Ethan 🎩

@metatutor

72 Following

31 Followers

Ethan 🎩 pfp

Curious about the future of Unreal Engine? Watch this recorded session from Unreal Fest Seattle 2024 to get a sneak peek at the exciting features on the roadmap, including UE 5.5 and beyond. From groundbreaking tools to new workflows, this session dives into what’s next for game developers and creators using Unreal Engine. Don’t miss out on the innovation ahead! https://youtu.be/P8FnmProZHQ?si=43B7r7DdiU8BrbBi

1 reply

0 recast

0 reaction

Ethan 🎩 pfp

One way you can improve the realism in your character's movement is to provide dynamic animations for items that they may be carrying or wearing. With AnimDynamics those pieces that you would expect to move around as you move in real life (hair, necklaces, bracelets, swords, pouches, etc.) will bounce around and move while your character moves. For advanced and professional animators looking to make the transition from Maya or another DCC to animating in Unreal Engine this session is a must watch. https://youtu.be/z1OmjnFZUgc?si=hzB8HxrJrm-7Sw1y

1 reply

0 recast

0 reaction

Ethan 🎩 pfp

The target device for your UE application has a finite amount of resources available, both for keeping objects in memory and processing them. When building your application, you must decide what to spend those resources on. You should familiarize yourself with your device's capabilities in terms of the speed, threads, and bandwidth for your CPU and GPU, as well as your device's memory, graphics memory, and available disk space. High-resolution textures require a lot of space, both to store on a device and in a device's texture memory, and larger textures require more pixels to render and process. While they can increase fidelity, there are diminishing returns to texture size given your device's screen resolution and the viewing angle of the texture. It is important to use the smallest texture possible to obtain the desired level of fidelity. https://youtu.be/OnL8oTWDJOs?si=3ncOipHkzh59FPAp

0 reply

0 recast

0 reaction

Ethan 🎩 pfp

Check out this recorded session from Unreal Fest Seattle to see how PLATIGE, a renowned CGI content studio, integrated Unreal Engine into their traditional CG pipeline. The session offers valuable insights into how they’ve embraced this powerful tool to enhance their workflows over the years. Adopting Unreal Engine wasn’t just a technical shift—it required collaboration across the entire organization. In this session, PLATIGE shares perspectives from management, developers, and artists on building the pipeline, expanding project possibilities, and transforming the studio’s creative process. A must-watch for any studio looking to elevate their production with Unreal Engine! https://youtu.be/XSSzyDF2XfU?si=IG8b1mCE0qORHFal

1 reply

0 recast

0 reaction

Ethan 🎩 pfp

Unreal Engine offers a comprehensive suite of modeling tools and functions. Its dedicated editor mode, Modeling Mode, contains artist-friendly tools for creating and editing 3D geometry. Additionally, the Geometry Scripting plugin for Blueprints and Python provides a range of functions for advanced modeling workflows. These versatile modeling toolkits are designed to enhance users' workflow at all skill levels, making them suitable for a wide variety of projects. https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/unreal-engine/modeling-mode-in-unreal-engine

1 reply

0 recast

0 reaction

Ethan 🎩 pfp

Compositing is the act of combining visual elements from different sources into a single image. In the visual effects industry, compositing a single frame is usually an offline process and can take some time. With compositing built into the engine, users can easily visualize green-screened scenes combined with CG in real-time. This is especially helpful for previsualization, which enables directors to get a sense of what the final scene will look like, or for offline compositors to use as a guide. Compositing will run both in-editor and in-game. Any Composure element can be added to a sequence to indicate that its output should be exported when rendering out the sequence using the Render Movie Settings dialog with the ComposureExport output format. https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/unreal-engine/compositing-elements-reference-for-unreal-engine

1 reply

0 recast

0 reaction

Ethan 🎩 pfp

Matt Workman has been a trailblazer in the creative community with his groundbreaking work on Cinetracer. In this recorded session from Unreal Fest Seattle 2024, he shares his journey of developing a real-time visualization app for the film industry using Unreal Engine 5, offering valuable insights into his process and tools. The session covers Blueprint class architecture, Enhanced Input, UMG Widget design, Data Structures, Control Rig, and essential plugins, providing a comprehensive look at app development. Matt also dives into distributing on Steam and building a thriving community and brand around his work, making this a must-watch for aspiring developers and filmmakers alike. https://youtu.be/9fF3ROEYLhs?si=mCZV8jHEPZYXFpVS

1 reply

0 recast

0 reaction

Ethan 🎩 pfp

Motion Matching in Unreal Engine is a query-based animation pose selection system. Contained within the Pose Search plugin, you can use the Motion Matching Animation Blueprint node as a dynamic alternative to State Machines, or Blendspaces. Unlike traditional animation systems, Motion Matching can make informed animation pose selections from a set of animation data, to create a responsive and reactive animation system, without the need to set up transition or blending logic between Animation Sequences. Choosers - a new tool introduced in 5.5 will simplify your creativity. https://youtu.be/-03Xm2oZK_Y?si=UnxvS5x2pV_T36GU

1 reply

0 recast

0 reaction

Ethan 🎩 pfp

Composure in Unreal Engine is a game-changer for film and music videos production. Combining green-screen scenes with CG in real-time lets you visualize final shots instantly. Whether it’s previsualization or perfecting the vibe, Composure makes it seamless in-editor and in-game. This is especially helpful for previsualization, which enables directors to get a sense of what the final scene will look like. https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/unreal-engine/real-time-compositing-tools-in-unreal-engine

1 reply

0 recast

0 reaction

Ethan 🎩 pfp

When you add a video or image sequence, Unreal Editor automatically creates a Media Playlist to hold the video asset reference, visible in the Media Playlist section. This section also displays the references to the initial Media Source as well as the Media Path. This section also contains clickable icons you can use to Restart, Rewind, Play, Pause, Fast Forward, Open, and Close the playlist. The Open Media Plate button lets you open a media plate window with a flat-facing mesh that shows you more in-depth information about the media. In this window, you can also use the Previous and Next icons to access other media in your playlist. https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/unreal-engine/the-media-plate-actor-in-unreal-engine

1 reply

0 recast

0 reaction

Ethan 🎩 pfp

A complex level in Unreal Engine contains hundreds of detailed Static Mesh assets that combine together to build a virtual world. With this level of detail, it can become difficult to load a multi-kilometer level all at once. The Hierarchical Level of Detail (HLOD) system can be used to organize multiple Static Mesh Actors and combine them into a single proxy mesh and Material at long view distances. This helps reduce the number of Actors that need to be rendered for the scene, which reduces the number draw calls per frame and increases performance. This is especially useful when working with large open worlds. https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/unreal-engine/hierarchical-level-of-detail-overview-in-unreal-engine

1 reply

0 recast

0 reaction

Ethan 🎩 pfp

Unreal Engine (UE) comes with an integrated method that allows people to work together on their projects using version control software called Perforce. Source Control allows users on your team to share assets and code with one another, as well as providing a backup and history of changes so any files can be rolled back to an earlier version if something went wrong with the file. When working on a file the Editor will lock that file (this is known as Checking Out in Perforce nomenclature) so that other users cannot concurrently edit it. When the user is done with editing the file(s) they have locked, they check in, or commit those files, uploading the changes to the server and releasing the lock on the file. Learn more about Perforce from the recent talk at Unreal Fest. https://youtu.be/_cVYfufgziM?si=GUtiPvy5M5U1TDXR

1 reply

0 recast

0 reaction

Ethan 🎩 pfp

Soundscape procedurally generates ambient sounds which are streamed as the player moves around the world. Once set up, the plugin manages and composes these sound systems autonomously and removes the need to manually create them. Soundscape uses Gameplay Tags as states. You can control these states using a Blueprint or C++ and Soundscape will respond automatically with the conditions you set. Explore soundscape and more tips on audio workflows for Unreal Engine https://youtu.be/xaMX_NEyLJc?si=WZ9xsyG8RXjy3bF1

1 reply

0 recast

0 reaction

Ethan 🎩 pfp

Convai enables NPCs with intelligence such that they can converse naturally with players via text or voice and can carry out advanced actions as an enemy, companion, or filler bot. This Unreal plugin has integrations with all of Convai’s APIs to integrate with your characters and game assets. - Intelligent realtime open-ended conversation capabilities, enabling natural and dynamic interactions. - Multiple languages support. - Actions: Characters can understand the environment and can perform actions based on conversation, verbal commands, and events, opening up new possibilities. - Knowledge Base: You can add potentially unlimited knowledge for your characters making them an expert at a topic or grounding them to the lore of the world and their backstories. - Multiplayer support: Voice chat between multiple players and characters. - Intelligent Animations: Integrated with Lip-Sync, facial and body animations with conversation flow. https://docs.convai.com/api-docs/plugins-and-integrations/unreal-engine

1 reply

0 recast

0 reaction

Ethan 🎩 pfp

Unreal Engine supports a variety of file formats for importing content into your project. FBX is a flexible file format that is owned by Autodesk and provides interoperability between digital content creation (DCC) applications. Some applications such as Autodesk Motionbuilder support the format natively. While others such as Autodesk Maya, Autodesk 3ds Max, and Blender support the format using FBX plugins. The advantages of the Unreal FBX Import pipeline over other importing methods are: - Using a single file format for Static Mesh, Skeletal Mesh, animation, and morph targets. - Importing multiple LODs and Morphs/Blendshapes in one import operation. - Importing Material and Texture assets, and automatically applying them to Static Meshes. https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/unreal-engine/fbx-skeletal-mesh-pipeline-in-unreal-engine

1 reply

0 recast

0 reaction

Ethan 🎩 pfp

Paper 2D is Unreal Engine’s system designed for creating 2D and 2D/3D hybrid projects. It provides tools to handle gameplay and animation specifically for 2D development, making it a great choice for developers interested in side-scrollers, platformers, or other 2D genres. The cornerstone of Paper 2D is the Sprite, a primary asset type. A Sprite is a static 2D texture that represents characters, objects, or elements within your project. These textures are created by extracting regions from a texture atlas or imported directly. Once set up, Sprites can be used for rendering, animations, and physics interactions. If you’re starting out, focus on understanding how to: -Create and import Sprites. -Animate your Sprites using Flipbooks (Paper 2D’s animation tool). -Integrate Sprites into your gameplay. https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/unreal-engine/paper-2d-flipbooks-in-unreal-engine

1 reply

0 recast

0 reaction

Ethan 🎩 pfp

Animation Notifications (Animation Notifies or just Notifies) provide a way for you to create repeatable events synchronized to Animation Sequences. These events can be sounds (such as footsteps for walk or run animations), spawning particles, and other types. Animation Notifies have any number of different uses, and the system can be extended with custom types. Animation Notifies are commonly accessed and created within Animation Sequences. To get started, open an Animation Sequence Asset, and locate the Notifies track in the timeline. https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/unreal-engine/animation-notifies-in-unreal-engine

1 reply

0 recast

0 reaction

Ethan 🎩 pfp

Animation blending, as a concept, simply means making a smooth transition between two or more animations on a single character or Skeletal Mesh. In Unreal Engine, there are various ways in which such blending can be applied either through Blend Spaces, through additive methods by literally combining two animations based on a weighted bias or alpha value, or even applying direct overrides of the existing pose. You can also send animation directly to specific bones within the Skeleton and all of its children. For instance, you can start with an animation in which the character is running, but then selectively apply a shooting animation to the upper body of the character. The final result would be a character that can run around and shoot at the same time. Check out how to make your animations unreal https://youtu.be/PDz4bvP2MG0?si=-Q3lphofjm5EXBnF

1 reply

0 recast

0 reaction

Ethan 🎩 pfp

The Procedural Content Generation Framework (PCG) is a toolset for creating your own procedural content inside Unreal Engine. PCG provides artists and designers the ability to build fast, iterative tools and content of any complexity ranging from asset utilities, such as buildings or biome generation, up to entire worlds. The PCG framework is built for extensibility and interactivity, providing easy integration into existing world building pipelines, effectively blurring the lines between procedural and more traditional workflows. https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/unreal-engine/procedural-content-generation-overview

0 reply

0 recast

0 reaction

Ethan 🎩 pfp

Check out this guide on how to transition from Unity to Unreal Engine. If you are moving from Unity to Unreal Engine (UE), it can be challenging to translate familiar features that you rely on from one engine to the other. While both engines have similar functionality in many areas, UE’s ecosystem and the way it is organized differ from Unity in many ways. https://youtu.be/fJI3DvOnRZ4?si=9HCnZ63yRHysBnjT

1 reply

0 recast

0 reaction