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Has anyone tried using unity for making comics? What's your experience?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by neginfinity, Jan 21, 2021.

  1. neginfinity

    neginfinity

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    What title says.

    For example, blender 3d lacks concept of "character" and "prefab" altogether and only has "scene object". That can make setting up something like comic book scenes complex, especially if there are plenty of them.
     
  2. Ryiah

    Ryiah

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    neginfinity likes this.
  3. neginfinity

    neginfinity

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    Interesting.

    What I had in mind was using 3d figures and backgrounds for rendering panels. This asset seems to be aimed at 2d but at the same time uses some things I haven't thought of (like panel layouts in inspector. Makes sense if you think about it, but I haven't thought about it).

    It reminds me of an experimental VR comic experience I saw on SideQuest.
     
    BrandyStarbrite likes this.
  4. xVergilx

    xVergilx

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    3D Comics in this case are pretty much visual novels.
    Other than multiple frames per page, which can be rendered separately e.g. via render textures there shouldn't be much of a trouble implementing them.
     
  5. DimitriX89

    DimitriX89

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    I think that game engine will only benefit a minimalistic project, something like Garfield. If the comic needs large cast of characters, or great variety of environments, then the need of import-export and asset setup will constantly get in the way. Just a speculation though. Havent tried.
    P.S Blender Collections should be good enough solution for prefabs or characters
     
  6. superpig

    superpig

    Drink more water! Unity Technologies

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    It's Source rather than Unity, but are you thinking of a result kinda like Concerned?
     
  7. neginfinity

    neginfinity

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    Pretty much.

    Basically, models in specific style posed in unity and shot from multiple angles. The reason for that is that, like I said, blender doesn't exactly have a concept of a "character" or a "prefab" which can be inconvenient.
     
  8. BIGTIMEMASTER

    BIGTIMEMASTER

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    I am making visual novels at the moment.

    I use Marmoset Toolbag for rendering because its fast, simple, and makes nice quality images/videos.

    I use renpy for composing/packaging the work.

    the characters and sets are animated in maya.

    screenplay is written in scrivener and brainstorming is done in scapple.

    I considered doing the composing/packaging with unity but i couldn't point to any benefits unity offers if its just a straight up visual novel. It there was much interactivity or complex branching story then I think unity becomes a more appropriate tool.

    As mentioned, the import/export between programs can be a chore. It would make more sense for me to render in maya, but the ease of use and speed of renders gained through realtime renderer makes up for the added difficulties of using external renderer. Every project will be different, of course.
     
    Last edited: Jan 21, 2021
  9. steego

    steego

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    What it does have is collections and scenes, and in the latest versions a much improved library function. I think what you're after could be achieved with having some library files and linking from them. It works like prefabs, only difference is that they live in a separate file. There's also linked duplicates if you want it in the same scene and it's not overly complex.
     
    Martin_H likes this.
  10. neginfinity

    neginfinity

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    I know, however collections are pretty much "named layers" which is not the same thing as a prefab.

    Linked duplicates get cumbersome to work with when the model, for example, has multiple modifiers on it, because while model data gets linked, modifier settings do not.

    Regarding libraries, I'd need to check this part out, but I recall that working with armatures was fairly awkward.
     
  11. steego

    steego

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    This is one of the things that have been improved in the latest versions