Learning
May 31, 2025
May’s free Unreal Engine courses: create games, cinematics, and digital twins
Ready to transition from noob to ninja? You’re in the right place! This month’s drop of free Unreal Engine learning content is jam-packed with everything you need to sharpen your skills.
From switching to Unreal Engine and creating your first game to using procedural content generation and bringing facial animation to MetaHumans, there’s a broad array of topics to dive into. Let’s get started.
New Epic tutorials
Make Your First Game With Sam
In this series of tutorials, Sam Bass—Epic Technical Designer and game developer—shares a chapter of his practical, user-friendly, beginner-oriented guide to making games. You’ll soon be creating video games with confidence.Pre-production
Sam outlines the first steps of game development, including defining your goals, creating game concepts, making a prototype, and more.
Development
Sam looks at setting your initial project goals to timelines, developing the feel of your game, finding the fun in your concept, and the differences between 2D and 3D animation styles.
Publishing
Sam explores your options for publishing your game, covering self-publishing, marketing, support, building a community around your game, and beyond.
Switching to Unreal Engine I Tutorial Series
If you’re a Unity developer considering the switch to Unreal Engine, check out this new tutorial series made in collaboration with Enduring Games. We cover the difference between Unity and UE’s visual scripting systems, transitioning from C# to C++, the gameplay framework in Unreal Engine, and more.
Unreal Essentials: A Roadmap to 2.5D Indie Games
In this comprehensive course, Thiago Carneiro leads you through every step needed to build a 2.5D game in Unreal Engine 5.5.3. The course guides you through setting up a new project from scratch, teaching you the PaperZD workflow to create dynamic sprite animations and flipbooks for your characters, then on to constructing game logic with blueprint visual scripting, and beyond.
In this comprehensive course, Thiago Carneiro leads you through every step needed to build a 2.5D game in Unreal Engine 5.5.3. The course guides you through setting up a new project from scratch, teaching you the PaperZD workflow to create dynamic sprite animations and flipbooks for your characters, then on to constructing game logic with blueprint visual scripting, and beyond.
Courtesy of DevonPenney
Baked River Simulations: Overview and Quick Start
In this quickstart guide, Epic’s Devon Penney details how to integrate water simulation for rivers into Unreal Engine to achieve new gameplay mechanics and more realistic water rendering. You’ll explore a seamless workflow for designing rivers with the engine’s existing Landscape/Water Body tools, then learn how to simulate and bake them into efficient static textures to be used in a game.
In this quickstart guide, Epic’s Devon Penney details how to integrate water simulation for rivers into Unreal Engine to achieve new gameplay mechanics and more realistic water rendering. You’ll explore a seamless workflow for designing rivers with the engine’s existing Landscape/Water Body tools, then learn how to simulate and bake them into efficient static textures to be used in a game.
Trending community tutorials
Courtesy of Franco Vilanova
Webcam Facial Animation for MetaHumans in 5.6
This tutorial by Franco Vilanova provides a step-by-step guide to creating facial animation for a MetaHuman using a webcam, the MetaHuman framework, and Unreal Engine 5.6.
This tutorial by Franco Vilanova provides a step-by-step guide to creating facial animation for a MetaHuman using a webcam, the MetaHuman framework, and Unreal Engine 5.6.
Courtesy of Hoj Dee
Unreal Engine 5 Forest Path Tutorial: Full Workflow Breakdown
Learn how to build a cinematic forest path environment in UE5, one step at a time. In this tutorial, Hoj Dee uses the procedural content generation (PCG) tools to scatter trees and foliage, create a procedural path, and light the scene for a cinematic look.
Learn how to build a cinematic forest path environment in UE5, one step at a time. In this tutorial, Hoj Dee uses the procedural content generation (PCG) tools to scatter trees and foliage, create a procedural path, and light the scene for a cinematic look.
Courtesy of Viral Shah
Create a High-Quality Cinematic Scene in Unreal Engine 5 Using Free KitBash3D
Learn how to create a cinematic in Unreal Engine from scratch using free KitBash3D assets! This beginner-friendly tutorial by Unreal Authorized Instructor Viral Shah takes you stage by stage from a blank scene to a fully lit and rendered masterpiece.
Learn how to create a cinematic in Unreal Engine from scratch using free KitBash3D assets! This beginner-friendly tutorial by Unreal Authorized Instructor Viral Shah takes you stage by stage from a blank scene to a fully lit and rendered masterpiece.
Epic talks and demos
From Texture to Display: The Color Pipeline of a Pixel in Unreal Engine
Watch this recorded session from Unreal Fest Seattle 2024 that explores the processing of pixels through the renderer, with particular concentration on the color transforms that occur and the user controls to alter that pipeline. This video is great for artists and technical users that want to understand how their content is produced—and what controls they have to maintain artistic intent.
Watch this recorded session from Unreal Fest Seattle 2024 that explores the processing of pixels through the renderer, with particular concentration on the color transforms that occur and the user controls to alter that pipeline. This video is great for artists and technical users that want to understand how their content is produced—and what controls they have to maintain artistic intent.
Practical Digital Twins
Watch this recorded session from Unreal Fest Seattle 2024 in which World Wide Technology and Another Reality Studio explore Unreal Engine's role in shaping the future of digital twins. Discover how Unreal Engine enables groundbreaking previsualization lighting and seamless integration with both virtual and physical controller systems, transforming operational efficiencies.
Watch this recorded session from Unreal Fest Seattle 2024 in which World Wide Technology and Another Reality Studio explore Unreal Engine's role in shaping the future of digital twins. Discover how Unreal Engine enables groundbreaking previsualization lighting and seamless integration with both virtual and physical controller systems, transforming operational efficiencies.