February’s Epic learning content: VFX, 2D animation, and digital twins

Animation

Blueprints

Configurators

Digital Twin

Film & Television

Games

Learning

Megaplants

Niagara

Odyssey

Tutorials

Unreal Engine 5.7

We’ve got a ton of Epic learning content to sink your teeth into this month, whether you’re looking to brush up on your VFX skills, unlock the secret of creating 2D animation in Unreal Engine, or discover how to build playable digital twins. Let’s jump in!

New Epic Games tutorials

Niagara Examples Pack Tutorials

The Niagara visual effects system in Unreal Engine enables you to produce all manner of visual wizardry for games, film, and beyond. Take a look at this comprehensive batch of tutorials and learn how to conjure up explosions, sparks, smoke, and more using the new Niagara Examples Pack.

Odyssey: 2D Animation in Unreal Engine

Odyssey is a free professional 2D animation plugin for Unreal Engine. Complete this five-module course and learn how to navigate the Odyssey interface, use animation tools, and master pixel-art workflows within Unreal Engine. In a series of hands-on exercises, you’ll integrate 2D assets into 3D environments using level sequencing, material graphs, and specialized techniques like rotoscoping and mesh painting.

Stylized Rendering

This series of courses explores techniques for creating stylized rendering effects, with a focus on achieving bold, comic-inspired visuals. Learn how to build a simple outline effect, use vector data to drive stylization, and apply overlay materials to enhance artistic control. The series also dives into crafting stylized comic ink materials and developing vibrant color and highlight treatments, equipping you with practical tools to create expressive non-photorealistic looks.

Revision Control: Getting Started with Subversion in Unreal

Unreal Engine comes with an integrated method that enables people to work together on their projects using version control software called Subversion (or SVN for short). Learn how to use SVN revision control to keep projects organized, avoid overwriting work, and fix mistakes fast. This beginner-friendly guide covers setting up SVN, committing and updating, using the Unreal Diff Tool, and handling conflicts when multiple people edit the same asset.

Check it out

Revision Control: Getting Started with Subversion in Unreal.

Courtesy of David Tree

Unreal Engine 5 Landscape System

UE5’s Landscape system provides a robust real-time toolset for creating, sculpting, and texturing massive, highly detailed terrains. In this tutorial, you’ll learn the fundamentals of landscape creation, explore the Manage, Sculpt, and Paint modes, and dive into essential sculpting tools, landscape materials, foliage placement, and performance optimization for both games and cinematic environments.

Take a look

Courtesy of Sandeep Kumar Singh

How to create procedurally animated characters using Control Rig and Blueprints

Learn the workflow for creating fully procedurally animated characters in this tutorial designed for beginner to intermediate-level users. You’ll explore the ins and outs of Control Rig and the Blueprint visual scripting system to create a playable mech combat unit.

Learn more

Procedurally animated characters with Control Rig and Blueprints.

Courtesy of David Williams

Epic talks and demos

Making Digital Twins Playable: From UEFN to Unreal Engine

What if a city’s digital twin could be more than a static model—something that could be explored, played with, and learned from? In this session recorded at Unreal Fest Stockholm, Tomas Nihlén of Tomlin Studio shares how the company brought part of a digital twin of the city of Norrköping into Fortnite using UEFN, and made it available as a sandbox template for others to learn from and build on.

Dive in

Beyond the Configurator: Digital Twins for Heavy-Duty Vehicles

For over 10 years, Rapid has been perfecting the curation of digital twins for heavy-duty vehicles, both on the data and distribution sides, using its OneCX platform to power content in Unreal Engine. This session recorded at Unreal Fest Stockholm describes the process for developing a heavy-duty digital twin in Unreal Engine for the purpose of marketing and training content, and also shows an example of the content in action at live promotional events.

Get started