Make Weird Stuff in Unity Tutorial

Intro

This tutorial is about empowering people who feel constrained by their lack of experience. For example, programmers who feel like they need artists to make cool things, or artists who think they need programmers to make cool things, or even people who are neither of those who want to make cool things.

The tutorial is written for folks who have no experience with Unity or 3D modelling. If you're already familiar with the basics jump down to the lighting section. Our next tutorial will focus on lighting and particles in more depth.

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Sketchup

Step 2.

Download & install Sketchup
Open up Sketchup and click the template dropdown, choose simple template: meters from the list
Select the rectangle tool. Make a plane (a plane is another word for rectangle) in Sketchup
(you can type in numbers for more exact sizes when using the rectangle tool)
Now export your plane into Unity (we'll be back to sketchup soon)

When exporting, go File > Export > 3D Model. Make sure the format is either .FBX or .DAE
Options should look like this before exporting:
Export your model into the Unity project's Assets folder, into the "Models" folder that you created
Now your exported model should appear in the Unity project pane.
Select the model file and make sure the scale factor is set to "1". Note: if you're using .DAE your scale factor should be set to .025
Select the model, and drag it into the hierarchy pane. It should now appear in the scene view in Unity
Tip: you can select the model in the hierarchy view, then go to > Edit > Frame Selected (F). This lets you find objects in the scene view.

Step 3.

Back to Sketchup to familiarize yourself with some tools
Navigation:

Navigation between Sketchup and Unity are totally different unfortunately. Thankfully the following tools make it a bit easier to move around in Sketchup. You should familiarize yourself with them.

Tip: a 3 button mouse is a huge help. Middle mouse orbits, scrolling zooms in and out. Using Shift+ Middle Button activates the hand tool.
Tools:

Pen tool: lets you draw arbitrary lines that snap to edges. You can draw on walls (this is how you can make windows or doors)

Arc tool: the 2 point arc tool lets you draw curves, which is great for making rounded corners

Shape tool: makes cool shapes. This is how you made a plane earlier

Push Pull: grab a face, and then push or pull it. This is also good for cutting out things

Offset tool: It is cool, mess around with it

Move tool: lets you move an individual face or a bunch of stuff at once. Hold alt to duplicate and move an object

Rotation tool: Same as move tool but for rotations

Scale tool: scales the size of your models

Step 4.

Now you want to re-export your model and overwrite your previous file that you exported to Unity.

THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT: you want to overwrite your previous file because it'll autoupdate in Unity allowing you to jump between the two programs, mess around, and see your changes reflected right away.

FPS/Drifter

Step 5.

You'll want to download and import Ben Esposito's Drifter plugin. Drifter is fantastic because it allows you to have a versatile first person control scheme that is much better than Unity's defaults. Get it here: Drifter
Double click on the Unity package you downloaded, then click import on the pop-up in unity (make sure everything has a checkmark)
In Unity: select your main camera in the hierarchy pane and delete it.
In the project pane find the First Person Drifter Controller, select the player object, and drag it into your hierarchy.
If you try playing the game now, your character should be in the gameworld, but they will fall through any models because there are no collisions setup.
Select your game object called Mesh (the gameworld you're building in Sketchup) in the hierarchy. Depending on what you made in sketchup you might have a bunch of meshes. You'll want to select all the Meshes you have and add a Mesh Collider.
Now press play and walk around your world! It'll be super dark because we haven't put any lights in the scene yet.
Add a light by clicking "create" in the Hierarchy pane and choose Directional Light. Things should be a bit more visible now. We'll return to lighting later.
Select your player component in the Hierarchy and check out what values you can mess around with.
Now that you can run around in your level, you might want to jump back to Sketchup and make changes and start building your world.

Mess around with Drifter's defaults to make different feeling movements

Maybe try colouring your world in Sketchup [this video has a lot of flailing around]

Lighting (or how to make it look cool)

First start off by watch a few minutes of this video

Step 6.

A quick overview on lights in Unity
Directional Lights: These simulate the sun, and light everything from a given direction regardless of walls and stuff.
Spotlights: A cone of light that works like a spotlight
Point Lights: A point of light that starts from the center and emits outwards. Good for indoor lighting like lamps or torches
Mess around with the direction and orientation of the directional light.
You want to mess around with these lights and make them look good. For example, changing the default colours on the lights.

Step 7.

Select the Main Camera (which is contained under the Player your Hierarchy) and change the background colour to something cool. This will change the ugly grey colour that's defaulted for the sky.
Go to Edit > Render Settings in Unity and turn on fog. Set its color to something and then add some density.
Change the ambient light to something different and tweak its intensity