Abdullokh Abdukhalikov L3 Game Design Year 2: Unit 9 - Characteristics and contexts in creative media production and communication

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Contents.

Introduction to blender. (Click on the links in green to jump through!)

Introduction to blender: Basics

9th September MMXXIV

Before we start with making or doing anything in Blender. What is Blender in the first place? Obviously when talking about Blender, were not talking about a kitchen appliance that is used to mix food or ingredients into a liquid. Blender, (the application), is a free and open source 3D creation "suite", where it includes the entire 3D production pipeline. From Modelling, Rigging, Animation, Simulation, Rendering, Compositing and apparently Motion Tracking.

This is an almost completely new area for me, as I only worked in 2D or mix of both in the past, and so I would need to put my hands in the mud to learn everything there is about Blender. I will be using the latest version of Blender, which is "4.2.1" as of writing this.

User Interface

All images/gifs produced by me, unless otherwise stated

When starting Blender, the very popular grey block is what every user starts with. And already, the interface and UX (User Experience) is over whelming to say the very least.

There is a ton that I have to learn about the application, but right now, I will have to first, know how to manoeuvre in and around the application. As I can't make 3D models and objects, without knowing how the program works in its basic formats.

I won't spend much time explaining what most of the tabs or buttons do. As I, myself, don't know the intricacies of Blender. But I know just enough to be able to shape a tree!

Here, in the top left part of the screen is the "Top bar", and has a bunch of useful menus to click through.

"About Blender", which gives information about blender.
"File" creates/opens/saves files, saves, imports, exports, and other associated functions.
"Edit", has the undo and redo buttons, but a useful window includes is "preferences", which helps bind/rebind almost all the possible functions in Blender.
"Render", which does what it says
"Window", helps create new windows and help with workflow.
And finally, "Help", that has all the help resources you might need to understand Blender more.

Creating and Manipulating

Now to actually form our cube into something more desirable, (no fault to the grey cube, but I want to make 3D models that aren't only 6 faces).

Now we don't need the camera or light, so we delete it by pressing "X" and confirming to remove it. And so far, I have figured out how to turn the "user perspective" camera around the object, which is by pressing the middle mouse, and moving the mouse around. It is quite intuitive, and I don't think I can think of any other way of moving the camera around.

To move around the grey box/scene, an additional input is needed, by pressing shift to then now move around.

And if I had to guess, I will be using these two inputs constantly in my journey in being able to use Blender effectively and efficiently.

There are six different interact modes being object, edit, sculpt, vertex paint, weight paint, and texture paint. However for now, we really only the first tow modes being "object mode" and "edit mode."

In Blender, Object Mode is used for managing entire objects. This mode allows you to move, rotate, scale, and duplicate objects, as well as change their properties like location, rotation, and scale. Which is nice for setting up objects in a scene or the overall structure of one massive model.

Edit Mode is used for modifying the geometry of an object. In this mode, you can edit the vertices, edges, and faces of a mesh. (Which we are going to do a lot interacting with). Or manipulate control points for curves and surfaces. This mode is for when you have to detail a model a bit more closely, like tweaking or refining the structure of your models.

Edit Mode, if I had to guess, will be the most commonly used ways of manipulating 3D objects. As I will need to get acquainted with some of the useful shortcuts this mode provides.

As mentioned, I can edit the shape's vertices, edges, and faces. But while in Edit Mode, I can easily swap between the different "select" modes, by pressing "1", "2", or "3" to between each selection.

(For easy reminder on what the different basic building blocks of 3D model is)

Vertex (Vertices for plural) is a point in the 3D space. It is a dot that marks one specific location on the x, y, and z axis.
Edge (Edges for plural) is a straight line connecting two Vertices, a stick connecting two dots.
And finally, Face, (Or Faces for plural) is flat surface enclosed by edges. Like paper being stretched between multiple sticks

(Different parts of the shape being selected)

And for the last bits that are needed to know to utilise Blender more optimally. Is learning how to extrude, rotate, and move selected parts of the shape in Edit Mode.

To Extrude, simply pressing "E", will extend or un-extend and merge inward into the shape. Pressing middle mouse button can let you edit in exactly the lines of the x, y, or z axis

To move the selected object, pressing "G" can easily shift the position of said object, but be weary of how this would affect the shape's mould or consistency. As its used to tweak the position of the different parts of the shape. Middle mouse button does the same thing as mentioned before.

And then to rotate the selected point(s), "R" to rotate them on the user perspective's axis. I can see some useful cases as to how this might apply. But I am not at that level yet. Middle mouse button applies the same results, like in the previous two.

Small Exercise

To test out our skills, we made something small with what we learned so far.

I made Thor's Hammer, ~~Jonathan~~ Mjolnir, from the various Marvel films and comics that feature it. As it is a very visually striking weapon and item, even in "low-poly" detail. The weapon can be identified as such.

I used a couple techniques to create the model. A lot of extruding, and moving shapes around. Pressing "S" to shrink or enlarge the selected parts. And using the "Insert Face" tool, which made it easy to give it those outward "indents" that the hammer has.

Overall, I feel comfortable using Blender so far, I felt so much pressure at first, as the many buttons, menus of menus, and different screens that had completely unique systems to keep track of. Was a tad bit exhausting, but I learnt to minimise how much I learn, by knowing the important functions first, then slowly expand my skill set over the length of this course.

Introduction to blender pt.2: Trees

10th September MMXXIV

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A new day, and as such, a new challenge to overcome.

Our task to was to create a singular 'tree'. Whether pine nor birch, any tree will suffice.

The first thing to do with any blender project, is to delete the cube, I know it is sad, but a tree starts with a cylinder base, not a Minecraft-blocky base! To add a cylinder, the commands "shift" + "A", to open up a menu to add objects, from "Mesh", select "Cylinder".

Another window will pop up in the bottom, here I changed the amount of "Vertices" there are, from 32 to 8. As I want to insinuate the low poly detail of this tree.

Here we get a cylinder, with eight sides to it. Were going to need to reduce it into a pine shape.

Pretty simple all things considered

By selecting the top part of the shape, and pressing "S", then "zero", it makes it into that shape on the right. This will be the base for our tree.

A pine tree if you will.

I then added "loop cuts", by pressing "ctrl" and "r", using the scroll wheel to add 4 loop cuts. In addition, I added an extra loop cut, and put them all the way up into each of the loop cuts.

Then by selecting the row of edges, by holding "shift" and "alt" together, to then press on an edge, it will select that row only. I shrunk it a bit down, on each of the rows that I made a loop cut in.

So far, its shaping up to be a tree. But I can do so much more than that, and add some 'charm' to it.

Going into "wireframe" mode by pressing "Z", I select all the inner loop cuts within the tree. And push them up a little, as though the leaves look like they are now hanging and resting downwards.

I then deselected the first row, and push them up a little. And repeated this step till the last one. After that, exiting wire form mode, into solid mode. I selected all the points in adjacent order. One every other point, then reverse order for the 2nd, then repeat.

Here on the right, it is something along the lines of this. And after slowly selecting them all, I push them up as well.

Here from the top down perspective, which I achieved by using the pre-set viewpoints. Still having them selected, I pressed "S", then "Shift" and "Z" together to pull them up a bit.

It makes it look more lively and "cartoon-y", instead of a PowerPoint object pre-set.

I tweaked a bit of the vertices, as they looked odd. Pushing them up and down as I go along.

Here is the tree in all its glory. But its missing its bark (skrt).

I won't go through all the details, but here it is, I added another cylinder, decreased the top of it, extrude it, and I just added it right below the main tree part.

However, it is a bit boring, and missing its colours. So, onto colouring! (Or Texture painting in Blender terms)

Before any of those take place, we will need to unwrap our model, by going into edit mode, pressing a, then u, which will give us a menu, and in it. Pressing "smart unwrap" to give us an easy and quick way to texture paint the model. I also did the same to the oak bark as a separate UV image.

Which will look something like this, this is how Minecraft handles all their models. Unwrapped like cardboards waiting to be cut out into shapes and models.

(Fun fact! "U" and "V" are used for the 2D shapes, then "W" (In addition with "XYZ") is used within calculating quaternion rotations, big words for turning single plane shapes into 3D models, a very common action in computer graphics.)

And now switching to Texture Painting (Apparently you can't manually move the tabs, as I accidently messed up by reordering it to the right, and I had to manually move all of them back in order like it was a code I was inputting). The selected object is a very bright magenta, this means there is no texture on the model yet.

I create the Texture, by selecting green, then making the dimensions "2048" by "2048". And applying it onto the UV map itself. Which then makes the leaves green, and also did the same thing with the tree stem.

And it is finally done, I quite like the low poly model I made, and it took a lot of back and forth, as Blender seems a bit finicky at times. But for all its qwerks, I managed to get past it. I didn't mention it, but the texture wouldn't apply for a couple minutes, and I figured out that I didn't select it into the UV editor, all I did was just create the texture.

I am quite happy with the progress I have made so far. And I would like to contine this into my next experiments!

Introduction to blender: Making a low poly figure

16th Oct. MM XX IV

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Now that we are grand sorcerers being able to wield Blender and conquer it into making any model we can imagine, we must be able to create the living! Well, be able to create low poly models of supposed humans.

But first, were going to need to create a character sheet, and I am going to use Adobe Photoshop, as it is the most accustomed program. (Other than Microsoft Paint, which I wasn't allowed to use, for professional reasons.)

From my surroundings, I got inspired to make a college kid, and to give him something unique, he is an amputee. As I really want to challenge myself, into creating more unique models. I made three versions, one for the front, a side view, and then a back view. I noticed the arms were really short, but I didn't think much of it, and I carried on.

I put it into Blender, and had to align it in the middle.

This was done, so I could easily make the model without having to eye it, or work on it even more after having the model complete.

After, I put a cube where the head would be, and scale it a bit bigger than what the head model looks like. Then slice the model in half, and cut the left or right part of it.

I Added a subdivision surface modifier to the cube in object mode, then I added the mirror modifier, and also I checked clipping, so that there is no empty space in the middle of the objects.

It would look something like the ball being duplicated. A low poly ball ready to be tweaked and edited to form the shape of the head.

After a bit of adjusting and whatnot, I was quite happy with the head, and moved on to making the neck part of the model now.

I worked my way down, using the reference image evidently to help with the form of the model. But I slowly realised, on the original drawing, as mentioned, that it was a bit odd. As in the hands were a bit short, and I had to deviate from there. Otherwise I liked how much progress I got along.

I knew that the arms were short, so I just worked around it, and elongated them up until the waist point here. I had trouble making the arms not look scuffed or terrible looking, so I twisted the fore-arms and hands to make it less obvious that its not right.

The hands, surprisingly were easy to create. Just extending some parts, adding subdivisions, and only making it four fingers made it look better than if I tried to make it look "realistic".

Introduction to blender: Texture Painting Models

Small note, I made it so where I gave him some shorts, but I found it quite difficult to model the "robot leg", so I just gave up on that part.

Now quickly moving along to texture painting. I did the same steps I took for making my pine tree. By being in edit mode, and doing smart unwrap.

But before any of that, I will need to mark the seams in the model, so I mark the seams by highlighting important parts of the model, the face, torso, hands, legs, shorts, etc. (Smart Unwrap can achieve the same effects, but it is better to manually mark it ourselves to avoid any mishaps in the UV editor).

I did the base colour of the texture, a "peach-y" skin colour. So that it looks like human skin.

And after painting the model, it quite looks nice, I even gave him a beard, and made him bald. I chose the colours Red, Blue, and Yellow, because "RYB" is a subtractive colour model used for various types of media.

Also don't forget to save the texture paint image as a separate file, this is very important, as if it is not saved. The next time the model is opened, the texture file will be missing!

Introduction to blender: Materials and Nodes

17th September MM XX IV

The Node Editor

Here in the shading tab, there is the powerful Node Editor, it is a complex tool to create and manipulate complex materials. Which also includes textures and effects through a visual programming interface. This allows the ability to connect different nodes, which each of them represents a specific function or operation, (to build intricate shaders, compositing effects, and geometry modifications).

I can alter the colour, roughness, how metallic it is, and so on...

Here I made it almost pure metallic, a bit of roughness, 78 percent opacity or "Alpha", and made it a bright green.

But with these settings, it makes a deep dark green, as it is right now reflecting the background image.

There is so many nodes and settings I can tweak in the nodes editor. And right now I am just messing around with what effects and cool imagery I could get.

Overall, I think this is useful, and will be helpful for making really interesting or fascinating textures that would compliment the models.

Introduction to Blender: Geometry and Retopology

Geometry as we know it already, refers to the structure of a 3D model, composing of vertices, edges, and faces. But then there's "Retopology", which is the process of recreating the geometry of a 3D model to improve its topology.

Topology refers to the arrangement and flow of polygons that make up the 3D model, using vertices, edges and faces. It is vital for the topology to be good, for it to not break or look weird when it moves or changes during an animation for example.

In the example image, we have (from left to right), a "Tri", "Quad", and an "Ngon".

A Tri, short for triangle, is a polygon with three edges and three vertices. They are the simplest form of polygons, and are often used the most, because they form shapes easily.

Quad, short for quadrilateral, is a polygon with four edges and four vertices, one more than a tri! Which are preferred when the 3D model is used in an animation, as it deforms more easily.

Then we got Ngon(s). A polygon with more than four edges and vertices. They simplify the modelling process by reducing the amount of polygons, but aren't preferred for animation work. As issues in rendering and animation are caused, due to unwanted deformations that isn't supposed to happen.

Retopology

Retopology is one way of modelling a 3D model, re-structing the topology to create a cleaner, more efficient, and in some cases, an optimised version of the original model. This involves re-arranging the vertices, edges, and faces to improve the model's performance, so that it deforms properly.

Here is an example of someone remodelling a "goblin" model.

Creating "Circles" around the important sections of a model. So it is easier for texturing, and many other things.

Grant Abbitt (Gabbitt). (2017). RETOPOLOGY setup & guide | FAST | Blender. [Online]. YouTube. Last Updated: 20 Aug 2017. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovfKYtLWMqM [Accessed 17 Sept. MMXXIV].

Introduction to blender: Particles and Hair

In 3D applications, hair and particle systems were quite difficult to create, due to limited computing power, people still learning how to use 3D softwares, and the software itself only being able to do so much. But now, these tools are quite easy to use, as they help in creating realistic and dynamic simulations.

Here is a UV Sphere, nothing special, but to start experimenting. We got to smooth it out first, by right clicking, and the option of "shade smooth" should appear. And make it any colour, I chose blue, by going to material, and clicking on the surface to change the base colour. To see the change, we go to render mode. Here, we then go to particles, clicking the plus icon, changing the emitter to hair, and we can see the sphere now look like a deformed blue hedgehog that has been crushed down.

We can keep adding stuff, and effects to the sphere, and then tweak those settings appropriately.

I added a bit more hair, by going to the particles section again, and there's a drop down list for "children", and then clicking on "interpolated". By going to "Clumping", I can increase it a tad bit, and mess around with it. The "roughness" section can help greatly, by increasing the endpoint, which makes it look "realistic" enough. I had to enable "ray-tracing" to get more advanced options, and one of them was ambient occlusion. To show the effect a bit more further, I added a sun, to hopefully shine some of the hair strands more visibly.

Here is the "sun" I added, which didn't do much. As I still was confused as to how the light systems in Blender actually worked. But after some more looking through, I figured out I wasn't in the right settings and previewing the wrong things. And here we have a very bright "frightened" looking piece of disfigured ball of fur.

Now moving on to particles, making a new plane, and hiding or deleting our previous objects in the scene collection.

I made "snow" being dripped down. By going to the "Particles" tab, and increasing the lifetime to "250". And then previewing it in the Layout by pressing "play". It was quite an exhaustive amount work for something so little. As the processing and rendering for an animation was quite heavy. (Maybe I had the fur ball accidently being rendered alongside with it).

Messing with the settings more, I found out you can choose what objects that can spawn from it, as well as a collection of objects. Which is useful if you don't want the same object being thrown around and want some variety. Like differently shaped snowflakes.

Introduction to Photogrammetry: Workshop I

18th September MMXXIV

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Today, we were tasked with our first introduction into Photogrammetry (PG). In addition we had to do some practical experiments after learning what PG is.

What is Photogrammetry (PG)?

PG is three words/concepts combined into one word!

Photo = Light
Gram = Drawing
Metry = Measurement

Or simply put, using photographs to measure by triangulation.

PG is made with multiple images of an object, the software does all the heavy lifting required to output a 3D model. By measuring the distance between two reference points, that changes when the camera shifts position in each image inputted. This then spatially arranges the two points to create the 3D model.

For the practical side, we had to split into groups of either two or three. Then we took turns with a camera and snap pictures of a static object. I wanted to use a small IKEA bag, "KNÖLIG", but I was informed at how small the item was. So I just used a "lime coloured" Xbox One Series X/S Wireless Controller that I had lying around in my bag for some reason.

We had to ensure to keep the camera still, and the shots not be blurry or "shake-y". As the program we will use in the next class, won't accept or "morph" the model weirdly.

About fifty flicks were required, as that was the maximum amount of images the program would accept.

And so here are the sample of images we took of the controller. To achieve this first, we placed the object on a small table, in which we could capture it from a 360° degree angle. This was ensured to not just take photos from one direction, but many. I took about 17 photographs, and the rest were taken by my classmates. I didn't quite like what I took, as the stabiliser in the camera wasn't automatic and I actually had to mess with the settings a tad bit to ensure good output from the camera.

As a short exercise, I quite enjoyed the first part of the process of PG. However, I could see how this could be tedious in the future, if a 3D model looked rubbish, because it couldn't recognise much of the images that were taken. Then a whole reshoot would be needed.

Abby's DDS IV - Unit 9 - Examining Resident Evil 7's Tools and Development

3rd Oct MM XX IV

Intro to Blender - Rigging Using Rigify

Now it is time to give our models who are void of any skeletons... some bones!

First, were going to need to get "Rigify" from the Add-Ons, from the Preferences menu. This I am sure is going to make it easy for this activity.

I need to now add the bones, by pressing "Shift" and "A", clicking armature, picking human. I can pick the basic option, or the more advanced Human meta rig. And here, I need to make sure to position cursor at origin first. Which is achieve by the command, "Shift + C", which I could have used a while ago.

I would also need to decrease the size of the figure to maximum of 2 meters.

And after a bit of tweaking, I fit the model inside the... model.

Here I generated the rig, and got this result.

I played around with the different parts of the bones and how they affect the overall structure of the body. And I think I understand how the exo-skeleton embodies the rig, and how it interacts with other parts of the body.

Opening up the animation tab, things almost looked familiar, as my work with Adobe Animate last year, I got a bit accustomed to how things might work in Blender. I will assume that the frame rate is 24 frames per second, as I got a bit lost searching for the frame rate knob. And I started animating every 5 frames, as the tweening will bridge that gap for me. So the first thing to make is a simple walk cycle, and hopefully won't take too long.

This small walk cycle was a not a short task, as it took me more than an hour to painfully move each point and rig in the skeleton. But I managed to get a proper walking cycle.

Overall, I have so much more to learn and conquer in this application, and this is but a stepping stone for me to achieve greatness.

Introduction to Blender: Vampire Film

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Today we are going to utilise our skills on blender to make a short film. And so, I quickly set up a Blender file, where I put the 3D model from the files onto the project. I made a second screen as a way to see where the camera is looking at. To do that, I made a

Here is how the image looks.

Here is the vampire texture that was in the folder.

I made the background using the "world properties" settings. By creating a node, and changing the colour to "stars" that appeared in the folder. Currently there is no light, so I added a bit of light using the "spot", and turned up the power to 3000.

I added a cube, and a plane for the vampire to stand on. To turn the cube into a house, I created seems by using the "ctrl+r" command in edit mode to create rows of lines. And tweak as needed.

Aftwards, delete some of the faces to create mock windows. As well as a door to be open.

This is for later, to add a seperate door for the vampire to open and bust through.

Here is how that all looks without the main assets being completed yet. And I have something tangible so far.

Overall, I learnt how to use the camera and dope editor. I couldn't figure out how to get the textures right, as only some of the textures loaded, while others remained untextured. But this was useful to me. I could have spent more time learning how to do more dynamic camrea movements, but alas, this is all I could have done.

Introduction to Unity

Kit Parts

With any program, we start with nothing, (or something if you choose a pre-made fab). And for this section, we have to insert a sphere. And name it "blob".

The first thing to do is to "Right-click" and go to "3D Object", then in the options list, there should be a "Sphere". After this I needed to make some folders, I "right-click" on the bottom tab of the program. And here the option to click on "Create" and then on "Folder".

We had to create 3 folders: one for materials, scripts, and prefabs. To add colour, I right click and go to "Create", then click on "Material". I then changed the colour to this ugly green colour.

I can add physics and gravity to the sphere, to make it fall from the sky. I did this by selecting the sphere, clicking on "Add Component". Going to "Physics" panel, and click on "Rigid body". I can change the mass to "0.5" to make the sphere fall slower, as it was hard to click on the spheres without slowing it down a bit.

However one sphere falling isn't enough, making multiple balls fall, turns it into a game.

I made multiple spheres fall down from the sky. By downloading the scripts and dragging them into the script folder. Selecting the sphere and going to "Add Component", then clicking on "Scripts", then click on "Click Detention". From here, drag the blob onto the prefabs. On which I created another folder on the left tab by hitting "right-click", naming it "Spawner". In that folder, I added a component. Going to "Scripts", I clicked on "Spawn Blobs". Changing the Interval to "1", and then changing the minimum spawn X and Y coordinates to "-9". And the maximum to "9". Locking it and dragging the blob to the "Prefab Blob".

Pusher man - terrain and objects

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Now time to make something more complex. A 3D game about pushing objects. First we have to create a terrain, and use the painting tools accordingly.

By utilising the "right-click" tool on the left tab. I need to make a terrain first, by going to "3D Object" then clicking on "Terrain". By using the paint brush, I can make mountains, canyons, spiked arenas, etc. I added a texture to the terrain, by searching up a royalty free texture image. To do this, I click on "Edit Terrain Layer", then by going to "Create Layer", I find my downloaded texture to input into the terrain.

Here is where I added the 3d model of the character I already made in Blender previously. As well as the trees that I planted around the field.

Here I implemented the free to use 3D character asset, that came in pre-build with movement, a walking animation, and a versatile verb to make it sprint.

Right now I don't have the camera following the character, so lets get to that.!

To get the camera in line with the character, I need to go into "PlayerArmature", then go to where the "Game Object" is, then select the option of "Align View to Selected". But this isn't all, I need to go back to "Main Camera", and click its "Game Object". Then click on "Align with View" on that as well. The camera is almost implemented, now we just need a way to move the camera with the mouse to do this. We need add a component and click on "Scripts". Selecting "Camera Controller", to drag it onto the player.

And here is how the camera is properly aligned and working well now.

Here it is compared to my old model and the other character that I broke the camera on, so I had to restart the entire process, because I messed up something that I couldn't figure out.

I made this small maze, using assets from the prefab folder. And Unity's own shapes, that I placed as walls, by tweaking the x and y values of the cubes. And to make more walls, duplicating them, by either copying or, just making duplicates of the walls to add around.

Introduction to Unity: Visual Scripting

Today were going to learn how to code in a different way than we have been doing so far. This is similar to how we learnt Construct 3 last year, with its visual scripting.

Same as last time, we make a folder for materials, and scripting. Add the pattern image onto the materials folder, and make a material object. We can then apply this onto the sphere, that we call "blob".

Right now nothing is happening if we click play on it. We have to add a component to the blob to make it do something. Adding a rigidbody, and changing the values on "mass" to "0.5", and drag to "1". We also create another component onto the blob, called a "script machine", renaming it to "ClickDetec". I created another folder as well, a prefab folder, that we drag our blob into. And creating an empty object, that would be called the "Spawner".

The same goes for the "Spawner", creating a script machine for it, and naming it "SpawnBlobs". Since these aren't traditional scripts, naming conventions doesn't really matter in this instance. But we open the SpawnBlobs by clicking "Edit Graph". And we get this window.

Quite simple right now, but this will get a lot bigger with the amount of stuff and bits we will add.

We won't need the "On start" prompt, so deleting that isn't any issue. Then we are going to create some "graph variables" on the left bar, which can easily be dropped onto the graph editor. "Interval", "nextInterval", "maxY" and "spawnX", which all of these will be float values. Now were going to add some nodes, the first being the "Time: Get Time", which will connect to the "Greater" Node, and the value it is being compared too is the "nextInterval", this insures that the sequence actually moves and starts appropriately when connected as the false node, opposite of the true node on the "On Update: Event" node.

Now were going to add 2 nodes, the "Time: Get Time" and the second variable, "Interval", which is added to the "Add Inputs: 2" node. Which is connected onto the "Set Variable" node, which connects back to the "nextInterval" variable. This is all to just spawn the blobs onto the screen. But were going to need a range of numbers for the blobs to spawn from. A random range node does that, using the inclusive version of it, as that ensures that the blobs spawn in that range instead of outside that range. Value of "-9" to "9" is enough. This is connected to the third variable, "spawnX". A Vector node makes the data of the X and Y clear, as all it sees without it are interger values. A simple value of "9" is set for the "maxY" variable. And this is connected to the vector as well. Were almost done with the script graph.

All that is missing now is the "Instantiate" Component, were its connected with our last node, "Quaternion", and it just sets the rotation normally. The big component is linked to the "blob".

After that, we get blobs spawning in reguarly, making it an alright screensaver from the ninties.

Evaluation

The skills and knowledge I had to leverage and learn was a lot for this quite turbulous unit. As I had to quickly adapt and pick up skills at a fastened rate than I quite am normally accustomed to. But with my experiences in 3D software in the past year, and in my spare time, I had already learned the ability to navigate in 3D spaces and create content in. Like Fortnite's old Creative mode engine.

I quite liked Blender's sculpting tool, creating my own models. Like when I made that Thor hammer. But it was difficult, as I had to learn the software's ins and outs on how I would efficently work inside it. As I geniunely felt lost at some parts of the laerning process, as I couldn't grasp on some concepts, and it took quite the experience to hopefully learn at a quicker pace.

Learning to make and create 3D games with practice was fun, but I don't think I will use this for FMP. As I quite am comfortable and still want to explore 2D creations. I wouldn't say no to making 3D related content, but I am not at that stage in creating that type of games yet.

I felt that I have improved on my 2D drawings more and more, than I have on my 3D capabilites. As I learnt to be quite content with drawing concepts and characters, for them to then be used as reference images in 3D. As the influences for my creations was just looking around my surroundings and basing them off on my classmates or friends.

I found the visual scripting to be a breeze when compared to writing scripts, this maybe cause it is more visually compelling and easily understandable than rows and rows of code. This might intrigue me to create 3D games with this type of coding in the future. Overall, I like that I did something outside my comfort zone with Unity and Blender, even if I won't use these skills in the future much. Maybe for personal art related projects, other than that, I say I enjoyed it.