Isometric grid and 3D design

Earlier this year, I was fortunate enough to be given the chance to tutor a university class in drawing design. The class was one that I had taken during my undergraduate study, and it served as a great refresher for ideas, techniques, and concepts about drawing. What I took away from the tutoring was invaluable to my approach to conceptual design for 3D.

One area which I've had to do work in lately is the design and creation of 3D environments. Generally, I like making environments, but the 2D design stage had troubled me. For instance, how to make sure you bridge the gap between the creativity and mood of the drawn image, and the reality of the 3D model? To me this concerns the accuracy of spaces, surfaces, dimensions... complex visual relationships that can be wonderfully warped in a 2D image, but have to be depressingly accurate in a 3D world.

a random student's work (?) sourced from here

A great tool I've started using which can combat the clunkiness of this transition, is the isometric grid. It's basically a versatile tool for designing 3D shapes and spaces, on a 2D plane. You might remember that 'back i n the day' isometric perspective was used in quite a few games (and still is - see Project Zomboid) to represent 3D environments in 2D engines. Why it was so good for visually communicating 3D space in a flattened image, is exactly why it's a powerful design tool for 3D environment design.

I mostly use it as a backing sheet that I trace over with pencil and paper. I also use it as a guide layer in Photoshop. It gives you a great framework for your creativity to go nuts, whilst not having to worry about the rigidity of the 3D process because - hey - you're already working on a grid. If that's too constrained for you, then you can always do some Escher inspired stuff and bend the rules...

Office Drone - now FREE on android market!

My android game, Office Drone is now free on the android market. I definitely had a change of heart about it being a paid app - it's a lot more satisfying to have people playing something rather than having money coming in. So if you have an android device (2.1+) and have a spare 1mb, then please have a play! If enough people download I'll definitely add more visual/game modes for it.

Office Drone on the Android Market - Free

New android app! - Office Drone

"Office Drone" - a homage to Game & Watch

Just finished my 2nd Android game! It's a bit more polished than my first one, but it's not free. What I can say is that Processing's Android mode makes creating simple games for Android ridiculously easy.

Office Drone on the Android Market

Processing language