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December 20, 2024

Unreal highlights in the media and entertainment industry this year

AnimationBroadcast & Live EventsCoachellaDune-Part-TwoFalloutFilm & TelevisionLearningMetaHumanMoment FactoryPhishPixomondoSphereTwinmotionVirtual ProductionVirtual SetsWar-is-Over

It’s been a big year for real-time technology in the media and entertainment industry. We’ve seen game engines used in everything from the production of high-profile films like Dune: Part Two to augmented reality visuals for live events such as Coachella.

With 2024 nearly done, now’s a great time for a look back at some of our media and entertainment highlights from the year.


Inside Unreal livestream: The Year in Review

The end of the year is upon us—and that means it’s time for the annual 'Year in Review' episode on Inside Unreal. Join us along with our special guests as we take a look at this year’s highlights from the Epic team and the incredible Unreal Engine community.
 

Academy Award®-winning animated short War Is Over! makes Unreal Engine history

Animated short film ‘War is Over!’
Animated short film ‘War is Over!’
Courtesy of Wētā FX
Discover how Wētā FX and ElectroLeague used Unreal Engine to produce the high-quality animation and stylized look of anti-war animated short film War Is Over!, winner of the Academy Award® for Best Animated Short Film.
Read the Blog

Animating in Unreal Engine | Tips and Tricks

Check out this playlist of tips and tricks for animating in Unreal Engine. You’ll find eight easy steps that will have you on the road to animating like a pro in no time.

Unreal Engine streamlines desert production on Dune: Part Two

Desert production on ‘Dune: Part Two’.
Desert production on ‘Dune: Part Two’.
Take a peek into the desert production of Dune: Part Two and find out how Unreal Engine helped the film’s key creative and production teams plot shots in the sun and shade.
Check it out

Coachella

At the 2024 festival, Coachella's Innovation team used Unreal Engine across numerous festival touchpoints including marketing videos, on-site activations, AR livestream visuals, and for the very first time, live LED visuals on the Quasar stage. 

The team also expanded the festival's presence in Fortnite with two new Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) islands and a third consecutive year of original cosmetics.

Watch the video for a look at the Coachella Canvas—a new view of the festival seen through immersive experiences, games, art, and creative technology.
 

Schirkoa: In Lies We Trust

Animated film ‘Schirkoa: In Lies We Trust’.
Animated film ‘Schirkoa: In Lies We Trust’.
Schirkoa: In Lies We Trust is an animated film produced entirely in Unreal Engine, from initial assembly to final rendering. The film combined a variety of sophisticated filmmaking techniques including performance capture and previz.

Creator Ishan Shukla leveraged Unreal Engine features such as Lumen to achieve realistic lighting as well as Blueprint visual scripting to craft crowd scenes and set designs. Check out the trailer for the film.

Student Showcase 2024 | Unreal Engine, MetaHuman, and More

Watch this video for a glimpse at some of the stunning work produced by our talented community of students in 2024. Using everything from Unreal Engine and MetaHuman to RealityCapture and Quixel Megascans, these projects showcase what’s possible with a little imagination and the Epic ecosystem.

If you’d like to find out more about using Unreal Engine as a student or a school, take a look here.

Magnopus brings Amazon’s Fallout series to life with virtual production powered by Unreal Engine

Blockbuster TV series ‘Fallout’.
Blockbuster TV series ‘Fallout’.
Courtesy of Magnopus
Go behind the scenes on blockbuster TV series Fallout to discover how a combination of in-camera VFX in Unreal Engine and shooting on 35mm film helped Magnopus bring this dystopian world to life.
Take a look

Moment Factory redefines live concerts with real-time visuals for Phish at Sphere

Explore how adopting a video game approach made it possible to deliver immersive visuals that could follow Phish’s virtuoso musical improv in real time for four musically and visually unique shows at Sphere.

Dimension Studio sees more directors turn to virtual production

Virtual production at Dimension Studio.
Virtual production at Dimension Studio.
Image Courtesy of Dimension and DNEG 360
No longer a niche filmmaking technique for blockbuster movies, filmmakers are turning to virtual production to deliver on lower budgets and shorter timeframes. Find out more as Dimension Studio discusses the evolution of this cutting-edge filmmaking process.
See more

Story Development with Virtual Production in Unreal Engine

This video course will take you on a deep dive into Unreal Engine virtual production workflows for story design, including the use of live mocap, virtual cameras, editing the timeline, adding sound and adjusting lighting, and more.

Discover how UE can help you get to your best ideas faster, with quick concept exploration and iteration, as well as how immersive collaboration brings creativity and fun to the process of hashing out different story avenues.

Twinmotion for Art Departments

Go behind the scenes with Epic Games, Pixomondo, and Sony Electronics who partnered on one-of-a-kind training in virtual production for the Art Department Guild at Sony Pictures. The training gave more than 300 guild members a chance to get hands-on with the latest virtual production tools, including Twinmotion software, the Sony VERONA LED wall, and the VENICE 2 camera. 

Then check out our course, Twinmotion for Art Departments, which offers a comprehensive guide to using Twinmotion as a powerful visualization tool.

Virtual Production for Visualization Guide - Chapter 3

In this last chapter (for now) of the Visualization Guide, we cover things that you're going to need to know on the actual day of the shoot. Things like audio in the engine, take and sequence management, as well as different approaches to take recording. 

That last one could have a whole guide of its own. Then, we'll cover deliverables (by that, we mean what clients will expect to go home with). We'll also talk about Movie Render Queue, custom burn-ins, turnover to editorial, and postvis. Stick with us and we'll bring it home.

Your First Hour with Motion Designer

Online course ‘Your First Hour with Motion Designer’.
Online course ‘Your First Hour with Motion Designer’.
Designed for everyone from beginners to veterans, this course is your gateway to mastering motion design in UE5. Learn to navigate the viewport, manipulate geometry modifiers, and harness the power of cloners and effectors. We’ll also dive into the Material Designer and review techniques for importing files, including SVGs.
Start now

Transitioning Maya to Unreal for Animators

Online course ‘Transitioning Maya to Unreal for Animators’.
Online course ‘Transitioning Maya to Unreal for Animators’.
In this course, you’ll learn how to animate directly in Unreal Engine using Control Rig characters and prop actors within Sequencer to build full shots and explore workflows both new and familiar. 

With production-focused practices in mind, we’ll dive into the benefits of working with real-time authoring tools, while building off your prior experience in tools like Maya to make learning a new set of tools both smooth and exciting.
Take a look

Texas A&M student short films

Visualization students took a deep dive into virtual production during the annual Summer Industry Course at Texas A&M. Sixteen students created three short films on a virtual production stage at Stray Vista Studios in Dripping Springs, supported by the Virtual Production Institute, which is part of the Texas A&M College of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts. 

This course is designed to teach students basic and advanced filmmaking techniques using virtual production on an LED volume. Additionally, it enables them to learn from professional industry department heads teaching the most up-to-date approaches to pre-production and production for lighting, camera, art, and Unreal Engine 5. 

You can check out all of the short films here.

How to install Unreal Engine

Download instructions

Download the launcher

Before you can install and run Unreal Editor, you’ll need to download and install the Epic Games launcher.

Install Epic Games launcher

Once downloaded and installed, open the launcher and create or log in to your Epic Games account.

Get support, or restart your Epic Games launcher download in Step 1.

Install Unreal Engine

Once logged in, navigate to the Unreal Engine tab and click the Install button to download the most recent version.

Watch how to install

Looking for Unreal Editor for Fortnite?

Get up and running in Unreal Editor for Fortnite from the Epic Games launcher.

Download UEFN