How to create high-quality 3D assets in VR for Unity with Shapelab
Virtual reality provides the user with a whole new perspective. Shapelab allows users to create intricate details in VR thanks to the combination of its powerful engine and industry-standard toolset. With Shapelab, you can sculpt high-quality 3D assets that you can then export and use in other programs, such as game engines. This article will explore this process and provide valuable tips on creating your Unity scene. Make sure to check out the video of the process at the end!
What is Shapelab?
Shapelab is a highly efficient polygon-based 3D sculpting software optimized for virtual reality devices. It uses VR technology to provide an immersive and intuitive interface that allows users to sculpt in 3D space with a new level of control and creative freedom. Shapelab allows for sculpting high-quality props, characters, concepts for applications, games, and virtual worlds, as well as digital concept art and storyboards.
What is Unity?
Unity is a free cross-platform game engine that allows you to build any application from scratch. Although competition is increasing in the field, Unity is still one of the most popular game engines, which could be due to the number of tutorials and educational material available online. Unity is also free, making it one of the most accessible 3D tools.
Creating digital assets for games
Gaming is one of the most booming industries that heavily rely on creative 3D work. The entertainment industry has been the driving force behind innovation in 3D technologies from the very beginning. The first face model was created as early as 1974 at the University of Utah, and it’s surprising how fast movies started incorporating 3D after that, like in the 1977 classic Star Wars IV – A New Hope. On the other hand, the first 3D video game is known to be Battlezone, but 3D technologies and the game industry are virtually linked to their core from the very start. Since then, AAA titles with groundbreaking graphics and jaw-dropping stories are made by the dozen each year, making millions of dollars and providing an infinite playground for creatives – from big multis to tiny indie brands, the ways to games being realized are endless.
Creating a game is a very complex process. Game studios have whole teams working on only animating or retopologizing assets. However, with apps like Shapelab, which gives you complete control over the mesh, and Unity, which offers all the free online assets, you can create a simple but immersive scene at home. In this article, we aim to demonstrate how.
The steps of building a small game scene
First, we were browsing through our models when we had the idea to create a game scene from our amazing dragon 3D model Peter Gregor created. The complete dragon model is around 10 million polygons, and all of its intricate details were made with Shapelab, which can handle even complex objects thanks to its robust design engine. You can watch the video tutorial series of the 3D modeling of the dragon on our Youtube channel. Continue reading to learn about the steps we went through to create the Unity scene.
Brainstorming
Drafting up a mood board is crucial when working together; it’s an essential step to fill in the blanks and clear out the unnecessary. We looked for setups with similar themes, such as medieval stories, games, and movies including dragons. Two examples closest to what we imagined our scene should be are The Hobbit and Skyrim. Both of them are masterclasses on dragons. Initially, we drafted up a scene in a cave, but shortly after, we decided to go for an open-space scene instead. As we browsed through images of the game and movie set design, we got inspired by the stone arches in Avatar. We wanted to include something like that. That’s how we ended up with rocks looking like ribs in the main area of the set. For the colors to look nice, we made desert rocks with yellow and orange tones and blue lighting to complement the assets.
Concept Art
We had to have some concept art to guide us when assembling the scene. Using the mood board, we quickly created a digital painting, although concept art is a whole different story! We don’t claim to be pros in that, but the goal here is for everyone to be on the same page.
Greybox / Blockout
We had the main model and all the inspiration organized, so then it was time to create the base of the scene in Unity. A good game is always a mix of great visuals and exciting gameplay, so it is essential to have a simple and playable prototype first for the level design. This is exactly what a greybox or a blockout version of a level is for. This stage of game creation can already take place in Shapelab – just put down the geometrically more simple version of your sculpts at their approximate location and export the whole scene in FBX or GLB. Then, by importing the scene into Unity, someone else could start working on the mechanics parallel to the sculpting phase. Unity’s Universal Render Pipeline provides application templates that include basic movement and camera work, so in our case, no coding was needed. We simply wanted to show how you can create a great game environment with Shapelab and all the free content online for Unity.
Final Asset List
The 3D previsualisation makes it possible to break the scene down to the assets needed – with a low-poly asset list imported into Shapelab, the sculpting of the high-poly models can begin. Parallel to the digital sculpting phase, someone else could work on the scene’s lighting.
Sculpting
Initially, various techniques were tested to find the most efficient way to create the desired scene. Before settling on the final concept, we were testing the creation of stones, rocks, and cliffs in Shapelab.The clay tool proved very useful, particularly when used with low falloff and high strength settings, toggling the height constraint as needed. A similar effect could also be achieved with the standard brush by selecting a rectangle alpha and cursor and then activating the spray function. We had attempted to generate custom alphas, but it was ultimately more efficient to use freely available ones and make minor adjustments in Photoshop.
By adjusting density and area values of the alpha spray feature, the mesh could be quickly filled with texture. The trim tool, with its low falloff and high strength settings, facilitated the creation of circular indents and smooth surfaces characteristic of rocks. When additional resolution was required with maintaining a quad mesh, the subdivide command was utilized, with dynamic resolution disabled.
These techniques were consistently applied throughout the creation of all the stones, with coloring performed subsequently. Larger stones were constructed by combining smaller ones and stretching them accordingly. Exporting was done individually, with texture export used to streamline the process. Given the scene’s complexity, reduction was applied to resolution during export to generate normal maps efficiently in Shapelab.
Embedding textures into the model allowed for seamless integration into Unity, albeit with some compromise on resolution due to hardware limitations. Nonetheless, the overall ambiance of the scene remained satisfactory, justifying the approach taken.
Assembling the final scene
Changing the models in the scene involved some back-and-forth between Shapelab and Unity. Any adjustments or additional models were sculpted or imported into Shapelab, then exported and integrated into the Unity scene. This iterative process allowed us to fine-tune the details and composition until we achieved the desired look and feel.
Lighting
Lighting played a crucial role in setting the mood of the scene. We experimented with different lighting setups in Unity to enhance the atmosphere we envisioned. By adjusting the intensity, color, and direction of light sources, we were able to create dramatic shadows, highlights, and an overall ambiance that complemented the theme of our game environment.
Watch the video of the process below.
Try Shapelab and create games all by yourself!
The journey from Shapelab to Unity demonstrated the seamless integration of digital sculpting and game development. With the right tools and techniques, it’s possible to turn a high-detail sculpt into a fully immersive game scene. Whether you’re a solo developer or part of a team, the combination of Shapelab and Unity opens up endless possibilities for bringing your creative vision to life in the gaming world. So why not give it a try and see where your imagination takes you?