Working in Unity is hard. 3D modeling is involved, and it’s hard to be quick and nimble when you’re trying to do it (at least if you’re me). AAA-style textures are damn near impossible (and who wants to go down that road anyway). So how do you make a compelling looking 3D environment without superhero skills?

Join Daniel Lichtman in this workshop that introduces a range of “DIY” techniques in Unity to quickly make exciting, rich and layered 3D environments, no coding or specialized game-dev skills required. Lichtman will go through simple techniques for adding hand-drawn and flat, photo-based objects to your scene. He’ll demonstrate how to scan drawings and turn them into transparencies that, with a little (really only a little!) creativity, can fill your 3D space with fun, organic texture. He will also demonstrate how to take 360-degree photos with any phone, and use these as compelling, if often strange and disorienting skyboxes. Finally, he’ll show you how to fiddle with freely-available 3D models to turn them into mysterious, alluring objects to navigate in your scene.

No prior experience in Unity required to follow this workshop!

Lichtman is an artist, educator, organizer and programmer based in New York. He is currently working on a collaboratively-produced game that’s loosely based on caring for children during pandemic, and developing an exhibition on intersections between networked collaboration, distributed storytelling and digital community building.

*This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in Partnership with the City Council.