Add furniture to the kid’s room

Make a bouncy ball

Make a tower of prefab blocks

Adjust the lights, background, and camera angle

3D Essentials: More things to try

Mission 2 Quiz

Unity Essentials: 3D Essentials Quiz

Design a kid's bedroom with a bouncing ball and a tower of collapsing building blocks.

In this tutorial series, you'll explore Unity's capabilities by designing a kid's bedroom scene with dynamic elements like a bouncing ball and a tower of blocks. You'll learn new skills in 3D navigation, object customization, and using Unity's physics system. 

You’ll also create prefabs, adjust lighting, and capture your scene with a camera. 

This foundational knowledge is vital to creating any type of Unity project.

3D Essentials

Unity Essentials Pathway

Master the basics of Unity with the Unity Essentials Pathway. Perfect for beginners, this free learning journey introduces game development, 3D content creation, and Unity's core tools. Start building today!

Unity Essentials Pathway - Learn Game Development for Beginners | Unity Learn

Unity Essentials is the perfect place to start for beginners to Unity. No previous experience is necessary.

New to Unity? This guided learning Pathway includes everything you need to get started.

Designed for anyone new to Unity, this guided learning journey is your first step toward creating confidently in the Unity Editor and bringing your visions to life. In this learning Pathway, you’ll design different rooms of a house, learning the essentials of one key skillset as you complete each room.

Unity Essentials

Unity Essentials: Install Unity

Open the Unity Essentials project

Explore the Editor Interface

Master 3D scene navigation

Pass the Scene view flying test

Design a mural in the Scene view

Editor Essentials: More things to try

Unity Essentials: Editor Essentials Quiz

Explore a playground scene and design a mural to get comfortable with the Unity interface.

This tutorial series introduces you to the essential skills of navigating the Unity Editor.


You'll learn to navigate 3D space in a playground scene, using Flythrough mode and tools like Move and Rotate to design a mural.


Once you master these skills, you’ll have the foundation required for confidently creating in Unity.

Editor Essentials

Create an immersive soundscape

Audio Essentials: More things to try

Unity Essentials: Audio Essentials Quiz

Add immersive sound to a kitchen scene with a variety of different types of audio.

In this Audio Mission, you will learn the fundamentals of implementing different types of audio into Unity scenes. You’ll learn how to set the tone with background music, how to add realism with sound effects, and even how to implement spatial audio in a 3D scene.

Audio Essentials

Add a movement script

Create a rotating collectible

Collect the collectible

Programming Essentials: More things to try

Unity Essentials: Programming Essentials Quiz

Add code so that a player character can explore a living room and gather collectibles. 

In this Mission, you’ll program a simple interactive experience where you control a character in a living room scene and move around to collect objects. 

You'll be able to choose from a variety of characters and collectible objects. In our example, we'll use a robot vacuum that maneuvers to pick up dirt around the room.

Programming Essentials

Set up a 2D room

Complete your 2D Puzzle Game

Add an animated pet

2D Essentials: More things to try

Unity Essentials: 2D Essentials Quiz

Create a top-down minigame similar to the 3D living room experience, but in 2D.

In this 2D Mission, you'll create a top-down 2D version of the interactive living room scene you created earlier. 

Just like in the 3D scene, you'll control a character, and try to collect all the objects in a room. By completing this scene, you'll learn how working in 2D is similar to working in 3D, but also how it’s different.

2D Essentials

Build your portfolio project

Publish to WebGL

Challenge: Add a bonus scene

Capture a video of your project

Share your project

Combine all of your scenes together into one cohesive portfolio project that you can share with others. 

It's time to collect all your good work together into a singular portfolio piece that you and others can play!

A portfolio, especially in the realm of real-time 3D (RT3D) and game development, is not just a collection of work, but a practical way of demonstrating your familiarity with essential tools and concepts. 

In this Mission, you will package all of your work from this Pathway into a single playable experience that you can easily share with others.


Publishing Essentials

164d5969-8eb2-46ff-92cc-d170bda94907:42941e57a50e

Overview

Adjust your camera

Align the camera with the perfect view

Adjust your lighting

Edit the skybox

Edit Playmode Tint

Review and proceed to next tutorial

Beginner Unity Cameras

ElizabethMidgley

2.6.6 - Edit Playmode Tint - VIDEO.mp4

2.4.5 - Edit the skybox - VIDEO.mp4

2.4.4 - Adjust your lighting - VIDEO.mp4

2.4.2 - Adjust your camera - VIDEO_U6_V2.mp4

2.4.3 - Align the camera with the perfect view - VIDEO_U6_V2.mp4

Edit the lighting, change the background, and position your camera for a perfect shot of your scene. 

Cameras

Camera component

Types of light

Using skyboxes

Preferences

Games

Film

Automotive

Set up a camera for a specified/predetermined point of view

Fill in background of the Main Camera view 

Capture the desired view of the Scene by controlling the position and rotation of the Main Camera

Control the field of view of the Main Camera by adjusting the frustum

Control the depth of view of the Main Camera by configuring the clipping planes

Set up an perspective camera view in a 3D Scene

Set up an orthographic camera view in a 3D Scene

Configure a Unity camera for a scene

In this tutorial, you will edit the sun, sky, and camera angle to get the perfect shot of the scene. 

When you’re ready to get started, go on to the next step.

Bedroom scene with a new skybox, also showing the Directional Light and Camera gizmo icons.

In Unity, the Camera GameObject is similar to a physical camera on a movie set, playing a critical role in how your scene is viewed. When you move the camera, you’ll end up with a different view of your scene in Play mode. Adjusting the camera's position, rotation, and field of view allows you to frame your scene just as a cinematographer would in filmmaking.

Let's try adjusting the camera angle and field of view.


1.  In the Hierarchy window, select the Camera GameObject. 

2.  In the toolbar overlay at the bottom of Scene view, enable the Cameras option to get a preview of what the camera can see. 

3.  Move and rotate the camera and notice how the camera preview changes. 

4.  In the Inspector window, in the Camera component, use the Field of View slider to change how zoomed in the camera is. 

Try and get a good view of the ball bouncing action, but don’t worry about getting the perfect angle yet — you’ll do that in the next step. 


It can be tricky to get the camera perfectly aligned using the Move and Rotate tools. There is a shortcut to get the camera angle you want by aligning the camera with your position and orientation in the Scene view.


1.  In the Scene view, use Flythrough mode (WASD + right-click) to get the perfect view of the bouncing ball and your block towers. 

2.  Select the Camera GameObject in the Hierarchy window.

3.  Press Ctrl+Shift+F (macOS: Cmd+Shift+F) to align the Camera GameObject with your current view. 

Note: With the Camera still selected, you could also go to the main menu and select GameObject > Align with View.

4.  Enter Play mode to test the new camera angle. 

If necessary, tweak the Position, Rotation, or Field of View property in the Camera component to get the perfect angle. 

5.  When you’re happy with your camera angle, disable the Cameras window overlay. 


Tip: Trying to do these minor movements in the Scene view with Flythrough mode can be frustrating. Try lightly tapping on the WASD keys while holding the right mouse button to do small movements. You can also use the Q and E keys in Flythrough mode to go up and down.

Lighting sets the mood and atmosphere of your scene. Unity's default Directional Light — which acts like the sun in the real world — simulates bright, midday sunlight. 

By rotating this light, you can simulate different times of day or specific lighting conditions.


1.  In the Hierarchy window, select the Directional Light GameObject then frame it in the Scene view. 

2.  Rotate the light to adjust the shadows and overall lighting. 

Note: Changes in position won’t affect the lighting due to its sun-like nature — it represents a light that’s located infinitely far away and emits light in only one direction. 

3.  In the Inspector window, in the Emission section, experiment with Color and Intensity to find the desired lighting effect for your scene​​. 

If you want more of a nighttime light, make the light more blue and decrease intensity. But feel free to keep the sun at a bright, midday angle if you want!

A skybox in Unity is a type of virtual backdrop that surrounds the entire scene, giving the illusion of a distant environment or sky around the environment you create.

The skybox contributes a lot to the overall feel of your scene. 


1.  In the Project window, navigate to _Unity Essentials > Materials > Skyboxes.

The skybox currently in your scene is SkyBrightCloudy.

2.  Browse the other skybox materials and preview them in the Preview panel at the bottom of the Inspector window. 

3.   Click and drag any skybox that interests you directly onto the sky in the Scene view to see how it looks behind the room until you find one that you like. 

Note:  Remember to save your scene often with Ctrl+S (macOS: Cmd+S).  

As you’ve heard a few times up to this point, when you’re in Play mode, none of the changes you make are saved. Make sure to pay attention when entering and exiting Play mode so that you don't lose your changes! 

By default, the Editor windows around the Game view become a tiny bit darker when you enter Play mode to help visually distinguish between Play mode and Edit mode — this is known as the Play mode tint. 

In this step, you’ll edit the Play mode tint to make it more noticeable so that you’ll always realize when you’re in Play mode and avoid losing unsaved changes.


1.  From the main menu, select Edit > Preferences (macOS: Unity > Settings). 

2.  In the left menu, select Colors, then change the Playmode tint color to have a subtle color instead of gray. 

3.  Enter Play mode to test the new tint. 

The color should be very noticeable, but still allow you to read text in the Editor windows.

4.  If the color needs further adjustment, return to the preferences menu and edit it. 

Congratulations on setting up the lighting, skybox, and camera so that you could get a perfect view of the block tower action.

Here are some of the things you learned how to do along the way:

Position the Main Camera in order to achieve the desired framing of the scene.

Align a camera's view to the Scene view with a keyboard shortcut.

Adjust the Directional Light to convey the time of day.

Edit the skybox to change the setting of the scene.

Adjust the Play mode tint to make it obvious when Play mode is running. 


Proceed to the next tutorial, which includes optional challenges to further develop your skills, explore new concepts, and improve your project. 

Adjust the lights, background, and camera angle

1. Overview

2. Adjust your camera

3. Align the camera with the perfect view

4. Adjust your lighting

5. Edit the skybox

6. Edit Playmode Tint

7. Review and proceed to next tutorial

Complete this tutorial