Unreal Engine training courses for professionals

As the only Unreal Engine Authorized Training Center in the UK, we have developed a range of short courses with content and materials approved by Epic Games, in order to help train professionals in using Unreal Engine for various industries. Training is delivered by our authorised and industry-experienced tutors.

Choose from these pre-developed courses to get your staff or artists upskilled in this high-demand software. We've recently trained professionals from companies across a range of industries including 3D architectural visualisation, film and TV, advertising, motion desigin, animation and games.

We recommend for anyone to take the Unreal Engine Fundamentals course before moving on to any more specialised courses, unless you are already familiar with the software.

Each course should run with a minimum of six students.

For enquiries about these courses, or if you are interested in a course that isn't currently listed, please get in touch with our Sales Team to discuss training options at sales@escapestudios.com or on +44 (0)203 918 4491.

Course information

Fundamentals of Unreal Engine

Perfect for a comprehensive tour of Unreal Engine right from the start.

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

Video games environment scene of a low tide harbour with algae, boats and cranes

Introduction to Blueprints

In this course, you will learn the basics of the Blueprint viewport and the functionality of Blueprints. In the second part of the course, 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

Real-time Rendering for Animation

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

Video games environment scene showing a fairy-tale looking tree house

Lighting in Unreal Engine

This course will include all you need to know to start lighting effectively in Unreal Engine. 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 real time)
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

Video games environment scene showing an active volcano crater

Introduction to Materials

The first session will introduce this course with a view of the project files and an explanation of the content that will be covered. The second 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 Unreal Engine's Material pipeline

First look at Unreal Engine's 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

Video games environment scene showing a fairy-tale looking landscape in hues of purple

Introduction to Niagara FX

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 tandom

Converting the effect from a looping system to a burst

Animating and triggering the burst system with Sequencer

Local vs global particles

Unreal Engine training courses for professionals

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