Synopses & Reviews
Create dynamic 3D content for the iPhoneTake your design skills for the iPhone and iPod touch to new levels. Whether you're an iPhone application developer or a creative artist, this innovative guide shows you how to combine the best of both worlds using Blender, the SIO2 game engine, and the iPhone SDK. You'll create 3D animated characters, game environments, and physical collisions in a series of self-contained tutorials that you can move through at your own pace.
Examine Blender's WYSIWYG approach; find helpful information on Xcode and other iPhone SDK programming tools; learn physics simulation; and acquire the skills you need to create compelling, interactive, 3D apps and games.
Explore 3D development for the iPhone and how to use the iPhone SDK
Make your Blender designs interactive using the SIO2 game engine
Discover how to light moving objects realistically
Model ground and sky with SIO2 and immerse your players in a 3D world
Master billboarding, a practical way to use 2D images in 3D environments
Create invisible, low-poly collision maps to guide or control your character's movement
Access Bullet, Blender's physics simulation library, for advanced functionality
Animate characters in Blender—and add buttons, icons, and more with widgets
Find complete code for all templates used in the book
Create multi-touch interactive apps with 3D objects, textures, and real-time lighting
Rig and animate 3D characters for your iPhone apps
Produce rich, immersive 3D environments with realistic physics for users to navigate
Synopsis
Learn to create 3D animated characters, game environments, and particle collisions to include inside your own game on the iPhone and iPod Touch using the open-source Blender and SIO2 game engine. 3D for iPhone Apps with Blender and SIO2 takes a narrow but deep approach for Mac users to carry out the tutorials on their own and create 3D content using the iPhone SDK.
Whether you're an iPhone application developer wanting to create 3D content, or a Blender artist wanting to create a 3D game on the iPhone, this book is for you. It focuses on conveying just enough background information on Xcode and other iPhone SDK-specific material, and introduces the necessary concepts as they are needed to complete tutorials creating 3D interactive content. The book is the perfect bridge to iPhone development for people who are mainly interested in 3D.
This book offers a pipeline for creating 3D assets for the iPhone and iPod Touch in a WYSIWYG manner using Blender, which can significantly simplify the creation of 3D interactive content. Use of Blender's physics simulation library, Bullet, is also enabled by this pipeline, giving users relatively easy access to advanced physics and collision functionality.
Synopsis
Create exciting, interactive 3D apps for the iPhone and iPod TouchWhat a combination-using free, open-source Blender software and the SI02 game engine to create very cool 3D characters and games for the very hot devices of the moment, the iPhone and iPod Touch. Whether you're coming to this as an iPhone developer or as a Blender artist, this book is for you. Learn how to create 3D content using Blender's WYSIWYG approach, find helpful information on Xcode and other iPhone SDK topics, master physical collisions, and acquire the skills you need to bridge both worlds with fun, compelling content.
- Shows you what you need to know to use Blender software, the SI02 game engine, and iPhone SDK to create interactive 3D content for the iPhone and iPod Touch
- Walks you through a series of tutorials that you can use as starting points for your own creations
- Provides enough information on the iPhone software developer kit (SDK) to get you started quickly
- Covers Blender's physics simulation library, Bullet, and Blender's robust collision functionality
Bridge the exciting worlds of Blender and iPhone app development in an easy-to-follow pipeline with this one-of-a-kind guide.
About the Author
Tony Mullen is a 3D artist and programmer residing in Tokyo, where he lectures in computer science at Tsuda College. He has written numerous magazine articles on Blender and graphics programming on the Mac for the Japanese magazine MacPeople. He is also the author or coauthor of several Blender-related books, including Introducing Character Animation with Blender; Bounce, Tumble, and Splash!: Simulating the Physical World with Blender 3D; and Mastering Blender, all from Sybex.
Table of Contents
Foreword.
Introduction.
Chapter 1: Getting Started with 3D Development for the iPhone.
Getting Started.
Getting the Software.
Setting Up Your Development Environment.
Chapter 2: Introducing Graphics Programming in SIO2.
The SIO2 Template.
A Simple OpenGL Demo.
Introduction to Interactivity.
The Complete Code.
Chapter 3: Saying Hello to the Blender/SIO2/iPhone World.
The Blender/SIO2/Xcode Workflow.
An Overview of SIO2.
Hello 3D World! Creating Your World in Blender.
Exporting to the SIO2 File Format.
Chapter 4: Going Mobile with SIO2.
Initializing SIO2 and Loading Assets.
Rendering.
Touch Screen Interaction.
The Complete Code.
Chapter 5: Extending Interactive Feedback with Picking and Text.
Object Picking.
Working with Text and Fonts.
Using Multi-touch Functionality.
Packaging Your App.
The Complete Code.
Chapter 6: Creating an Immersive Environment in SIO2.
Modeling the Ground and the Sky.
Creating an Immersive Environment in SIO2.
Exploring the Environment with a Moving Camera.
The Complete Code.
Chapter 7: Props and Physical Objects.
Texture Face Objects and Transparency.
Fast Foliage with Billboards.
Physics for Interactive Objects.
Pseudo-instancing for Efficient Object Handling.
Working with Low-Poly Collision Maps.
The Complete Code.
Chapter 8: Animating a Character.
Animating a Character in Blender.
Getting Action in SIO2.
Taking a Walk.
Quick and Dirty Real-Time Shadows.
The Complete Code.
Chapter 9: Working with Widgets.
Making a Splash with Widgets.
Creating Active Widgets in SIO2.
The Complete Code.
Appendix A: Blender Basics.
Interface and Navigation.
Modeling.
Materials and Textures.
Animation 250
Appendix B: Key Concepts for Graphics Programming.
Coordinate Systems, Matrices, and Transformations.
Transformations by Matrix Multiplication.
Matrices and OpenGL.
Appendix C: SIO2 Reference.
SIO2 Learning Resources.
The .sio2 File Format.
SIO2 Flag Values.
SIO2 Functions.
Index.