Unreal Engine - Live Online Training

If you would like to have a comprehensive tour of Unreal Engine right from the start, then this is the introductory course for you. 

• How to Install Unreal Engine
• The Epic Games Launcher
• Documentation and training resources
• Explore the Unreal Interface, windows and user environment
• Viewports
• Transformations, units and measurements in Unreal Engine
• Navigation and Basic Usage of the editors
• FBX Interoperability
• Mesh triangle counts
• Clean mesh construction
• Collisions
• LODs - Level of Detail
• LightMap Uvs
• Static vs Skeletal Meshes
• Naming Conventions

• Unreal Engine PBR workflo
• Textures guidelines
• MipMapping
• Texture Packing
• Material Editor
• Creation of basic Materials
• Applying Materials to Meshes
• Static vs RealTime Lighting
• LightMass
• Light Types
• Controlling light 
• Properties
• Light Mobility
• Lightmaps

In this course, you will learn the basics of the Blueprint viewport and the functionality of Blueprints. In the second part of the day you will have a more hands on approach to get comfortable with the Blueprint Viewport and functionality.

At the end of the day you will be given a task as preparation for the second day. This will be followed up on the next day with a Q&A about the task.

Learning what blueprints are - Theory

• How they are used
• Terminology
• Blueprint types
• Blueprint communication
• Inheritance

Navigating Blueprints

• When are events executed?
• Creating variables + what are they?
• Changing and exposing variables

Creating Blueprints

• Actor class
• Creating parents/child inheritance

Scene Interactions

• Box triggers
• Flow control - turning lights on/off
• Registering player input
• Debugging

Communicating between Blueprints

• Setting up a Blueprint interface
• Understanding the limitations of casting
• Sending information between blueprints

Creating a Door

• Using timelines
• Rotating an object

Driving mutliple blueprints with one

• Arrays
• Flow control - for each loop

Basic Artist Access

• Learn how to use the construction script 
• Flow control based on choices
• Changing static meshes and light types

In this course, you will learn the basics for working with Unreal Engine’s cinematic creation tool, Sequencer and how to produce an animated short.

• Sequencer Window Overview
• Navigating Sequencer
• Cinematic Viewports
• Working with Tracks
• Master Sequences (Edits and Fades)
• How Cameras Work
• Using Camera Rig Set-Ups (Rail Rig/Crane Rig)
• Shots and Takes
• Play Rate (“Time-Warping”)
• Animation Curves and Transitions

• Basic Animation Importing/Exporting
• Skeletal Animation vs Geometry Cache
• Rendering Out Cinematics
• Blending Animations and Properties
• Post Processing for ‘Film Look’ Colour Grade in Engine
• Creating Sequences with Dynamic Transforms
• Using Spawnable Objects
• Recording to Sequencer

This course will include all you need to know to start lighting effectively in Unreal. Day one will focus on the fundamentals, learning how to manipulate and shape your lighting to achieve a desired look or mood. Day two will be more advanced using a large scene with raytracing enabled to create a realistic/ cinematic environment.  

• Light Mobility (Static vs RealTime) 
• Lightmass (Lightmap control and baking)
• Lighting Types
• Controlling light properties
• HDR lighting and backdrop 
• Reflections
• IES Profiles
• Light Functions
• View modes and optimisation

• Sun positioning and sky
• Exposure control
• Fog and Volumetric lighting
• Lightmap settings in depth
• Raytracing
• Post processing effects

In this course - the first session will be introducing the short course with a view of the project files and an explanation of the content that will be covered. The 2nd session will look to finish off the scene with animated materials and a little interaction. We’ll take a look at some of the more advanced nodes to create our VFX materials.

Introduction to Unreals Material pipeline

First look at Unreals powerful material editor

• Shortcuts
• Navigation

Introduction to PBR texturing 

• Metal/Rough workflow
• General rules

Creating a Master material with exposed parameters

• Creating a tiling master material to begin texturing our scenes

Creating a Deffered decals material

• Build a decals material to add unique details and interest to our environment

Creating translucent materials

• Build a glass material for our screen
• View shader costs

Masking materials and blending together

• Using Lerp nodes and masks

Creating animated materials 

• Creating animated materials with panners
• Using emissive 

Creating dynamic materials which players can interact with through blueprints

• Quick view into blueprints and create a dynamic blueprint actor

Creating and using Material functions

In this class, you will learn the basics of the Niagara interface and file hierarchy as well as creating our first Sprite based particles. You will learn how to push our effect with Mesh and GPU particles, as well as Particle Lights. Finally we will touch on Sequencer to see how we can further animate our Particles. 

Niagra UI and Emitter/System hierachy explained

• Breaking down the difference between Spawn and Update

Building our first Particle Material

• Using Particle Colour to control our sprites
• Covering the basic modules (Location, Velocity, Colour over Life etc.)

Building our first Sprite based components

• Adding Randomness with Uniform Distributions 
• Adding Randomness with Flipbook Textures 

Adding Mesh Particles and GPU particles to the Effect

• Building the specific Materials required for Mesh and GPU
• Dynamic Parameters and Particle Random

Converting the Effect from a Looping system to a Burst 

Animating and Triggering the Burst system with Sequencer

Local vs Global particles