Getting Started with Unreal Engine

Welcome to the exciting world of virtual filmmaking!

This book offers beginners and seasoned professionals the ability to create complete virtual films using photorealistic 3D props, environments, and realistic human characters, all done by harnessing the real-time technology of Unreal Engine 5.

In this first chapter, you will learn what Unreal Engine is, what it is used for, and how you can start working with it. You will then learn how to set up an account with Epic Games and download Unreal Engine, before learning how to navigate and understand the user interface.

Overall, you will become proficient in installing and setting up these applications on a Windows machine.

So, we will cover the following topics:

• What is Unreal Engine?
• Creating an Epic Games account
• Downloading and installing Unreal Engine 5
• Launching Unreal Engine 5
• Exploring the Unreal Engine interface
• Navigating the Viewport
• Transforming...

Technical requirements

To complete this chapter, you will need an internet connection and the following hardware (recommended by Epic Games):

• An i7, i9, Xeon, or AMD Ryzen/Threadripper processor with 16+ cores
• 32 GB to 64 GB of RAM
• A 256 GB SSD (OS drive)
• A 2 TB SSD (data drive)
• 2080 Ti RTX, 30 Series or 40 Series GTX
• 64-bit Windows 10 or 11

Before we get started, I must remind you that this book is about extremely high-quality 3D imagery. It is important for you to understand this before setting up Unreal Engine and risk being disappointed because of technical issues. This is because Unreal Engine, like any 3D graphics tool, requires a powerful machine; much of this power comes from the graphics cards.

As a result, if you want to enjoy the real-time experience of working in Unreal, you will need a computer that can handle the best settings and display. Otherwise, you will experience a very sluggish machine with a tendency to crash a lot, and nobody...

What is Unreal Engine?

Unreal Engine is a game engine developed by Epic Games, initially released in 1998. It is used to create high-quality, interactive 3D graphics applications, including video games, virtual reality experiences, architectural visualizations, and simulations.

The engine offers a wide range of tools and features to help game developers create visually stunning and immersive environments, including a robust visual scripting language (Blueprints), advanced physics simulation, artificial intelligence systems, and a powerful visual editor.

The main advantage that Unreal Engine offers compared to other digital content creation tools (such as Blender, Maya, 3ds Max, and Cinema 4D) is that it uses a method called real-time rendering (or near-real-time). This method renders each frame so fast that it appears to be created on the fly.

Other digital content creation tools must render each frame using a method called offline rendering; however, this is an extremely...

Creating an Epic Games account

To get started with Unreal Engine, you will need to create an Epic Games account (if you already have an account, you can skip this section). To do this, follow these instructions:

1. First, navigate to Unreal Engine’s website: https://www.unrealengine.com.
2. In the top-right corner, click on SIGN IN (even if you do not have sign-in credentials, you will still need to click on this).

Figure 1.1: Signing in on an Unreal Engine web page

3. You will see a list of ways you can sign up. It is strongly suggested that you use an Epic Games account.

Figure 1.2: Sign-in methods

4. On the next page, you will be asked for your first name, surname, username, email address, and password for your account. You can opt to receive additional emails, but you will need to read the terms and conditions and tick that you have done so.

Figure 1.3: Signing up...

Downloading and installing Unreal Engine 5

Using your Unreal account, you need to download and install Unreal Engine 5.2.1. The application you are about to install is the Epic Games Launcher. This is where you install the engine and gain access to other features related to the engine, such as updates, plugins, scripts, models, and a host of many other assets.

To do this, follow these steps:

1. Once you have successfully signed in to Epic, you will see a page like this (the appearance of the page may vary, as the screenshot is from the latest marketing Material from Epic at the time of writing):

Figure 1.4: An Unreal Engine web page

2. Click on the DOWNLOAD button (at the top right of the screen), and you will be taken to the following page:

Figure 1.5: Licensing options

Since you’ve picked up a filmmaking book, there is a very slim chance that you will use Unreal Engine to create games, which is what...

Launching Unreal Engine 5

Once you have successfully installed the engine, click on the Launch button:

Figure 1.8: The Launch button

You will be presented with the Unreal Project Browser window:

Figure 1.9: The Unreal Project Browser

The Unreal Project Browser allows you to open any recent projects and create new ones using a specific template. For this session, let us do the following:

1. Click on the GAMES category.
2. Choose the Third Person template.
3. Ensure you enable Starter Content (this will add additional content to your project so you can use it in your project).
4. Select a project location – I suggest you create the project in the largest and fastest drive on your system, as Unreal projects tend to get large as you work on them.
5. Provide a project name. Since this is a test project, let us call it MyTestProject. Unreal Engine project names cannot be more than 20 characters, nor can they start...

Exploring the Unreal Engine user interface

In this section, we will briefly take a look at the user interface and learn how to navigate in the Viewport. Unreal Engine’s interface is divided into several key areas:

Figure 1.11: The Unreal Engine interface

Let’s get to know these areas:

1. Menu bar: This is the standard drop-down menus, which consist of File, Edit, Window, Tools, Build, Actor, and Help.
2. Main toolbar: This area contains the most commonly used functions. This includes the Save function, the Mode Changing dropdown, the Place Actors icon, the Blueprint Creation icon, the Add Level Sequence icon, the Simulation icons, and the Launching & Packaging dropdown. Then, on the far right of the toolbar, there is the Settings dropdown.
3. Level Viewport: This is the most prominent area of all and where you’ll be spending most of your time. It shows all the objects you have in the level.
4. Content Drawer: By clicking...

Navigating the Viewport

To get started, let us first try to move around in the game world a bit by using just the mouse:

• Hover the mouse in the Viewport, and then click with the left mouse button (LMB) and start dragging the mouse forward and backward. This will allow you to navigate forward and backward in the Viewport. If you move the mouse left and right, the view will shift to the right and left.
• By holding down the right mouse button (RMB), you will be able to orbit (look around) the level.
• If you press and hold the middle mouse button (MMB), this will enable tracking (panning) around the level. You can achieve the same by holding down both mouse buttons (LMB + RMB).

Now, let’s introduce some keyboard keys:

• While holding the RMB and pressing the Q and E keyboard keys, the view will shift upward and downward
• Using the RMB and pressing the W key will move you forward, the S key will move you backward, the A key to the left, and the D key...

Transforming objects

In this section, we will take a brief look at how to transform objects – and by transform, I mean moving, rotating, and scaling them.

The first thing to note is that in Unreal Engine, objects in the Level Viewport are called Actors. To select any Actors in the Level Viewport, you simply have to left-click once. The selected Actor will be indicated by an orange-colored outline, and the Actor will also be highlighted in the Outliner.

Here, select the middle blue cube in the Level Viewport, and press the F key to frame (i.e., zoom in on) the Actor.

Figure 1.13: Selecting and pressing the F key on the blue cube

You will notice the three arrows in the middle of the cube. This is referred to as a gizmo, with the red arrow representing the X axis, the green arrow representing the Y axis, and the blue arrow representing the Z axis.

Now, use the LMB to select the gizmo and move the cube in the direction (or the opposite...

Summary

In this chapter, you successfully created an Epic Games account, downloaded and installed Unreal Engine, created your first project, and familiarized yourself with the user interface, Viewport navigation, and transforming objects (Actors).

In the next chapter, you will receive a brief history of filmmaking, before exploring the topic of cameras, both in the real world and Unreal Engine.