Unity: Getting Started Part 2 — The Unity layout and creating game objects and materials.
So you’ve downloaded and installed Unity, but how do you start creating those award-winning, critically acclaimed games?
Let’s start with a quick overview of the UI in Unity. This is the default layout you will be presented with after install. It’s made up of four main elements.
In the centre, you’ve got the Scene View which shows the 3D overview of the current scene; this is where you will build all the visual elements of your game. You also have the Game View which shows you how the game will look when it runs. You can change between them using the tabs.
To the left of this is the Hierarchy which shows you the elements in the current scene.
To the right is the Inspector. When a game object, script, material etc. is selected in the Hierarchy or Project panes, the Inspector will show all the attributes of the selected item, such as attached scripts, position in world space etc.
Finally is the Project and Console panes. The Project pane shows the folder and file structure of the entire project, not just the current scene. The Console is where any messages about the scene are displayed, including certain function outputs, warnings and errors. This is where to go to begin troubleshooting issues.
So let’s add a simple cube to the scene and change the colour.
To add a game object, like a cube, to the scene, right-click in the Hierarchy, then go to 3D Object > Cube. This will add a plain cube to the scene and it will display in the Scene View.
Now that we have our cube, we need to change it’s colour. We need to create a material, assign it to the cube then change the material’s colour.
In the Project pane, right-click and go to Create > Material. Note I have created a Materials folder. Good organisation is key!
Next we drag and drop the material from the Project pane to the cube in the Scene view. You can also drag it to the cube in the Hierarchy, or select the cube and drag the material to the Inspector.
Finally, with the material selected in the Project pane, we can alter the Albedo colour to change the colour of objects with that material assigned, in this case, the cube.
And that’s it! You’ve taken the first steps in Unity. In the next article I will show how to navigate in the 3D Scene View and how to manipulate objects.
