Creating isometric objects for games in Blender

This article will be useful for beginner game developers. In it, we will consider the advantages and methods of creating and rendering three-dimensional objects for isometric 2D games using the example of Blender. The article will not have any complex operations, enough basic knowledge of a 3D editor. For an example of rendering and animation, I took a tower from Dune2, and so that she was not so bored with one, I added two buildings from Desert Strike.

The advantages of this approach compared to rendering in 2D : speed and ease of creating animations, ease of model upgrading (for example, to create building upgrades), fairly good results at low time.

Disadvantages : reduction in the “sincerity” of images and, in fact, the need for knowledge of 3D modeling.

Getting started, stage preparation

By default, an “empty” Blender file is created with three objects: a camera, a light source, and a cube in the center. Let's start the setup from the camera, in its properties, switch from Perspective mode to Orthographic, then specify the following parameters for it in the Properties panel:

Transform
X: 12.0
Y: -12.0
Z: 12.0

(as you can see, the coordinates are N, -N, N, N can be anything, because we have an orthogonal camera)

Rotation
X: 54.8 °
Y: 0 °
Z: 45 °



If everything is done correctly, then now looking at the scene through the camera (for this you need to press Num0 ), we will see our cube in isometry.

Having tried to render ( F12) the first isometric test, you will see that the faces of the cube are lit very unevenly. Let’s take care of the light! Firstly, in the properties of the world (World tab), turn on Ambient Occlusion and specify the Factor value for it (in the example, set to 0.5). Secondly, change the type of light source from Point to Sun. This is necessary so that all the shadows are directed in one direction and do not depend on the position of the object relative to the light source.


Render example with a light source Point


Render example with a light source Sun

Speaking of shadows, don't repeat my mistake! If for some reason you want all the game objects to be on the same scene and render at the same time (for example, so as not to glue the spritesheet from separate images), then make sure that they do not affect each other in any way and their shadows and lighting (neon signs, lights, etc.) did not block other objects. In the image at the beginning of the article, it is noticeable that the shadow from the tower falls on the sentinel tower.

Our cubes are rendered on an ugly gray background, which of course needs to be turned off so as not to suffer later with cutting out the background of objects. To do this, find the Shading section in the Render tab and change the Alpha mode from Sky to Transparent (if you are using the Blender Render render) or check the Transparent checkbox in the Film section (in Cycles Render).

With the setup we are done, let's move on to creating objects, for example, the very tower. I think it’s not worthwhile to consider in detail the process of its modeling, we will immediately take advantage of the very advantages that a three-dimensional object gives us.


The tower rotates briskly.

Many strategies use a visual display of building construction: first, the foundation is erected, then the walls, and so on. Let's try to do something like this. Select all the objects in the scene ( A ), then duplicate them ( Shift-D ) and move them to the second layer ( M and select the desired layer). The operation can be repeated as many times as we need the construction phases. Let's move to the second layer and “destroy” the tower.


Repeat the desired number of times, et voila!

Postprocessing

At the beginning of the article, among the shortcomings of this approach, I mentioned the lack of a feeling of "lamp-like". Fortunately, it can be partially returned using post-processing and the Freestyle engine built into Blender. I will not consider it in detail, just show what he is capable of.




Freestyle Examples

I hope I have proved that creating elements for two-dimensional games in “three-dimensional” is in many cases a quick and convenient process. Thanks for attention!