Get started or build your skills in Epic Games' real-time 3D creation tool with these expert tips.
Epic Games' increasingly popular real-time 3D creation software can be overwhelming at first, but Unreal Engine 5 tutorials will help you get up to speed. The availability of learning resources is one of the reasons UE5 tops our guide to the best game development software, and we have published several UE5 tutorials of our own.
Unreal Engine 5 is known for its powerful to creating for creating realistic visuals for games, VFX, architecture, animation and 3D environments. Despite the learning curve, it's relatively accessible (not to mention free for most people). Read on for a selection of our tutorials or skip to the bottom for FAQs. If you need a more powerful device to work on to use all of Unreal's features, you might want one of the best laptops for game development.
01. How to use Unreal Engine 5's procedural tools
(Image credit: Jingtian Li)
Procedural content generation provides a scalable way to build tools and define rules to populate scenes with assets, allowing artists to create large, complex environments and assets dynamically and efficiently,
In this Unreal Engine tutorial, the 3D artist and teacher Jingtian Li walks us through how to do procedural content generation (PCG) in Unreal Engine 5 to unlock performance advantages while using a node-based workflow similar to Houdini for custom attribute creation and manipulation, as well as randomisation and scattering.
Starting with a landscape, he shows how to remap density by height, insert trees, foliage and rocks, add transform variations and then take more precise control of the environment.
02. How to create realistic game interiors in Unreal Engine 5
(Image credit: Maxim Dorokhov)
It can be hard to create grounded-looking living spaces in hyper-realistic video games since it requires a fine balance of detail, coherence and instant readability. In our UE5 tutorial, the environment artist Maxim Dorokhov shows how to make realistic gaming interiors in Unreal Engine 5 by recreating the apartment from Silent Hill 4: The Room.
He takes us through the steps used to create a detailed cinematic look for the environment, from basic sizes and proportions to object placement and composition, lighting, shadows and volumetric fog, adding decals for more details, setting up the camera and finally colour grading.
Get the Creative Bloq Newsletter
Daily design news, reviews, how-tos and more, as picked by the editors.
03. How to use Unreal Engine 5 for compositing
(Image credit: Lance Evans)
After Effects is still many people's go-to tool for motion graphics and compositing. Can Unreal Engine 5 offer an alternative? In this tutorial on how to use Unreal Engine for compositing, we use the engine's Motion Designer module and Material Designer tool for 2D compositing, including add 3D text.
04. How to use MetaHuman assets for character design in Unreal Engine
(Image credit: J Hill)
Epic's MetaHuman framework allows users to create highly realistic fully-rigged digital humans that can be customised extensively, from facial features and body proportions to hair and clothing. In this tutorial on character design in Unreal Engine, the character artist J Hill share his tips for using MetaHuman assets to improve character designs with Unreal Engine 5.
He set out to make a female cyberpunk character with robotic arms, from rendering the hair in real-time to using Eye material meshes from a MetaHuman file and skin and cloth materials from the MetaHuman Creator. Finally, he uses the Movie Render Queue plugin to render an 8K version of the character.
05. How to integrate Cinema 4D files into Unreal Engine
(Image credit: Mike Griggs)
Unreal Engine's real-time rendering options make it a appealing platform for 3D artists who want to make product renders – a core area for Cinema 4D users. In his tutorial on how to integrate Cinema 4D files into Unreal Engine, the digital content creator Mike Griggs takes through how to use Maxon's version of its Cineware model exchange protocol for Unreal Engine.
He shows how to import Cinema 4D files into Unreal without having to export to an interchange model format such as Alembic or FBX and then uses the Atlux plug-in to apply a more traditional layout environment.
If you're also learning 3D modelling and animation, see our roundup of Blender tutorials.
Is Unreal Engine 5 easy to learn?
Unreal Engine 5 is a powerful and feature-rich 3D creation platform. Whether it's easy to use depends very much on your experience and what you want to do with it. Many experienced game developers and 3D creators find its user interface relatively intuitive and user-friendly, but the sheer amount of features and plugins can be overwhelming.
Those with experience in game development or programming will find the learning curve much shallower. You'll ideally be familiar with C++, but you don't need to know any code to use the basics of Unreal Engine. You can make a game using only Blueprints, a visual scripting system that allows gameplay mechanics, interactions, and other functionalities to be created without traditional code using a node-based interface (see our guide to the best no code game engines for other options).
There’s a lot to learn to be efficient with the software, but there are lots of resources and Unreal Engine tutorials available to learn from.
How do I use Unreal Engine 5?
Unreal Engine is free to download, and it's free to use, including for commercial products as long as annual gross revenue is under $1 million. To install it on your computer, you're likely to need at least 100GB of SSD space.
To download and install Unreal Engine 5 for Windows, Mac or Linux, you'll need to first download and install the Epic Games Launcher. After installing the launcher, you'll need to create an Epic Games account, or log in if you already have one. After that, go to the Unreal Engine tab and select the 'Install' button to download the latest version of UE5. You can also find it on GitHub.
What are the Unreal Engine 5 system requirements?
Windows: 64-bit, quad-core Intel or AMD, 2.5 GHz or faster, 32 GB RAM, 8GB graphics RAM, DirectX 11 or 12 compatible graphics card.
Linux: Ubuntu 18.04, quad-core Intel or AMD, 2.5 GHz or faster, 32 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 or higher
macOS: macOS 13 or higher, M1 chip or higher, 16GB RAM or higher
How can I switch to Unreal Engine 5 from Unity?
Unity remains the most popular game engine overall, but Epic Games has been trying to coax developers to UE5 by providing a lot of learning resources. It has a series of video tutorials on switching from Unity to Unreal Engine 5.
The free Parrot Game Sample can also help since it's available in both Unreal Engine 5 and Unity 6 versions with annotations and documentation providing tips.
Thank you for reading 5 articles this month* Join now for unlimited access
Joe is a regular freelance journalist and editor at Creative Bloq. He writes news, features and buying guides and keeps track of the best equipment and software for creatives, from video editing programs to monitors and accessories. A veteran news writer and photographer, he now works as a project manager at the London and Buenos Aires-based design, production and branding agency Hermana Creatives. There he manages a team of designers, photographers and video editors who specialise in producing visual content and design assets for the hospitality sector. He also dances Argentine tango.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
