I should begin, I googled, browsed polycount's wiki and tech forum, and I searched and I searched and... holy crap! I knew it would be hard; but, as far as I can see, it doesn't even look possible for just one guy to do it all (everything from concept to modeling to animating and everything in between).
Is there any hope for a loner like me? If so, what are the best options as far as asset creation workflows and software are concerned? By best, I mean creates the best looking results in the quickest amount of time (learning curve is not an issue with me) without any unnecessary extra stuff.
Any and all advice will be appreciated!
Forgot to add one detail... This regards 3D, not 2D assets.
Replies
Thanks for your reply!
When I said that learning curve is not an issue with me, I wasn't implying that I'm superhuman. I am, but that's not the point. (Hope you can detect sarcasm). My point was that I don't care how long it takes me to learn these things, as long as they're the most productive way of doing it.
When you say "simple results" I completely agree with you. I know what I style of assets I want to create, I just don't know how to make them. When you say "make a decent walk cycle", "rig, skin a character" and "google noob tutorials" I'm all ears. That's my main question, what else do I need to google tutorials for?
When I google things like "create game characters" or "making 3d game environments" I get sooo many different workflows (Baking, UV Mapping, Modeling, Sculpting, Etc.) and sooo many different kinds of software (Maya, Crazybump, Zbrush, Substance, Etc.). That's why I was hoping someone could just list all the things I'll "need" to learn how to do, and in what order.
When I say "need", well... what I mean is this: is creating a walk cycle from scratch (and things that simple) necessary? Aren't there presets or something in certain software for things like that? I honestly don't know, so please don't be harsh.
Is Blender the "best" (my version of best, anyway) software to learn? I don't necessarily need free.
Anyway, thanks again, and I am prepared to learn anything and everything that I need to.
Modeling (You'll want to use a major 3d package such as Maya/3ds Max, Sculpting programs are optional)
- Blocking out
- Creating a highpoly model
- Creating a lowpoly model
UV mapping/baking (You can do this in your 3d package or an external package)
- Unwrapping your lowpoly model
- Baking maps from your highpoly model to your lowpoly
Texturing (You can use photoshop, substance designer/painter, DDO, etc)
- Creating textures for your model
- Making/testing your model with shaders in engine
Ok, thanks for the quick summary! That's just what I needed.
As far as software goes, I'm taking that it doesn't really matter which one I choose. Is this true? It's just very hard to decide for someone like me. For example, when I google "Maya LT vs Blender" all of the differences discussed on the forums use technical and graphics lingo that I couldn't understand at my level even if I googled each term! Lolz... I would just hate to pick the wrong one, spend so many months learning it, then come to find out that although it does a and b better than the other software, the other software does c, d, e and f better. Boy, I hope that made sense. So, again, is it something I should worry about?
I also take it that animating is something I should worry about after I master "static assets". Is this true?
Blender is great if you are broke and want to do production work or sell models/games without paying a large amount on software.
There's other alternatives that are just as viable like Modo.
If you want to learn every part 3d, animation would definitely be something you'd want to learn after learning the basics of modeling.
- 3Ds Max (my choice)
- Maya (know very little about)
- Blender (free)
- They are best for precisely shaped models, such as boxes, buildings, machines
Some sculpting apps...
- Zbrush (great features, horrid user interface)
- Mudbox (by autodesk, like max and maya, therefore rather interoperable)
- 3D Coat (my choice, i found its user interface easiest to learn and get used to)
- They are best for more organic models such as people, characters, terrain, rocks
Some UV-ing apps...
- Well actually all of these can edit UV's in some way, however some offer mostly automatic unwrapping (zbrush comes to mind) and some offer a mostly manual control (3Ds max has it as an easy to access modifier).
- This goes for baking too. They can more or less all bake, so you just need to choose which of them bakes in the easiest and most manageable way. BUT worth mentioning is that some people opt to use the "xNormal" application for this, which is specialised just for baking.
Some texturing apps...
- Photoshop (surprise surprise)
- GIMP (a free photoshop clone, from my experience you can use it like a pro by just asking yourself "where would this feature be in photoshop?")
- MS Paint
- That said, not all of your textures will be created here! The process of baking, is picking up details from a high-poly mesh and putting them into a texture.
- Additionally, the listed sculpting apps can also texture a model. You likely will need proper UVs for that model (without overlapping polygons) but outside of that, you can paint on the 3D model as if you would on a 2D image in Photoshop, 3D Coat even offers layers and blending modes.
So as you can see, there is some overlap here. For example, Max has some very basic sculpting tools (called 'paint deformation') and model-painting tools (viewport canvas) but they are basic and most artists reach out for specialised apps, and jump their resources back and forth between them. So if you are preparing to do 3D for your game, be ready to juggle at least three apps at one time.
Ok, thanks.
Thanks a ton for the extra clarification!
Ooh, I like the sound of specialized apps. No problem working with several for me. But, it looks like I need to test out a lot of software to decide on which ones I'll need. Too bad cause I'd rather just pick them and be done with it.
So, sculpting is the same as modeling (as in, it spits out the same kind of file?), and it just depends on what you need to make? Then you uv and texture those files?
All in all, it seems the thing I need to do is to pick one from each category. So, a modeling app, a sculpting app, a uv-ing app and a texturing app. Is that the gist of it?
Then figure out if you want to get them into a game engine, and what game engine?
Well, as I said in my original post, I need characters and environments. They will be imported into Unity.
Sculpting is generally reserved for making very high poly models (millions of polygons) to be used as a source for generating a normal map for your low poly game model (thousands of polygons).
Zbrush, Mudbox and to a lesser extent 3d coat and blender are all capable of sculpting.
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