Preparing your assets for The Sandbox
A cool guideline to create amazing assets for The Sandbox metaverse
With thousands of downloads of our free voxel editing and animating software, VoxEdit, a very active community of creators and artists that create amazing assets has formed for our upcoming gaming platform, The Sandbox. This article gives some specifications for asset creations in The Sandbox that should be followed to create a UGC compatible with every game.
If you haven’t already, you can download VoxEdit here: https://www.voxedit.io/download.html
And if you are an artist interested in working with us creating voxel assets, don’t miss the opportunity to join our Creator Fund.
Step 1: Creating your asset
The VoxEdit welcome page appears when you start the program, allowing you to select the function that you want. Currently, you can choose from the rigging and modeling sections. To create a new model, or export an existing one created on other software, you need to go to the modeler.
We have a playlist of tutorial videos that will provide you a walkthrough of VoxEdit and give you a clear idea on how to begin creating in our software.
Check it out here: http://bit.ly/2H3des0
Step 2: Separating your asset into pieces
Once you have created or imported your voxel assets, it’s time to separate it into different pieces. This essential step is needed due to how The Sandbox game will interact with the assets. If an asset, in this example an arch, is not rigged and is just an entire piece, it will have collision as a full asset, restraining anything, including characters, from being able to pass through the middle of the arch.
To prevent this from happening and to create assets that can work in any experience, you can follow these steps below.
Creating a rig file
On the welcome screen of VoxEdit, you’ll need to select the rigger to create a new rig file, in which you will be able to separate your asset in different parts to be rigged later within the rigger library.
Duplicate your asset
Again using our example of an arch, as a whole model, you’ll need to go to the rigger’s library and select the button to duplicate your model. Once you have enough copies of your models equal to the desired quantity of parts that you need you models to be, you can now move to the final part.
Check out our tutorial on this matter here.
Step 3: Rigging
Once you have all the separated pieces of your model you can now create a new skeleton on the rigger and assign each bone to a model part. Once everything is aligned correctly, you can export it to the Sandbox Marketplace.
Step 4: Exporting your asset
Once your asset is complete and fully rigged you will be able to export it to The Sandbox marketplace to convert it to a non-fungible token (NFT) — and if you choose to, you can share it via our marketplace as a virtual asset on the blockchain.
Exporting
Although this feature is not yet public, once we release our marketplace you will be able to do share it to the marketplace by accessing the top bar of the rigger and then selecting File option >Export > Export to Marketplace
Selecting a thumbnail
After this you will encounter a window displaying various thumbnails of your model so you can select the one that looks best.
Marketplace
Once directed to the marketplace, remember that you’ll need to be logged in order to export your creation. After this, you will encounter the export section in which you’ll be able to select a biome, category, description, and title for your asset.
Your assets will remain on your profile whether published or not in the shop. You can change this status later if you want.
By following these steps you will create assets that can be used in any game experience in The Sandbox metaverse. If you also want to give your assets animations, you can check out our animation tutorial here.
If you want to know more about The Sandbox gaming platform and VoxEdit join our Discord Channel to keep up with the latest news!
