ProBuilder Tutorial: Greyboxing a Radar Dish
Every good video game has a Radar Dish. Maybe even two? Push the envelope!
Step 1: Create the Starter Shape
- Click the “New Shape” button, or hit “CTRL SHIFT K”
- Choose the “Cylinder” type
- Set settings satisfactorily
- Click “Build Cylinder” to complete it
More Info:
Test out the various settings, and other shape types, to get a feel for what’s available. There’s lots to use here!
Step 2: Form the “Dish”
- Select the center verts (make sure you get top and bottom: see “Select Hidden“)
- Pull down to create the dish shape
More Info:
Need a more rounded shape? Try adding some extra loops between the center and outer verts.
Step 3: Group UVs for Better Texturing
- All those “chopped up” textures/UVs on the inside look ugly- let’s fix that!
- Select just one face on the inner surface
- Open the “Grow Selection” panel and ensure you have “Select by Angle” enabled, and “Iterative” disabled
- Click “Grow” or hit “ALT G” to grow the selection to the full surface (saves you many clicks)
- Open the UV Editor – ignore all those UVs, we’re taking the easy route!
- Scroll down in the UV tools panel, and click “Group Faces”
Watch the Texturing Tutorial: https://youtu.be/bigj13SU1rs
Step 4: Build the Supports
- Start with a Cube – hit “CTRL K”
- Extrude and manipulte to create a quick, simple support/base for the Dish
- Move the Dish to the support object, rotate it as needed
- Make the Dish a child of the support object, so they will move together
Watch the Modeling Tutorial: https://youtu.be/CBa_opm3_GM
Step 5: Get Back to Level Design!
That’s it! Your Radar Dish is ready for use- at this point, you should probably start preparing your GDC awards speech.
More Info:
- Consider adding some Vertex Colors, animate the dish, maybe even make it destructable- remember, a ProBuilder mesh is just like an imported mesh, anything is possible!