These activities are sequenced to help you learn the core functionalities of VoxEdit, and will help you learn some workflows to make great Assets!
Once you've learned the basics, see other helpful Resources to create your own projects.
1. 🎨 Paint a Block to Learn Camera & Tools
This is an EASY activity anyone can do, which will teach you how to paint in VoxEdit. We'll show you how to build shape in the next activity. Use the tabs above to follow the steps.
Start
Open VoxEdit, then create a new project in the Block Editor.
Practice basic VoxEdit camera controls in the Viewport:
Pan Camera: Alt + Right-click
Rotate Camera: Alt + Left-click
Zoom in/out: Mouse wheel up/down
Learn
View Block Editor Basics in the video tab of this activity for a quick introduction.
Open Block Editor documentation so you can look up any menus and tools if needed. You can also hover your mouse over buttons for tool tips in VoxEdit.
Essential: The scale of a block is 32 voxels in every dimension, which translates to 1 metre in the real world.
Use tools from the Block Editor Tools Menu to edit your block. Move the block with the camera controls as you edit.
The Block Editor only allows tools to work in paint mode. After you've learned the basic tools and camera controls in this activity, you will learn to use the other modes in combination with these tools.
Often, you will need to undo/redo your actions as you create in VoxEdit. Practice using these controls, which are also available in the Edit menu.
Undo (up to 10 operations): Ctrl+Z (Cmd+Z macOS)
Redo (up to 10 operations): Ctrl+Y (Cmd+Y macOS)
Practice using the Block Sides Panel to rotate and flip the faces of your block. Drag and drop a face in the panel onto another to reuse it.
Extra: If you have a small square image file with a small amount of colours, select a block face and try to import the image. Your palette will add the image's colours.
Practice using the Rotate, Flip, and Mirror tools in the Top Bar to make changes to the whole block.
Finish
Follow instructions in Upload Assets to Workspaces to put your block in your account inventory for use. Now you can test it in Game Maker.
Creating with the Block Editor is as simple as selecting a colour from the customisable Colour Palette, choosing a Tool as your paint brush and left clicking anywhere on the block in the Viewport to apply colour.
You can use the Block Sides Panel to copy, flip, and rotate block faces and use flip and mirror tools on the Top Bar to speed up the process of creating your design. VoxEdit's Block Editor and Modeler also include edges modes to make it easier to create patterns.
This is an EASY activityanyone can do, and it builds on what you learned about colour and painting in Activity 1. Once you know how to use the Modeler in this Activity, you'll be ready to modify models in an Animated Template in Activity 3.
To select, create, paint, and erase voxels, choose a Mode. Then choose a Tool as your brush type and left click anywhere within the volume in the Viewport. View examples of Mode and Tool Combinations to see how it works!
Top Bar Buttons allow you to define and trim the volume, flip, mirror, and rotate your model. VoxEdit's Block Editor and Modeler also include edges modes to make it easier to create patterns and precise details.
Models can be Assets on their own or be part of a rig in the Animator. In this way, you can reuse Models for multiple projects.
This is an EASY activity that requires knowledge of the Modeler since you'll go back and forth between that module and the Animator to customise an Animated Template. It's easier than you think, and the customisation options are endless once you learn the basics.
Get Started
Open VoxEdit
Open the Templates tab and choose any template to explore and edit.
Find your animated entity in the Game Maker Library (search by name)
Place your entity in the game world
Add the "Animated Decoration" behavior and choose the animation you want to test
Press TAB to test in play mode and see the selected animation show
Test as many times as you like (or duplicate the object you placed and set different animations to see them display all at once)
So much is possible with templates since you can change color, shape, and even the pivot point of each model included.
You can even unlock templates to add nodes and motion keyframes, but we recommend learning to build a rig in the next activity and learning to add keyframes in the next two activities before modifying a template.
4. 🧩 Build a Rig in the Animator
This is a MEDIUM difficulty activity to build your first rig by positioning multiple models together. A rig can be still or animated and can have a simple to very complex structure.
In this activity you'll learn a lot about the spatial relationships of the models in your compound entity and commonly used workflows to build a skeleton from scratch.
Get Started
Open VoxEdit
Select the Animator module in the menu on the left
Select voxels and use "Save Selected Voxels" in the Edit menu to create new models
Repeat this until you have all of the pieces you want to assemble
Where you had symmetry in your "sketch" model, only save one new model
Decide which model makes sense to be linked to a parent node for this build (when it moves, all child nodes move with it)
Link (drag and drop) it to an empty node
Drag and drop a node into another to make it a child, position it:
Link another model you saved to an empty node, drag and drop the node onto the parent node, and move and rotate it into position to match your "sketch"
Test and observe the parent/child relationship:
Move and rotate the parent node to see both models move, undo
Move and rotate the child node to see that only it moves, undo
Save time where there's symmetry:
Link the same model to empty child nodes of your parent node and position them
Test and observe modifying the model linked to more than one node:
Open the model and edit the color in the Modeler, save and view it in the Animator
Observe how every instance of the model linked changes
Clone the model and paint it differently, then drag and drop it in one of the nodes to link it and see how you can quickly create varied looks in your creations
Feel free to swap back to reuse the same model or edit colors as you lik
Assemble the rest of your design
Import a model you've already made into the Animator Library panel and link it to a node (drag and drop) and find a position for it in the design
If you don't like it, remove it from the library
Quality Check
View your creation from all angles for quality, making any adjustments needed
Find your model in the Game Maker Library (search by name)
Place your compound entity in the game world
Press TAB to test in play mode
Observe:
Every model in this compound entity has its own collision boundary because there are no animations, making it feel more realistic in the game
This activity empowers you to build a custom rig for anything you like: buildings the player can enter, spaceships with sleek angles, robots you'll animate later, and more!
5. 🎞️ Create Animations & Add Motion Keyframes
This is an ADVANCED activity that requires a pre-built rig so you can add motion keyframes to animations, which can be still poses or have movement.
While you can add motion to your rig before you're completely satisfied with how you've built it, you'll save a lot of time by deciding on the rig first. Pose your models in static animations to decide if you need to divide or combine models for the motion you'll add later.
Get Started
Open VoxEdit
Open your compound entity from Activity 4 to add motion to an animation (duplicate your project first if you want to keep your unanimated rig as a separate project)
Practice 1
Select a node you want to have motion and open the timeline at the bottom of the Animator
Position the playhead to where you want the first period of motion for that node to end (this is all based on time, where each tick mark is a frame and every 24 frames is one second)
In the Global Space, move the node to the position you want it to reach by that time
Press spacebar to test - NOTE: the position of the playhead is important to check each time you move a node, because it will create keyframes of motion
Modify the keyframe you made:
Drag the end to increase the time for the movement, press spacebar to test
Position the playhead at the end of the keyframe and move the node, press spacebar to test
Practice 2
Modify zoom area in the timeline to have more room to add more keyframes
Add a new motion keyframe to follow the first one:
Position the playhead in the empty space after the existing keyframe
Move the same node and test with spacebar to see how the two keyframes blend together to create motion
Add nuance to motion in the second keyframe with a quick adjustment of keyframe interpolation
Copy a keyframe and paste after the ones you created normally and then in reverse, test with spacebar and undo if you don't want to keep them
Complex movement:
Create a keyframe for a parent node and a keyframe for a child node, press spacebar to test this as a combination
Make adjustments and test the results a few times.
Move the playhead to the final frame of your animation and press the empty diamond button at the top of the node list in the timeline - this is a critical step to make your animation work properly
Test thoroughly with the spacebar
"Upload to my Workspace" - you've created an animated entity from scratch!
Test in Game Maker
Install and/or open Game Maker
Find your model in the Game Maker Library (search by name)
Place your animated entity in the game world
Press TAB to test in play mode
Observe:
Every model in this compound entity has its own collision boundary because there are no animations, making it feel more realistic in the game
Now you can animate any rig you can create, but keep in mind this creates a collision boundary around the whole entity. Your next step with VoxEdit is to learn how to name the animations for your entity to match up with the behaviors in Game Maker so they activate properly during play. Learn more about Animation in The Sandbox to see how it works.
This is a MEDIUM difficulty activity to explore colour and texture to make more attractive voxel art with depth and apparent shape without adding voxel noise.
This hands-on activity will explore how to create higher quality art with 2D texture, which can help you optimise your assets.
This is an ADVANCED activity to explore essential 3D design methods including breaking down models to compose compound assets faster and creating clean angles and 3D structure for better performance in the game world.
This hands-on activity will cover common 3D techniques and best practices to construct more complex rigs or smooth curves.
