For a prototype we’re doing we wanted to have lots of smaller objects with smooth anti-aliased graphics.

Since the prototype consists of simple orthographic scenes with static camera angles we opted to go with pre-rendered sprites.

To generate such sprites we needed to render all of the model animations from separate angles. Doing this manually would be tedious work so we decided to automate it using Blenders Python bindings.

We used to have our own texture atlas generation tool but for this project we’ve been trying out TexturePacker. It’s been quite convenient and supports far more output formats than our tool did. Plus it features a command line interface which made it possible to integrate it into our script.

Our script is packaged as a Blender addon.

Requirements

• TexturePacker (with the command line tool), an excellent tool to create texture atlases, can be found here: http://www.codeandweb.com/texturepacker . Once installed, install the command line tool.
• Blender (version 2.66, earlier versions might work but is not tested) can be found here: http://www.blender.org/
• Blender Texture Atlas addon, can be found here: https://github.com/BinaryPeak/blender-texture-atlas

Installation

1. Open user preferences
   
2. Select Addon and click on Install from file… and select textureatlas.py
3. Make sure the checkbox at the right is checked.
   
4. Close preferences and go to Render tab, where you’ll find the Texture Atlas settings.

Usage

TextureAtlas can be found under the Render tab and is separated into three sections.

• Animation settings – Defines which frames should be rendered, the number of rotations around z axis and which object to render.
• Geometry – The size of the final texture atlas image.
• Output – Settings for output files and algorithm used to pack the images. If Store atlas in blender file is checked then the final atlas image and data will be packed into the blender file.

To generate texture atlas, press the Create Texture Atlas button. Once generated, the atlas image will show up in blenders image editor and the atlas data file will be in the text editor.

Not only is it tedious manual work to check for missing files, verify the dimensions of the existing files and check for typos in file names, it is also a major pain for the graphical designer to go through the incorrect files and correct the dimensions.

Manual labour + being a pain in the ass = Time to replace myself with a small script:

https://github.com/gregersson/2x_image_verifier

In a terminal – go to the folder where you store your applications png files and run the verifyimage.py script.

Quite challenging but a really fun project. We had to dive into an unknown codebase, re-architect it to support multiplayer and tie everything together in less than three weeks! But we managed to pull it off and the game is now prominently featured in the app store.

More details:

• App store link

We also wrote an integration layer towards the regions ArcGIS service that allows for an efficient overlay of GIS map data in the applications map view The application also features an augmented reality view where the user can view the points of interest in real-time 3D.

In addition, the application features google calendar integration, user feedback and geographical representations of wordpress content.

Featuring streaming music, web site integration and playlist features the core functionality of the application was implemented very quickly to a satisfied customer!

More details:

• App store link
• Website

• ..it’s quickly become my favorite way to play music on the iPad- Gizmodo
• Receiver of FWA Mobile of the day award

Collaboration project that we did with a partner company called Color Monkey. Old school record player for true lovers of music. It’s gotten a warm reception and has been featured in hundreds of app stores around the world (main page in several large countries, both as ”new and hot”, ”what’s hot” and ”staff favorites”).

• App store link
  
• Gizmodo review
• Website

• Promotion video
• App store link

In-house project. A fun and simple match-three puzzle game for the iOS platform, released in December 2010.

• App store link
• Trailer
• Website