If you work (or want to work) in any industry that uses 3D assets, this book is for you. If you are an enthusiast, it's for you, too. You can follow everything in here, either on a PC or Mac. You can do it completely for free with the free version of SketchUp and free file converters. Best of all, the game engines you'll be using are also free. See the next chapter for more details about Unity 3D. As well as these obvious industries, web designers are catching on, too. There will be a large market for asset designers for Google Earth now that you can explore inside a building as well as outside it. The potential for replicating every store, museum, and park within Google Earth is immense, and so is the possibility for advertising revenue. Will Google shift their entire search engine into 3D web space? What if it does?
As you've already seen, there is enormous crossover between the two industries. In the future, there will be no difference between the 3D assets used in the film and the game spin-off. Gamers will walk around the same sets that were used in the film, simply because the film sets will be entirely digital assets. This also means that the bar for entry into the film industry is lowered significantly. If you are a skilful SketchUp asset creator, you will be able to create a set for a fraction of the cost of the real thing. This means as long as you can afford a couple of actors and a blue screen setup, you're well away to being an Indie Film Director. Okay, that's simplifying it too much. It may take a larger team than just you to create a full-length film, but there's no reason why you can't be a spoke in a bigger wheel, or even the hub itself.