Build It
Build It lets you create your own miniature worlds. Using four primitives and sky, ground and water editors, you can create interesting compound objects and even entire 3D worlds. Included in Build It are several interesting animation effects for bringing the world to life! Read the tutorial below to learn more on how to use Build It.
We are looking for feedback on how to improve Build It. It could become many different things, but we hope to add more physics and game capabilities to it, to allow you to build your own simple games. Give us your thoughts by emailing buildit@gallantrealm.com
Tutorial
Here is a tutorial to help you get more out of the app.
Main Menu
Upon launching Build It, you will see a list of previously created drawings and several buttons as shown below:
- New
- Creates a new drawing
- Open
- Reopens the selected drawing
- Delete
- Deletes the selected drawing
- Settings
- General app-wide settings.
Initial Builder Screen
After clicking New to create a new drawing or Open to reopen an existing drawing, you will see the initial builder screen.
For a new drawing it will appear as below:
On the left is a menu. Clicking on any of the menu items will reveal a submenu on the right.
- World
- Reveals a submenu to change qualities of the world.
- Add
- Reveals a submenu to add (and delete) shapes.
- Shape
- Reveals a submenu that allows resizing or "morphing" the shape in other ways.
- Position
- Reveals a submenu to move the selected object around.
- Surface
- Reveals submenu to allow you to change the texture and color of the surface of a shape.
- Animate
- Reveals a submenu to apply animations on to the selected shape.
Minus/Plus Buttons
Throughout the menus you'll find buttons like "- Move X +". These are minus/plus buttons and they work like two separate buttons. Click on the left side of the button to reduce the value. Click on the right side of the button to increase the value.
World Menu
The world menu launches three different editors for tailoring the sky, ground, and water around the Build It island, and the file functions
to save and import.
- Edit Sky
- Launches the sky editor. This editor will focus on the sky and provide functions to change the sky until the Done button is pressed.
- Edit Ground
- Launches the ground editor, a mini-terraformer. The editor will focus on the entire island from a bird-eye view. The functions in the editor allow for changing the level of the ground, to form mountains or lakes and rivers, or change the texture used for the ground.
- Edit Water
- Launches the water editor. This editor lets you change the texture and color of the water, including turning it to "Full Bright" which makes it glow (for lava effects)!
- Import
- Displays a list of all the drawings you've created. You can select a drawing and its objects will be added (copied) into the current drawing. Import can be used to build more complex drawing from simpler drawings.
- Save
- Saves the drawing, allowing you to name it. (Suggestion: Save it with a meaningful name as you'll quickly have many drawings!)
Add Menu
The add menu lets you choose from one of the four basic shapes to add to your drawing. The shape will be added either in the middle of the island or on top of whatever object is currently selected.
- Box
- Adds a box. By stretching and distorting boxes you can make walls, pyramids or spires.
- Sphere
- Adds a sphere, or ball. By carving and distorting, you can change spheres into eggs, bowls, domes.
- Cylinder
- Adds a cylinder. This can be turned into a pipe by hollowing or a cone by tapering.
- Torus
- Adds a torus. This looks like an inner tube or doughnut. It can be hollowed and cut to form a pipe elbow.
- Delete
- Deletes the selected object.
Shape Menu
The shape menu changes the size of a shape, but also allows the shape to be hollowed, sliced, tapered and twisted.
- Size
- Changes the size of the selected shape.
- Carve
- Hollows or slices a piece from a shape.
- Distort
- Tapers or shears a shape.
Position Menu
The position menu moves and rotates a shape.
- - Move X +
- Moves the shape left or right.
- - Move Y +
- Moves the shape forward or back.
- - Move Z +
- Moves the shape up or down.
- - Rotate +
- Rotates the shape clockwise or counter-clockwise.
- - Tilt +
- Tilts the shape.
Surface Menu
The surface menu changes the surface look of the selected shape.
- Color
- Changes the color of the selected shape.
- Texture
- Chooses a texture for the shape. Also allows the texture to be sized, stretched and oriented.
- - Transparency +
- Increases or decreases the transparency of the shape.
- Full Bright
- Removes all shading on the object, which makes it appear as if it were glowing.
Animate Menu
The animate menu puts an object in a repeating motion. This can be used for effects like spinning wheels and bouncing balls.
- Pause
- Stops/starts all animations. (This is very useful when trying to select an object already in animation.)
- Spin
- Spins the object in one of the three dimensions. (Or more than one for some interesting effects.)
- Bounce
- Bounce the object, selecting the height and speed of the bounce.
- Orbit
- Orbits the object in x, y or z dimensions. Orbiting an object makes it move in a circular motion as if it were an orbiting planet.