Unreal Engine for Beginners Workshop SERIES

Unreal Engine for Beginners Workshop SERIES

Content developer and presenter

Project

Developed and delivered a 5-part series of Beginner Unreal Engine 5 workshops focused on filmmaking, virtual production, and real-time workflows for industry professionals and university students.

In collaboration with Creative School Pro at Toronto Metropolitan University, the workshops were hosted at the Red Bull Gaming Hub.

Bridging the gap between traditional film production knowledge and real-time tools like Unreal Engine, while making complex technical workflows accessible to beginners.

Each workshop in the series. dives deep into a different section of the industry, creating well-rounded 3D generalists ready for the industry.

Student Work

Workshop Connect Overview

Intro to Worldbuilding Unreal Engine 5 – Workshop 1

From initial project setup to a finalized 3D environment, this workshop led participants through the full environment-building production pipeline. Covered reference gathering, greyboxing, asset sourcing, scene assembly, lighting, post-processing, and final rendering in Unreal Engine 5.

Key Focus Areas:

Grey Boxing
Selection, landscape, and foliage mode
Fab marketplace, asset gathering
Lighting and look development
Real-time cinematic rendering

Workshop Outputs:

Game-ready exterior environment
Cinematic environment render

In-depth Camera and Lighting in Unreal Engine 5 – Workshop 2

Led participants through cinematic camera and lighting workflows in Unreal Engine 5, focusing on translating real-world techniques into a real-time environment. Covered studio lighting setups, outdoor lighting scenarios, and final cinematic output.

Key Focus Areas:

Cinematic camera setup (focal length, depth of field, exposure)
Studio portrait lighting
Outdoor lighting (day vs night)
Lumen lighting workflow (Spot, Box, Point, Directional, Sky, HDRI)
Movie render queue

Workshop Outputs:

Portrait lighting headshots
Environment lighting studies (day vs night)

Pre-vis and Animatics for Feature Films UE5 – Workshop 3

Led participants through the previs pipeline for film production in Unreal Engine 5, from digital storyboards to creating a full animatics. Covered camera blocking, scene layout, sequencer, animation, control rig, and rendering.

Key Focus Areas:

Shot blocking and camera movement
Sequencer timeline workflows
Scene layout and staging
Timing and pacing for animatics
Real-time previs rendering

Workshop Outputs:

Animatic sequence from the provided shot list

3d Scanning and Creating Digital Twins – Workshop 4

Led participants through the full photogrammetry, lidar and Gaussian splat pipeline, from data capture to a processed 3D asset. Covered dataset collection, scan processing, cleanup, and optimization for real-time use.

Key Focus Areas:

Image capture and dataset creation
Image processing in Lightroom
Processing scans in RealityCapture
Cleanup and mesh optimization in Blender
Preparing assets for real-time engines

Workshop Outputs:

Photogrammetry dataset
Processed 3D scan library

Materials and Texturing in Unreal Engine 5 – Workshop 5

Led participants through material creation workflows in Unreal Engine 5, focusing on building scalable master materials and integrating texture assets. Covered decal workflows and created seamless textures from photographic sources.

Key Focus Areas: