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1. 3D Overview
1. 3D Overview
Blender
Blender
Blender is an industry-standard digital 3D modelling, texturing and animation tool, useful for creating game characters, toy designs, 3D environments, engineering components and film animation.
The same skills and principles you learning while using Blender are readily transferable other programs such as 3DsMax and Maya. The main difference between packages is the interface, variations on how features work, and the inclusion or exclusion of specialised features.
2D & 3D SPACE
2D & 3D SPACE
If you are new to 3D modelling packages, you need to know the basics of 3D space and 3D objects.
Dimensions define freedom of movement. In a 2D game we only have two degrees of freedom: you can go left and right on the X axis and up or down on the Y axis. The location of any object in this space can be represented by X and Y coordinates (0, 0).
For example, if coordinates represent pixels, (0,0) is the bottom left of the screen, and the screen resolution is 640x320, then a character sprite may start at (0, 0), walk to the far right (600,0), then jump onto a platform 100 pixels above (600, 100). In the image on the right, Mario’s ground is about 30 pixels up and about two thirds of the way across the screen, so his approximate X, Y coordinates would be (250, 30).
While a computer screen is two dimensional (2D), objects in real and virtual 3D space are three dimensional (3D) in that they have depth, i.e. an additional degree of freedom to move closer or further away into the Z axis. Consequently all 3D modelling and sculpting packages use X, Y and Z coordinates to represent the position of objects in 3D space: X is width, Y is height, and Z is depth. However, since the camera usually moves and rotates in and around the scene and it is easy to lose track of direction, there is a colour-coded gizmo with arrows pointing along each axis: red for X, green for Y, and blue for Z.
Every object in 3D space has a Transform with three groups of X, Y, Z values for Position, Rotation, and Scale, each represented as a sequence of numbers in brackets.
For example the position of the 3D model of Mario to the right might be the middle of the scene, at (0, 0, 0), but if moved up by 10 its location would be (0, 10, 0).
If we take the standing pose of the model as its default rotation (0, 0, 0), then rotate it on its Z axis so Mario is on its side, its rotation would be (0, 90, 0); if instead he was rotated on its X axis such that he was lying on his back the rotation would be (90, 0, 0).
If the figure’s default scale is (1, 1, 1), then changing its scale on the Y axis to 2 (1, 2, 1) would double Mario’s height, making him seem tall and thin, while changing his scale on the X axis to 2 (2, 1, 1) would double his width, making him seem short and squat.
3D OBJECTS
3D OBJECTS
Blender allows you to model 3D objects as either polygons or NURBs.
A polygon is a familiar 3 dimensional shape made up of polygonal faces, e.g. a cube is made up of six square faces.
There are three different types of polygonal faces:
Quads have four edges, e.g. a sphere is made up of a number of quads, and quads is the default shape to model with, as they are easy to subdivide, to texture upon, and its more predictable to deform.
N-gons have more edges than four: e.g. a polygon with 6 edges is an icosohedron. You should avoid these where possible because you can have issues subdividing them.
Tris, or triangles, are the lowest number of edges to define a face in 3d space. In games triangles are more common because the geometry needs to be simple. Note that when objects are rendered, they’re often broken into tris by default.
WORKFLOW
WORKFLOW
‘Workflow’ just means ‘how you do things’ and is a term is used in modelling, animation, software development and many other artistic and technical fields. The term ‘pipeline’ often is used as a synonym for workflow, but places greater emphasis on how certain things need to be done in sequence, usually as part of a larger project, e.g. a 3D model needs to be made so that ‘further down the pipeline’ a 3D artist can create textures for it, and needs to be ‘rigged’ so that ‘further down the pipeline’ an animator can pose and animate it.
Blender has some standard workflows, but there is rarely a single way to do something. When you load the program you will see so many features it is typical to be overwhelmed. It is best to begin by performing small tasks to figure out one basic workflow, e.g. how to create a polygon, how to select different parts of a polygon, how to modify parts of a polygon, and so on.
From there, you should experiment with the Blender interface, ignoring icons, terms and functions you don’t need, and slowly introducing features to your workflow. If you repeat tasks the interface and basic workflows will become familiar and you will find a workflow that works for you.
Perhaps the most useful thing to learn are Hotkeys, i.e. keyboard shortcuts which save you from navigating menus and icons.
2. Modelling in Blender
2. Modelling in Blender
General Resources
General Resources
Blender Cheatsheet
Blender Cheatsheet
Intro to Modelling
Intro to Modelling
Intro to Blender and Using Primitives
Intro to Blender and Using Primitives
Polygon Editing
Polygon Editing
Introductory Exercises and Tutorials
Introductory Exercises and Tutorials
Blender Exercises 1
Blender Exercises 1
Blender Exercises 2
Blender Exercises 2
Model A Low Poly Well
Model A Low Poly Well
Advanced Techniques
Advanced Techniques
Fill Tool and Join Tool
Fill Tool and Join Tool
Bridge Tool
Bridge Tool
Intro to Unwrapping
Intro to Unwrapping
Unwrapping & Placing 2D Textures
Unwrapping & Placing 2D Textures
UV Seams Explained in 3 Minutes!
UV Seams Explained in 3 Minutes!
Unwrapping for Painting
Unwrapping for Painting
Instead of unwrapping and mapping onto an existing texture, this video shows how to unwrap a more complex model, ready for a texture to be created by painting onto the resulting UV Map.
An important aspect of this approach is to create seams to resolve areas on the UV Map that are stretched.
Practical Unwrapping tips that will save you time:
Practical Unwrapping tips that will save you time:
UV Unwrapping in Blender
Using Modifiers
Using Modifiers
Array, Bevel, Bool & Mirror Modifiers
Array, Bevel, Bool & Mirror Modifiers
How to work with the Bool Tool
How to work with the Bool Tool
Slice Operation
Slice Operation
3. Blender to Unity Workflow
3. Blender to Unity Workflow
Importing models from Blender 3 into Unity
Importing models from Blender 3 into Unity
This guide details the workflow to export a model from Blender 3 as an FBX file and then import it into Unity.
A common issue is models are imported into Unity without their textures applied. This guide includes important steps for embedding the textures in the Blender model and then extracting them in Unity.
Importing models from Blender 2.8 & 2.9 into Unity
Importing models from Blender 2.8 & 2.9 into Unity
This video covers the two main workflows for getting your models from Blender 2.8 & 2.9 into Unity: the FBX export workflow and the Blend file workflow. A step-by-step guide has been transcribed for each below.
Please note: this video is using a UI layout where several of the menus and buttons are on the bottom of the screen instead of the top.
FBX Workflow:
FBX Workflow:
In Blender:
In Blender:
Duplicate your asset. This allows you to have a copy of the original version of the asset with all modifiers still intact.
Select all objects within the asset with box select
Duplicate with SHIFT + D
Move this duplicate off the side and hide in the hierarchy
Collapse any modifiers. These modifiers can cause issues with the exported model if they aren't applied.
Select all objects within the asset with box select
Object menu > Convert to > Mesh from Curve/Meta/Surf/Text
Combine your objects. It's best practice to export an asset as a single, combined mesh.
Select all objects within the asset with box select
Combine with CTRL + J
Export your file as FBX. FBX is the recommended 3D model file type to use within Unity. You want to make sure that you are only exporting the asset you want and not anything else that might be in the Blender scene.
Make sure you have the asset selected
File menu > Export > FBX
Choose your save location (within your Unity Asset folder)
Tick "Selected Objects" in the Export FBX options
Click Export FBX
In Unity:
In Unity:
Find your model. You should be able to see your model show up in the Project Window within your Assets folder (or any sub-folder that you exported it to).
Add your model to your scene.
Click and drag your model from the Project Window into the Scene Window to bring it into the scene.
You can then add materials, change scaling etc. in Unity
Blend file Workflow:
Blend file Workflow:
In Blender:
In Blender:
Duplicate your asset. This allows you to have a copy of the original version of the asset with all modifiers still intact.
Select all objects within the asset with box select
Duplicate with SHIFT + D
Move this duplicate off the side and hide in the hierarchy
Collapse any modifiers. These modifiers can cause issues with the exported model if they aren't applied.
Select all objects within the asset with box select
Object menu > Convert to > Mesh from Curve/Meta/Surf/Text
Combine your objects. It's best practice to export an asset as a single, combined mesh.
Select all objects within the asset with box select
Combine with CTRL + J
Clearly name all the objects in your hierarchy. This will make working in Unity much easier.
Save your Blend file into your Unity Asset folder.
In Unity:
In Unity:
Find your Blend file. You should be able to see your model show up in the project window within your Assets folder (or any sub-folder that you exported it to).
Add your Blend file to your Unity scene.
Click and drag your model from the project window into the scene window to bring it into the scene.
Create a prefab of your Blend file.
Select the Blend file within your Scene hierarchy
Drag it into the Prefabs folder in your Project Window to create a prefab
Chose "Original Prefab"
Create a prefab of your chosen asset.
Double click on the Blend file prefab within your Prefab folder to open it within the Prefab Editor
Select the chosen asset within your hierarchy
Drag it into the Prefabs folder in your Project Window to create a prefab
Fixing Scaling Issues
Fixing Scaling Issues
When you import models you may find the scale is incorrect (the model is too small or large).
To fix this in Unity click on the asset in your Project Panel, click on the Model tab (right image), and adjust the scale factor. Usually 3D package scales are off by a factor of 10 or 100, i.e. your model's scale factor may need to be changed to 0.1 or 10 etc to look right in your scene.
If you try to keep in mind that a unit of 1m in Blender is equal to a 1 unit grid in Unity, you may be able to avoid problems in advance!
More Advanced Blender Topics
More Advanced Blender Topics
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