alexmasse
patreon
Dev Diary: How to Create a New Piece of Furniture from Scratch (and You Can Too!)
🕑 Added 2021-07-02 16:09:28 +0000 UTCHello everyone, it’s Léa!
I’m taking over for a brand new development diary! This week I’m going to tell you a little bit about how we create a piece of furniture or object that you can place into your home in Paralives. This post is for Patrons only so please don't share it, thank you! (EDIT: This post is now public)
I’m going to introduce you to the different steps needed for the leather straps chair that you can see in the Chalet video. This chair is one of the easiest objects you could integrate into the game, as it isn't resizable and hasn't any fancy properties.
If you’re a beginner in 3D and want to make custom content for the game, starting with an object like this could be a good way to learn how to use our mod system!
This is not really a tutorial since it will need to be quite longer than a Patreon post. When Paralives will be released and the mod system fully ready, we will create step by step tutorials for you, aspiring or experienced custom content creators!
Everything Starts with a Mood Board
So, a few months back, Alex gave us the green light to start working on the design of the Chalet, the tools were ready for us and we could now focus on what the Chalet would look like, what furniture Sonia and I were going to create for the game.
We started by creating a mood board, which is a set of visual references, that became our best friend for the next steps to come. I looked for cool ideas and made a collage of every piece of furniture that I thought would look good in the game. Having all this furniture lined up helped us choose and narrow down the choices that we had, it also gave the team an idea of the direction that we were taking.
If you are looking for an easy way to create mood boards, Sonia and I are using PureRef, a free software that is heavily used in the industry.
Sketching and Staging the Object
This step is important because we are working as a team. I started by doing a quick sketch of the design I had in mind for the room, so that we could have a starting point for our discussions. Then, we could choose together what to modify if needed. Here, our goal was to stage the object: put it in the room with the others to see if they go well together. We also used it to work on the color palette!
If you are designing several pieces of furniture to create a small collection, this step could be interesting for you: that way you can make sure that everything is assorted and in the same vibe!
The first sketch that I did wasn’t in the right “mountain” mood for the chalet, I went full 70’s. We decided that it wasn’t the look we wanted for the video and chose to have something more rustic, changing the objects, deleting those who were too fancy.
Making the Object in 3D
Ok, the design has been approved, and now it’s time to create the chair!
At the studio, the software we use for 3D modeling is Blender. It’s very convenient for us as it’s completely free, there’s an extended community and lots of resources online. If you want to learn 3D and become a modder, you could use Blender to create your objects for the game, just like we do! There are a lot of tutorials on Youtube.
I won’t go into details on how to build the chair in 3D, but I can explain why I chose to do what I did.
As you can see I didn’t sculpt every strap of the chair. Instead, I chose to have it inside the texture with some transparency, that way I’m keeping the object really simple.
The design of the chair is clean but needs to have personality, just like in the reference, so I added details and curved the legs, for example.
The next step is UV unwrapping: basically, we need to tell the future texture how to place itself nicely on the different points of the object.
Time to export the chair! Our system uses the .fbx format for our objects, which is a pretty standard format for 3D models.
Let’s Draw those Straps
This step is happening inside another software made specifically to draw textures on 3D objects: Substance Painter.
Substance Painter allows you to draw directly on the object, so I could choose where I wanted the straps to go, adding the shadows and lights. I kept it simple because the texture will be recolorable in the game!
Integrating the Object Inside the Game
Ok, this is it, we have our chair, the texture, and everything that we need for it. It’s time to put it in the game!
As you may already know, we are developing tools to allow future content creators to easily integrate new objects to the game. As developers, we are using these tools ourselves. That means custom content creators will have access to the same set of powerful and flexible tools and will be able to add objects to the game, just as a developer would do.
To be able to have the chair in the game and purchase it while playing and building a house, it needs to be converted into a prefab, which is what we call a ready-to-use game item in Unity. The prefab contains the model and texture we just created, but also extra settings to tie it all together and make it a playable object.
It’s here that the various elements of an object can be added: for the chair, we have the wood parts and the straps, both added as children of the empty root. On each part, it’s possible to add components with the texture needed and specify if it’s recolorable. For more complex objects, other components are available for various purposes: for resizability (IsResizable), scalability (IsScalable), if it’s an object on the wall (WallItem), or if it’s stackable (IsStackable) and many more.
These tools and menus are still a work in progress. Our goal is to make them as easy as possible to use for developers and custom content creators.
In the future you will be able to add components linked to the playability of the object: is it just a clutter item? Can you sit on it? This is where we’re going to specify these details once the Live Mode will be ready!
After this step, we can add the chair to the in-game furniture catalog, set its price, and we are ready to go.
The Chair is in Paralives!
And we are done! We can now purchase the chair in the catalog, place it in the Chalet and recolor it the way we want.
Some Objects are More Complex: the Case of Ceilings Objects
Ceiling objects are really fun and satisfying to play with. Since you can customize the wall height and add platforms, it makes sense to allow you to adjust the height of the objects placed on the ceiling!
To do that, we are using the resize feature created by Jérémie (still a work in progress) that we use on every object that needs to be extended (like the dining table, or the bed).
The first step takes place in Blender, where we need to add loops at the area that we want to stretch. A loop is a line that goes perfectly around the object, either vertical or horizontal. We will then go back in the game and tell where the loops are for it to be able to find the area and stretch it in the direction that we want. At the moment this step is quite hard to do, Jérémie helped us a lot with it for the video. We are working on improving the system so that it will be easy and intuitive for the modders.
Just like we did for the chair, we are integrating the object in the prefab editor and we will specify that this item is resizable by adding the corresponding components. We also added the CeilingItem component to it so that it can be placed on the ceiling instead of on the ground, like the chair.
Once we add it to the catalog, we're ready to go!
This system is used on various ceiling objects and can be used to create cool compositions like the ceiling lamps in the kitchen.
That’s all for me! I hope you had a good time reading this development diary. Do you want to know more about it? Tell us in the comment section!
I hope it will inspire some of you to create amazing custom content for the game!
Have a lovely weekend!
Take care,
Léa U・ᴥ・U
EDIT: This post is now public
Comments
JC
This makes me think that there should be a healthy number of items and furniture locked. So that you either have to make them yourself, have someone make them varieties stuff aka commission them, buy them from garden or market sales or find them in charity or vintage shops etc. So that everything isn’t just available. Maybe even some limited things like a painting where’s theirs only one in the whole game o
Lis
First of all: your illustrations are effin cute. Second: you guys are the BEST! I love that you're being open and supportive to the modding community! Thank you 💚 Is there a plan to share some of the simple 3D Blender objects for reference? Knowing me, I'd make something way off scale every time
NightingaleSims
Oh my God! I've been waiting for this moment all this time! It's my favorite part! can't wait to create sooooo many content for paralives! One question: are you going to offer some kind of tutorial/step by step so that we have a right path to follow? I'm not talking about education as a 3d designer but what is the correct step to make our content work in the game? from clothes to objects/decor... thank you so much in advanceeee! I already said how excited I am about this news????????? loveeeeeee ^^
Kliekie
OH GOD YES! I love how you guys made the import system, I'm gonna make so much stuff! 😍 I have a question tho, you're talking about adding the elements 'wood parts' and the 'straps', does this mean those are 2 separate fbx files? So also 2 separate textures? Asking so I can make some stuff ahead 😅
Lisa Graasten
Looks amazing. I might even try out modding, once the game releases.
Madam_Hyjinks
This level of detail into the development process is why I joined on Patreon. Seriously, this is fascinating, and it really shows how dedicated you are to making a GOOD product from customer input. I couldn't be happier to support you guys. Keep up all the great work!
Brandi Werthner
I love this 🤩🤩🤩 The whole team is simply amazing! I seriously couldn’t be happier to support Paralives 🖤🙏🏼
Enes
Love you guys
Jack Springs
That lady staring into the window is creepin me out lol
Hailey Szabo
You guys are really going above and beyond… just wow. Thank you so much for everything!
Léa (Paralives 3D Artist)
We want you to be able to add animations so you will most likely have access to our rig! :)
Léa (Paralives 3D Artist)
Can't wait to see what you will create!! <3
Léa (Paralives 3D Artist)
Can't wait to see what you will create for the game!
Léa (Paralives 3D Artist)
it was very important for us since we really wanted for you to be able to step in and use the same softwares!
Léa (Paralives 3D Artist)
My drawing tablet is the XP-Pen Innovator 16, overall it's always a lot easier to use a drawing tablet for sculpting or painting in 3D. Huion and XP-Pen are good alternatives to Wacom if you are looking for an inexpensive model!
Léa (Paralives 3D Artist)
there is a discount on the Steam version right now, you can have it for -34%, 84€ here, it's a one-time purchase. It's possible that it will be a subscription in the future though if you don't want to commit right now. If you want to test texturing you can still try it on Blender, they have similar features and are keep improving them!
PixelPerfect
This was interesting/cool ! It’s so impressive the amount of detail you are considering and putting into this 👍🏼
Estelle
it's a beautiful chair! I like the furniture and interior stuff from what we've seen so far in the game. You are doing a great job!
Dizzardy
On that note I'm really excited for modding in Paralives, in the last year or so I've been getting into modding for other games, but this will be the first game I can try using my 3D skills with.
Dizzardy
I was wondering, when the game releases will you release simple charlie? (or the charlie model/rig itself), for trying to make custom animations?)
Debra
You made this all sound so easy. I will enjoy reading more about how you make objects and how players will be able to do the same if they so desire! Can't wait to try these tools for the game.
Vicarious Human
Thank you so much Léa for the development diary. It makes learning fun for myself and as always they are very inspiring. The cartoon representations of the team makes it feel personable and warms my heart. I really really enjoy that part of it!
David Guth
Your team understanding that players will absolutely want to add custom content and creating the environment and tools to do that from the start will really make this game amazing. Excellent work guys!!!
Zuzakiin
All the yes. Doing a proper editor from the start will save so much time otherwise wasted swearing at obtuse clunky interfaces, 3rd party tools, duct taped hacks, encyrptio, decryption, derpy error log interpretation, and stuff. For the developers, modders, and tinkerers. Blender, Gimp, and this. so much machima potential. Especially if expanded to sound, animations, and interactions add-able, changable, link-able as nice as this is described. Stuff like this is what keeps Paralives being pruned dispite total amounting more than a AAA game over the last year or so. Y'all keep being awesome.
Annamaris
Beautiful, just beautiful! You certainly "brainwashed" me to desire practicing 3D modeling for the game. :'D Like said in the previous comments, it warms my heart also to see you've coded the game to function with the free 3D programme. I assume it means there will not to be plug-ins and other functions and stuff which are likely to get outdated if the modder community don't actively keep up with the game's updates. Very thoughtful! I can't wait to see what kind of CC we will get - and what other kind of modding tools there will be included! ♡ When it comes to the CC, I'd like to make a petition: please consider writing a clear terms of use and policy. Sorry for not knowing about Steam's policy but in the other life simulation community, issues have become a big and juxtapositing mess. There are some people who monetize by meshes not created by themselves by putting them behind the paywalls. If somebody attempts to raise awareness about its illegality, they may get horribly harrassed and even threatened by some of these creators and their supporters. That's why, I really hope you will emphasize what you see allowed to do and what not; what is your optinion about paywalls, early accesses and so on. After all, it's your game made with love and passion. Please, don't let the greed to spoil the community around it.
S&M Gonzalez
Same here! I can’t wait to make cc again
NaJa Jackson
The detail, the transparency, the explanations -- I want to cry. Even as someone who merely enjoys the work of content creators and doesn't make it, this is not only informational but comforting. To know that you all care about providing us not just the "what" but the "why" and the "how" -- you exemplify true community and communication. Thank you. Simply, thank you.
Lane Brettschneider
I do not plan to ever learn these things or make custom content, but I love reading about it!! So many things I never knew! :D It's great to understand what goes into everything that you create for the game.
Alex Massé
We just use Photoshop where we do a mix of drawing our own sketches and pasting some pictures that we found :)
Alex Massé
Léa uses a drawing tablet that has a screen (it's much like using an iPad with a pen but on the computer)
Alex Massé
Blender as some features that allow you to paint on a 3D model. It might not be as advanced as Substance Painter but it might do the trick
Alex Massé
Hi there! Yes, chairs will have to snap to tables so Paras can sit at a table. That's still to be done but we'd like to allow for a position and rotation offset as well, without breaking interactivity About pillows, we're thinking of temporarily hiding them if a Para wants to sit there but we're still looking into that
Alex Massé
I think it's around 150-200$ (one time purchase)
Alex Massé
Thank you for the kind words and support! We're starting to work on the live mode and we're looking forward to start showing it when it's ready!
John Bergstrom
Holy cow, I can't wait to play this game. It's gonna be so fun modding it.. When do we see some gameplay, (para's interacting w each other/living life?) I'm ready to move on from that other game.. seriously... Also, I've been proud to donate $5/month for just over a year now!
Thanks for sharing your making-of insights with us, I’m a huge fan of them. Already looking forward to creating some custom content for the game. <3
NF
A pleasure to read and I loved the little drawings, haha. It really made me want to trying modding/asset creation!
Elizabeth Gonzales
I love that you can resize ceiling items! Thank you for this!
Deborah Aittokallio
Now this is cool
tey711
Thank you for the wonderful indepth summary of your creative abilities and the tools which help to make in-game CC possible. I'm excited to learn from the 'how-to' videos you guys will be providing to us! I'm looking forward to creating some design ideas of my own to add in my Paraworld! I'm excited and grateful for all the Paralives team is sharing and doing for us players to make this video game a true adventure of learning, creating, and playing!!
Makayla Boyko
Obviously the team will have way more details about the system, but from what I remember about the chalet video, Alex did mention something about still needing to implement the controls where the chairs just snap into place with the table, like in the sims 4. I agree that it would be very cool to be able to offset the chair for aesthetic purposes, but the paras can reposition it in order to use it properly. Or even if there not enough chair at the table, the paras through path finding can seek out extra chairs to set up at the table or even remove chairs if there’s too many.
Sean McDorman
“Children of the empty root” - petition to make this an in-game fantasy series like Game of Thrones that the Paras watch on TV. 😏
Aleksandra Gołębiewska
I love this! Cannot wait to try my skills in said program. Last time I created cc-it was done for the sims 1(long time ago, I know). Paralives makes me want to create custom content yet again:3...
Sarah
I LOVE these insights into how you guys are making the game!!
Megan Santucci
ahhhhhhhhhhh I love it 😍 I think dev diaries are my favorite Patreon posts!
hjs_wells
Love it! Thank you Léa!
Zedef
This is so interesting! I have absolutely no experience creating/remodeling objects but this post makes me want to try my hand at it after the release of Paralives. Love that you're trying to make it as simply as possible for future modders, even if that means extra (re)work for you. Also, love all the cute drawings of Léa interacting with the images/screenshots!
Maxayn Henderson
Thanks for the walk-through!!! This makes me want to learn how to do this. I look forward to becoming new creator. I'm floored. Lol
Stermatical
That’s so cool! 🤩 I’m glad you’re using FREE and rather simple software like Blender for models rather than some complicated and expensive one
Sophie Goodman-Merel
Ooh! And paras should be able to refurbish pieces with success based on skills where you can change a cushion fabric or the wood color, etc. To clarify, I don't mean going into build mode and just changing it with the color wheel. I mean your para should have to refurbish it to change it after placing it and leaving build mode. Or you can sell it and buy a new one in the proper color.
Sophie Goodman-Merel
I just had a thought about in-game furniture stores. Having your own para running a furniture store would be really cool and maybe the game can have a system where you can zone part of the store as a "living room display" (or a "chair" zone or "bedroom" etc) and the game will generate a simple living room layout of various living room items and it can be different every time a para visits. Just an idea
Morgan Brilliant
Wish I could love this more than once! I love that you're including custom content creators from the beginning.
Sophie Goodman-Merel
So cool! For pricing, I hope it accurately reflects real life pricing so it will be easier to estimate how much a house I'm building will be worth. Like it should range from Ikea prices to weird expensive modern pieces that aren't even comfortable but look interesting and unique lol
Aaron J Levesque
Looks so cool and I’m excited to see what you guys put in the game for official items and pricing! Seeing how expensive it will be to make a little house vs a grab house for lots of paras! Also can’t wait to see how gameplay mixes in with this customizable furniture!
Laura Burchart
What did you use to do the sketches 👀 id love to be able to properly design rooms!
I JONES
I once tried using a 3D painting tool and it went all over the place! But that was with a mouse. Lea do you have special hardware to make the most of this type of tool like Substance Painter?
Kanchaross J.
I love a thorough breakdown as a 3D modeller myself. Glad to read all the thinking process that went behind the scenes. It isn't just about how to model 3D assets, but also need to consider how to implement this into the game!
Natalia
Props*
Natalia
Wow so much goes into this. Proos to you guys
Zahlea
This. Is. Amazing!! Thank you so much for writing this Léa ❤ It's such a good writeup as well - clear and easy to understand. It makes me want to start making objects for Paralives _now_ xD Thank you so much for the technical post, I love it when we get these insights behind the scenes. As always - you rock!! ❤
Vanessa
That is awesome! I've never modded anything in the sims but I'll certainly try it in paralives! Thanks for making it as intuitive as possible!
Birdie
Thank you for this look at the process! While I've made 3D furniture before in several programs, I've never used Substance Painter, as it's too expensive and requires an Adobe account. Are there any alternatives?
Till
I'm very curious about one thing... In the house building video I saw we can position for example chairs as we want. In Sims they have to snap on the table. Otherwise the Sims aren't able to use them. Is the system in paralives different from that (which would make it much cooler of course!) :) Another point... if we position pillows on couches. Can the parafolk sit on the couch despite the pillow or remove the pillow to sit on the couch? Btw great you're thinking about content creators so much! Love what you're doing! Everything is so well thought out! 🙂 When the game is ready EA should be afraid! 😉🙂 Greets from Germany!
sm duta
omg, i will enjoy it so much! 🤩 this is so, so cool! tnk u!
Kyle Marquardt
Love it very cool and nice designs.
Surely-Sims
Fantastic! The transparent texture for the chair is a great hack! Is substance still super expensive or is there a more accessible version now?
Sable Szczeklik-Silvius
This is crazy! I’m so excited. There’s gonna be so much more freedom in this game!
Phil M
Really interesting. Looks like modders are going to have fun 🤩
teeth.keeper
That's so interesting, thank you for sharing :D
