3.1 Isometric Box

Hey, guys and welcome back to the Isometric Environment for Games course. In this video, we're going to go through how to translate our initial sketch from the previous video. To create some isometric assets for our final environment, starting with the box. So you'll see here that we've zoomed in quite a lot into our artboard, so that we can see our guidelines clearly and we'll start with using the left by creating the left side of the box first using the pen tool and a suitable color. So let's start by going along the side of our guidelines, making sure that you're following the guidelines as close as possible. Using the pen tool is a little bit like joining the dots, so you just click on one corner and then click on another corner to join the dots. And you'll see as I'm doing this, I'm counting each segment along the way. This means that I can make sure that all of the other sides are the same length as the bottom one and on the other side. So for this particular example, you'll see here that we've counted six segments in length. So you can count the bottom or the size of each of the triangles here. So the next step from here is we're going to copy the shape, paste it and we're just going to slide this shape down one segment. And then I'm going to change it to a different color, which is great. So this is going to mark the top of our wooden segment. So we can send this copy and paste and put another one down here. Send to back. Right-click, Send to Back and you'll see here now that we've got one gray box for the top and one grey box for the bottom. So just gonna highlight all of them here, Ctrl+G or Cmd+G to group. And we're gonna do the same thing for the other side, as well. So for just to create a sense of depth here, I'm just going to select a darker shade of brown for this side of the structure. So the light, in this particular case is coming from our left. So just joining the dots like so and repeating the same steps as before. Just copy, paste and then what I do here is I hold Shift and then while holding Shift, I drag the shape up. This ensures that the shape that I'm dragging stays within the vertical or the horizontal plane. Meaning, that it's a lot easier to place on the same line using the guidelines. So the same thing again, this time a darker shade of grey, you can see here. Right-click > Arrange > Send to Back and you'll see here that we've created an isometric wooden pole with a sort of metallic bottom and top cubes. Just gonna highlight them all, Ctrl+G to group them and then Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V to copy and paste. Now you see here that I'm placing this next pole. Hopefully, in the same plane using the guidelines you'll see here and also if you want to be really accurate. Make sure that you count the segments at the bottom as well, so they are the same length as the poles you've just created and then copying and pasting again, the other two poles using the guidelines to make sure that they're in the same line like so and you'll start to see that our cube is starting to come into shape. We've got four wooden poles here. Each of these poles are the same length and the distance between each of these poles are also the same length. So say, for example, these poles are six, seven, eight squares or triangles apart. So we want to do the same thing. Now just Joining these poles up using the pen tool, selecting the right color. And the same thing at the top. Like so. So here now we're creating the top part of our and the bottom, the sort of horizontal plans of our pole, of our wooden pole structures here. So just zooming in here to check that everything, flies in the correct shape. Same thing again, copying and pasting it on and then selecting the white metallic or grey color. Arrange > Send to Back and the same thing again in the same color. So I'm selecting the same color by using the black selection tool, clicking on the gray shape here. Copying and pasting and using the guidelines to put it in the right place like so and then I'm just gonna use this brown. Shape > Bring to Front and you'll see that now, we've created a top frame for our isometric box. So using this shape, you are just going to select all the shapes here, group them up, copy and paste and then drag it over to the other side. Again, zooming in all the way to see our guidelines and to make sure that they'll all fit in like so. It's just zooming in even more here. Making sure it's as accurate as possible and then once you're happy, you can zoom right out again and what we'll do is we'll do the same thing for the bottom as well. So copy and let's copy this one, copy both of them. And we're going to paste and just dragging down, send it to back our two wooden frames. So zooming right in using the guidelines and now you'll see that we've got two identical isometric frames. So now to complete this box, we'll want to, well, first of all, let's change these elements here. It's just playing around with what sort of arrangement these shapes should be. Now, I want these shapes to be at the front. So, I may have to ungroup these shapes here. So using the black selection tool or the white selection tool to isolate these groups, Arrange > Ungroup. So now I can select these shapes. So once you can select these individual shapes, you just want to. Play about with the arrangement. So I'm just gonna take away this grey shape here, it's not needed. Arrange > Send to Back. All right and there we have it. So from there, now we've got our two frames. We'll want to connect the frames up with the other side. So using the pen tool again, just joining the dots on one end to the other. Now you'll see here that I've selected a much darker brown here to sort of signify that the lighting of the box And now, the top of the bottom frame here. Again, using the guidelines to make sure everything is in line and everything is the right length. So, I just need to send this to the front. And then the same techniques again, just selecting these shapes. Copy or group first and then paste, Ctrl+V or Cmd+V, just moving it up to the right area. And then setting both shapes. Cmd+C or Ctrl-C and then Ctrl+V and then just moving it along joining it up, again using the guidelines. So as we zoom out here, we're going to see that some parts of the frame seem to be in front. It just looks a little bit odd. So we're just gonna play about with the arrangement of some of these elements, like this one and then just sending it to the back to make sure that the perspective is correct. Just moving, it's just a matter of selecting the certain shapes. Moving some shapes to the front and moving some shapes to the back. That looks correct to me. Now just looking at the box here, we're going to want to fill in the actual size of the box. Now otherwise, we'll have a box, which is full of holes. So I'm just following the corners here, which is gonna create the top. So, I just fill in one triangle here. Copy, Cmd+C and then Cmd+V to paste. I'm just going to flip it around. Fill in the other side of the box and then just choosing a different color just to signify that there's something inside this box, like so. There you have it. Now we're going to want to do the same thing with the left and the right side of the box. So again, selecting our pen tool, we're going to create a box shape. Just joining the dots again. And now the trick here is I'm going to move this box slightly inward, just to create some sense of depth to our box. So using the black selection tool, just command colon to see our guidelines. Just gonna move it slightly inward, making sure that the space on the vertical plane and the horizontal plane here are approximately the same length away. So like so and then I'm going to make sure that it's in the right visual plane. So again, selecting this front element here, let's bring it forward. And then the top element here, bring it forwards and then you'll have our right side of the box here. So now we're just going to copy. Reflect this one and then bring it to the other side. Now we're going to want it to do exactly the same thing. Making sure zooming right in here, making sure that it's in the correct plane. And now bring the correct elements to the front, so that means the top here. Arrange > Bring to Front and now the front here. And we're just gonna change the color of this one to a lighter color to represent the lighting. It's a bit too bright, we wanna have at least some sort of contrast and there we have it. An isometric prop that we can use for our isometric environment. In the next video, we'll go through how to create a signpost. A signpost prop using the same techniques as we did to create the isometric props. See you guys there.