Tools and techniques for creating locations. I use assets from the Unity Asset store since I am not skilled enough to create my own location models, but I also mix and match props and prefabs to make locations more interesting, as well as use Unity terrain building for local hills and valleys.
Blog Posts
Unity vs Omniverse for Cartoon Animation
I have been using Unity for a while to create Cartoon Animations, and have recently been exploring NVIDIA Omniverse to see how it has been progressing. From what I can see, while USD was originally developed by Pixar for animated movie production, and NVIDIA have been investing in AI technology such as mapping audio files…
NVIDIA Omniverse Unity Connector
From the NVIDIA website, “NVIDIA Omniverse™ is a computing platform that enables individuals and teams to develop Universal Scene Description-based 3D workflows and applications.” It is based on USD, the file format originally developed by Pixar for their animation projects. For my purposes, it is similar to Unreal Engine and Unity for rendering 3D scenes and…
AI 3D Model Creation
Just as generative AI has been stirring things up with 2D images, people are also looking hard at 3D models too. One great little video I stumbled across lists a number of platforms, some of which I had not heard of before. First, the video: Some of the sites mentioned: Some of the platforms tackle…
NVIDIA Canvas
NVIDIA Omniverse includes Canvas, a cool little tool for creating 360 background images with minimal effort. You draw color patches where you want trees or bushes, and it uses generative AI to create photo realistic artwork. For free.
Universal Scene Description (USD) format from Pixar
USD (Universal Scene Description) is an file format originally developed by Pixar for describing 3D scenes. A scene can include a collection of sets, characters, and props. In this blog I give a quick introduction, including how it is used to compose a hierarchy of sequences and shots similar to the Sequences package in Unity.…
2D to 3D Background Artwork
There is a lot of buzz going on around AI generative artwork. Rather than art generation, I am personally interested in AI tools to speed up boring (non-creative) workflow tasks. For example, in this post I explore some work that has been done on how to create a 3D background for a film or cartoon…
Unity Tree Editor and Shader Graphs
I have a number of assets from the Unity Asset Store – some paid, some free. I hunt around in them for various models that I can use in scenes for my animations, such as trees and bushes. Some use the Unity Tree Editor, which have given me problems after upgrading to HDRP. Here are…
Selecting Screen Space Ambient Occlusion (SSAO) HDRP volume settings in Unity
Ambient occlusion is a lighting effect that increases shadows where two surfaces meet. In real life, there is less light bouncing around surfaces in corners or where two walls meet – this is called ambient occlusion. As I am aiming for semi-realistic images in my videos (not 2D cel shading as in most comics and…
Rain, raindrops, puddles, and water in Unity HDRP
One effect I used in my first episode is rain to amplify the mood. This involved raindrops on glass windows, rain falling from the sky, and ripples/puddles of rain on the ground. Here is an example shot with rain falling from the sky, glistening in the lights, with puddles rippling on the ground (although the…
Artistic considerations when designing a location
In this blog I talk about the artistic side of deciding what to include in a location design. I am using Unity to do my animations, mainly purchasing assets from the Unity Asset store and similar for my locations. If I had to create them myself I would probably never get anything done. This often…
Extra Ordinary, the Series 