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Skillshare
Bring a character to life with the power of 3D design in Unreal Engine.
In this class, your instructor, Lucas Ridley, will teach you how to use Unreal Engine for the first time and leverage the software to create your own custom character. From recording a personalized facial capture to customizing a Metahuman character, you’ll discover that creating a playable character within Unreal Engine isn’t as intimidating as you might think.
With Lucas as your guide, you’ll:
- Discover Unreal Engine and how to navigate the software
- Use the Metahuman app to create a customized character
Read more
Bring a character to life with the power of 3D design in Unreal Engine.
In this class, your instructor, Lucas Ridley, will teach you how to use Unreal Engine for the first time and leverage the software to create your own custom character. From recording a personalized facial capture to customizing a Metahuman character, you’ll discover that creating a playable character within Unreal Engine isn’t as intimidating as you might think.
With Lucas as your guide, you’ll:
- Discover Unreal Engine and how to navigate the software
- Use the Metahuman app to create a customized character
Read more
Bring a character to life with the power of 3D design in Unreal Engine.
In this class, your instructor, Lucas Ridley, will teach you how to use Unreal Engine for the first time and leverage the software to create your own custom character. From recording a personalized facial capture to customizing a Metahuman character, you’ll discover that creating a playable character within Unreal Engine isn’t as intimidating as you might think.
With Lucas as your guide, you’ll:
- Discover Unreal Engine and how to navigate the software
- Use the Metahuman app to create a customized character
- Import your character into Unreal Engine
- Play your character within a template level
- Plus, you’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at Lucas’ work process as a full-time animator.
Whether you dream of working as an animator in films or video games or you are just curious about 3D character animation, you’ll leave this class knowing how to create your own unique character that your audience can connect to.
To take this class, you don’t need any Unreal Engine experience. All you need is an interest in creating your own 3D films or video games as well as the Unreal Engine software, a computer, and a three button mouse. To record your own facial capture you’ll need an iPhone and the Live Link App but you can also download free motion capture data online if you don’t have an iPhone.
Instructor bio:
Lucas Ridley is a professional animator whose work has appeared in films by directors like Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis, as well as in major game studios. Originally from Kentucky, his career has taken him around the world, from Los Angeles to London, contributing to blockbuster projects while also pursuing personal creative work.
Lucas brings that industry experience into teaching, where he focuses on making animation approachable and frustration-free. His goal is to give learners clear, practical guidance to help them build confidence and create with independence.
Register for this course and see more details by visiting:
OpenCourser.com/course/kq34qu/3d
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Syllabus
Getting Started & Introduction
In this introductory module, you’ll get oriented with the course structure and Unreal Engine’s interface, setting the foundation for your 3D character animation journey. You’ll learn how to launch a new Unreal Engine project, configure it for character creation, and explore the essential tools and features within the engine. By the end of this module, you’ll feel confident navigating the software and ready to start building your animated character.
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Syllabus
Getting Started & Introduction
In this introductory module, you’ll get oriented with the course structure and Unreal Engine’s interface, setting the foundation for your 3D character animation journey. You’ll learn how to launch a new Unreal Engine project, configure it for character creation, and explore the essential tools and features within the engine. By the end of this module, you’ll feel confident navigating the software and ready to start building your animated character.
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3D Animation in Unreal Engine: Create an Original Character.
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Career center
Learners who complete 3D Animation in Unreal Engine: Create an Original Character will develop knowledge and skills
that may be useful to these careers:
3D Animator
3D Animator
A 3D animator brings characters, objects, and environments to life through movement. This course is an excellent starting point for aspiring 3D animators, providing direct, practical experience with Unreal Engine, a leading platform in the industry. You will learn to create and customize high-fidelity Metahuman characters, develop personalized facial animations, and integrate your creations into a playable environment. The deep dive into Unreal Engine's interface and character pipeline will help build a foundation in professional animation workflows. This class is particularly beneficial for those who dream of working in films or video games, as it offers a behind-the-scenes look at an industry professional's process and teaches you to produce a project-ready character.
Unreal Engine Developer
Unreal Engine Developer
An Unreal Engine Developer builds applications, games, or simulations using the powerful Unreal Engine. This course is exceptionally relevant for an Unreal Engine Developer as it provides focused expertise on character creation and integration directly within the engine. You will become proficient in navigating Unreal Engine's interface, leveraging the Metahuman Creator, importing custom characters, and finalizing their playable functionality within a template level. This direct, project-based learning will deepen your understanding of asset pipelines, character systems, and engine configuration, which are all fundamental aspects of working as an Unreal Engine Developer. It offers practical experience essential for any professional utilizing this versatile software.
Character Technical Artist
Character Technical Artist
A Character Technical Artist bridges the gap between artistic vision and technical implementation, ensuring 3D characters function flawlessly within a game or film engine. This course provides invaluable insights for a Character Technical Artist through its focus on building, customizing, and integrating Metahuman characters into Unreal Engine. You will gain hands-on experience by attaching characters to a third-person controller, customizing materials and textures, and finalizing functionality within a game environment. Understanding these processes from an artist's perspective, combined with direct interaction with Unreal Engine's character pipeline, is crucial for developing robust character tools and optimizing workflows. This offers a unique opportunity to grasp the technical challenges and solutions involved in character setup.
Technical Animator
Technical Animator
A Technical Animator specializes in the technical rigging, tools, and pipeline aspects that enable smooth and efficient animation. This course provides a valuable introduction for a Technical Animator by delving into the construction and integration of characters within Unreal Engine. You will gain hands-on experience with Metahuman customization, attaching characters to a third-person controller, and finalizing their functionality within a game environment. This direct engagement with character setup, from appearance to interactive behavior, helps build an understanding of the technical requirements of animation systems. It illuminates the practical challenges of bringing animated characters into a real time engine, which is fundamental to developing solutions in this specialized field.
Cinematic Artist
Cinematic Artist
A Cinematic Artist crafts compelling animated sequences and cutscenes for games, films, or interactive media. This course offers highly relevant skills for a Cinematic Artist by focusing on bringing characters to vivid life within Unreal Engine. You'll learn to create detailed Metahuman characters, develop personalized facial animations, and customize their appearance with materials and textures. Understanding the intricacies of character creation and animation within a real time engine is essential for staging emotive scenes and visualizing narratives. This experience will enable you to effectively tell stories through character performance, leveraging Unreal Engine’s capabilities for stunning in-engine cinematics, ensuring your creations are presentation-ready.
Game Developer
Game Developer
A Game Developer is responsible for various aspects of game creation, from programming to asset integration and gameplay mechanics. This course is highly relevant for a Game Developer because it provides hands-on experience in creating a playable character within Unreal Engine. You will learn the entire process of bringing a character into a game environment, including customization, animation, and ensuring functionality within a template level. This practical knowledge of character pipelines and engine interaction is fundamental for building interactive experiences and understanding the complexities involved in integrating key game assets. It directly supports the creation of engaging and functional video games.
Video Game Designer
Video Game Designer
A Video Game Designer conceptualizes and defines the core gameplay experience, including character interactions and mechanics. While not a full game design course, creating a playable character within a template level, as taught here, is a fundamental skill for a Video Game Designer. This course helps you understand the practicalities of character implementation in Unreal Engine, from customizing a Metahuman’s appearance and animation to ensuring its functionality in a game environment. This knowledge is crucial for making informed design decisions and effectively communicating with technical artists and animators about how character logic and visuals translate into the game. It demystifies the process of bringing a character into an interactive space.
Visual Effects Artist
Visual Effects Artist
A Visual Effects Artist crafts stunning digital imagery and effects for various media, often integrating 3D elements into live action or animated scenes. This course will prove highly beneficial for a Visual Effects Artist by providing hands-on experience in bringing elaborate 3D characters to life within Unreal Engine. You will learn to create custom Metahumans, apply personalized facial capture, and integrate these animated figures into a template environment. This skill set is directly applicable to creating character-driven effects, understanding real time rendering pipelines, and producing compelling visuals. The course helps build a foundation in manipulating complex 3D assets effectively, a core skill for generating impactful visual effects.
AR/VR Content Creator
AR/VR Content Creator
An AR VR Content Creator develops immersive experiences and interactive applications for augmented and virtual reality. Unreal Engine is a powerful tool for AR/VR development, and this course directly equips an AR VR Content Creator with the skills to design and integrate compelling 3D characters. You will learn to create customized Metahumans, apply personalized facial animation, and finalize their functionality within a virtual environment. This practical experience with character asset creation and deployment in Unreal Engine is invaluable for populating AR/VR scenes with lifelike avatars and interactive figures, thereby enhancing user engagement and immersion in dynamic extended reality applications.
Texture Artist
Texture Artist
A Texture Artist specializes in creating and applying surface details, color, and material properties to 3D models, giving them their visual quality. This course offers direct and practical experience for a Texture Artist by focusing on "customizing materials, textures" to enhance the visual appeal of a high-fidelity Metahuman character within Unreal Engine. You will learn how to manipulate these elements to achieve specific looks and integrate them seamlessly into a digital character model. Understanding how textures are applied and rendered in a powerful engine like Unreal is essential for creating believable and engaging 3D assets, making this course invaluable for anyone aiming to master the art of digital texturing.
Virtual Reality Developer
Virtual Reality Developer
A Virtual Reality Developer creates immersive digital environments and interactive experiences. Unreal Engine is a prominent tool in VR development, and this course helps a Virtual Reality Developer by teaching the critical skill of creating high-fidelity, playable characters. You will learn to design custom Metahumans, apply facial capture to generate unique expressions, and integrate these characters into a virtual space, ready for interaction. This practical experience with character setup and animation within Unreal Engine is invaluable for populating virtual worlds with realistic avatars and ensuring a sense of presence and connection for users in VR applications. It provides a strong foundation for building engaging and believable virtual experiences.
Prop Artist
Prop Artist
A Prop Artist designs and creates realistic or stylized 3D objects and items that populate digital environments in games or films. This course, while centered on characters, includes specific instruction on customizing "props" using Unreal Engine, which can enhance the skills of a Prop Artist. You will learn how materials, textures, and additional assets are integrated and refined within an engine to affect overall visual appeal. This practical experience with Unreal Engine’s asset pipeline, from customization to final integration, is crucial for understanding how to prepare and optimize 3D props for real time applications and ensure they look polished and presentation-ready in any digital scene.
Environment Artist
Environment Artist
An Environment Artist creates the 3D landscapes, architecture, and settings that populate virtual worlds for games or films. While this course focuses on characters, the skills in navigating Unreal Engine, understanding asset import, and refining visual elements with materials and textures may be useful for an Environment Artist. You will learn how to prepare and integrate 3D assets, customizing their visual properties to enhance appeal within a game environment. This foundational knowledge of Unreal Engine's interface and asset management pipelines, though applied to characters here, can help build a broader understanding of how 3D elements are constructed and placed in a digital world.
Character Designer
Character Designer
A Character Designer primarily focuses on the conceptualization, visual development, and artistic direction of characters, often through sketches and 2D art. This course may be useful for a Character Designer, even though its focus is on 3D implementation rather than initial concept art. By learning how to use the Metahuman Creator to build and customize a high-fidelity digital character and integrate it into Unreal Engine, you will gain a deeper understanding of the 3D pipeline. This knowledge can inform your 2D designs, helping you visualize how characters translate into a 3D space and communicate more effectively with 3D artists and animators during the production process.
Simulation Engineer
Simulation Engineer
A Simulation Engineer designs, develops, and analyzes virtual models to mimic real-world systems and predict outcomes. This course may be useful for a Simulation Engineer by providing practical experience with Unreal Engine, a platform increasingly used for real-time simulation and digital twin applications. While the focus is on character animation, the process of building, customizing, and integrating complex 3D models, as well as refining their functionality within an engine environment, offers transferable skills. Understanding how to precisely control and animate digital assets can be applied to creating robust and visually accurate simulation scenarios, helping to build a foundation in using powerful 3D tools for technical analysis. This role often requires an advanced degree.
For more career information including salaries, visit:
OpenCourser.com/course/kq34qu/3d
Reading list
We've selected 24 books
that we think will supplement your
learning. Use these to
develop background knowledge, enrich your coursework, and gain a
deeper understanding of the topics covered in
3D Animation in Unreal Engine: Create an Original Character.
Provides a comprehensive technical breakdown of Unreal Engine 5's animation pipeline, making it an essential current reference for this course. It is frequently used by industry professionals to master the transition to real-time cinematics and Metahuman integration. By reading this, students add significant technical depth to the character creation process introduced by Lucas Ridley.
Written by an industry veteran, this book vital resource for understanding the specific requirements of animating for games versus film. It serves as an excellent additional reading to help students understand how their Metahuman characters will eventually function within a game engine. adds breadth by covering the entire animation pipeline from a professional perspective.
Provides a step-by-step guide to several game projects, making it a perfect companion for a Skillshare learner. It covers character integration and environment building in a way that directly supplements the course's final project. It very recent and relevant reference for the Unreal Engine 5 ecosystem.
Useful reference tool for students who want to go beyond the course and make their characters fully interactive through logic. It is commonly used as a textbook for beginners to understand the 'Blueprints' system mentioned in the course syllabus. It provides the necessary background knowledge to transform a static character into a playable game asset.
This guide provides a broad overview of the Unreal Engine interface and project setup, mirroring the 'Getting Started' module of the course. It is an ideal companion for absolute beginners who need a structured, written reference to navigate the software's complex UI. It reinforces the core concepts of project configuration and template usage.
This recent publication acts as a bridge between basic character creation and professional game environment integration. It is helpful in providing background on how characters interact with world materials and lighting, which supplements the course's final module. is particularly valuable as a current reference for the latest Unreal Engine 5.x features.
Is an excellent reference tool for the 'Customizing Materials' portion of the course syllabus. It allows students to add more depth to their characters by creating custom textures and visual effects beyond the Metahuman defaults. It is highly relevant for those looking to finalize their character with a unique, polished look.
Understanding human anatomy is crucial when using the MetaHuman Creator to ensure characters look believable. serves as a visual reference tool for proportions and muscular structure, which aids in the character customization module of the course. It adds significant depth to the artistic side of digital character creation.
While not a software manual, this is the industry-standard textbook for learning the fundamental principles of movement. It is more valuable as additional reading for understanding timing and spacing than as a technical guide for Unreal Engine. It provides the essential prerequisite knowledge required to make the Metahuman animations in the course look professional.
This recent book great project-based follow-up for students who want to put their Metahuman into a more complex game scenario. It provides the background knowledge needed to integrate characters into combat and dialogue systems. It is particularly valuable as a current reference for UE5's latest workflow improvements.
Useful reference tool for students working on the facial animation and Live Link modules of the course. It provides hundreds of photographic references that can be used to refine the Metahuman's expressions. It adds depth to the customization process by ensuring anatomical accuracy in digital emotions.
Is an invaluable visual reference for students using the Metahuman Creator to customize their character's facial and body structures. It provides the background knowledge of human form necessary to create a believable and aesthetically pleasing digital human. It is widely used by industry professionals in 3D modeling and character design.
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Focusing on posing and expression, this book great prerequisite for students who want to improve their character's visual appeal. It helps learners understand how to finalize their Metahuman's behavior and 'persona' as mentioned in the course syllabus. It practical guide used by both students and industry professionals.
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Is the definitive reference for facial animation, which core component of the course's Live Link and Metahuman modules. Although it predates Metahuman, its lessons on facial structure and expression are essential for making facial capture data look natural. It adds significant depth to the student's understanding of digital acting.
Great prerequisite for the creative planning stage of the course. It helps students conceptualize their 'original character' before they ever open the Metahuman app. It useful tool for developing the visual storytelling skills that Lucas Ridley emphasizes in his professional work process.
Perfect prerequisite for absolute beginners who need to understand the general 3D pipeline before diving into Unreal Engine. It explains the terminology and concepts that Lucas Ridley uses throughout the course. It provides the necessary breadth for a student to understand where Unreal Engine fits in the wider 3D industry.
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Provides the theoretical background for the facial capture and character behavior sections of the course. It is more valuable as additional reading to help students understand the 'why' behind character performance. It commonly used resource at academic institutions to help technical artists improve their storytelling skills.
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This classic text critical reference for the 'Animation' portion of the course syllabus. It helps students understand the physics and timing required to make their 3D characters move realistically within the engine. It is highly recommended as additional reading to supplement the technical software steps with artistic theory.
For students who wish to move beyond the realistic look of Metahumans, this book offers a wealth of inspiration and technical advice on character design. It adds breadth to the course by exploring different artistic styles and silhouettes. It useful reference tool for the creative phase of character customization.
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Offers a deep dive into the technical side of 3D mesh construction, which provides background for why Metahumans are so advanced. It is more valuable as additional reading for those interested in the 'under the hood' mechanics of 3D characters. It widely respected textbook in academic game design programs.
For students who want to take their characters beyond Metahuman presets, this book useful reference for high-end sculpting. It provides technical depth on how professional characters are built from the ground up for film and games. It staple in industry professional libraries for digital character creation.
Adds breadth to the course by explaining why character design and movement are important for the player's experience. It highly reputable textbook that helps students think like game designers while they build their characters. It is best used as a high-level conceptual reference for the final 'playable' module.
While more technical, this book valuable reference for students who want to understand the professional architecture of character controllers. It provides depth for the module on finalizing Metahuman functionality. It is commonly used as a textbook for those moving from hobbyist to professional game development.
For more information about how these books relate to this course, visit:
OpenCourser.com/course/kq34qu/3d
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