NxtGen Media - The Freeman View

sfxr Audio Tool

I am not an audio guy by any stretch of the imagination. In learning Unity, I am finding that I have to wear a lot of hats. I’m a programmer, and even if not an expert in the other areas, I am finding that I still have to know enough to work with those that are. As for composing Music, I am just not going to touch it as I have my hands full with dealing with Blender. As for sound effects I can get away with the beep sound, but sometimes you just want to hear a sound that is in the ball park of what you intended. Somehow when your testing your laser cannon out, a beep just doesn’t do it justice. Enter, Dr. Peter’s sfxr utility.

Made in 2007 for a game dev competition for teams that did not have time to look for sounds in their mad rush to complete the game by the deadline. The utility allows you to choose from randomly generated sounds for pick-up, shooting, explosion, power-up, hit, jump, and select.  You can also tweak the sound and export it to a .wav file. Not the highest quality, but it certainly beats the system beep sound and will give you an idea of what your effect could sound like.

DCF

Unity Showing Up in More Places

I am starting to see Unity in more places. A buddy of mine sent me a link to The Clash of the Titans site. The site loads with Flash as I would expect from a movie site, but when I get to the game, it loads up Unity. I had to smile.

My kid was eating cereal this morning, and on the back of a General Mills Honey Nut Cheerios box was a link to their brand extending game, Honey Defender. The site itself was in Flash, but the game was in Unity. The game took a long time to load, (much like the early days of Flash) but once loaded, I was treated to a decent 3D adventure based on a Honey Nut Cheerios world. Silly, I know, but before this would have been done completely in Flash.

Axe Body Spray also had a Unity game site as I recall. I think this is just the beginning of brands moving into 3D. Sure the two techs can coexist, but I can’t help but think that somebody missed the boat here and it sure wasn’t Unity. I can’t see it being that much longer until those parts done in Flash, can be done in Unity. Sure, ads are what make folks complain about Flash, but it is funny to see Unity moving into that territory. Very interesting days ahead.

-D

Blender Basics - Classroom Tutorial Book Review

One thing I have learned about Unity development is that you reach a point where you gotta create your own objects and artwork. I have been using Blender for modeling, and I must say that it is growing on me, but it is not an easy transition from tools like Truespace.  However, it is free and it does do a good job, so I am trying real hard to embrace it.

I have been watching a lot of Blender tutorial videos and have learned a great deal. Being old school, I also like having books on hand to reference. One great reference I found is Blender Basics - Classroom Tutorial Book, 3rd Edition. It does a great job of breaking down the tools that make up Blender. As the name implies, it was created as a class room accompaniment and pretty much walks you through the basics of Blender. I highly recommend it.

Check it out here

DCF