For the final project, you will develop a 3D interactive world using Unity3D.
You are free to pursue whatever theme you like, but the two main
requirements for each project are (1) involve animations and (2) allow
for user interaction.
Here are three general categories to consider:
Adventure Based (activate a sequence of triggers that allow the user to get to some goal location, e.g. a maze)
Physics Based (user controls physics objects, e.g. minigolf course)
Vehicle Based (user rides a vehicle, e.g. roller coaster ride)
The simplest approach to interactivity is the adventure/puzzle format in which
the user explores around and interacts with some objects in the environment
that trigger animations, sounds, etc. If you prefer, you are free to produce a
more directed mini-game (but that will generally involve more scripting.)
Since we only have 2 weeks, you are not expected to produce something with
elaborate game play. Instead, your main focus should be on modeling,
animation and bringing those assets into Unity 3D to produce a finished
environment.
Here are the initial steps you need to take to get started:
Get further acquainted with Unity 3D. In particular you should look through the following resources:
The user interface for designing a scene should feel familiar as the basic
manipulators and camera control are very similar to Maya.
Brainstorm and refine the details of your project idea.
Using Maya, build a rough map for your planned world. If your model is
an outdoor area then you may want to start from your terrain generation
script to get an initial mesh and then refine it by hand. For an indoor or
urban scene, you can start with a subdivided plane and extrude some quads to
make buildings, roadways, hallways. For the purposes of the proposal, there
is no need to spend more than 20-30 minutes roughing out your map. You can
always refine it later. The main goal here is to make sure you have Unity
running and can import geometry from Maya into Unity.
Follow the instructions here to import your rough terrain into Unity and create a first person camera.
First Person Walkthrough
Unity understands Maya file formats so you can simply save your Maya file and then import it as an asset into Unity.
Take a screen grab of your level running in the Unity IDE to include in your writeup.