Summer of Unreal

It’s like the Summer of Love, only better.

• We cover the use of Unreal Engine across areas such as pre-visualisation, layout, rigging, animation, modelling, lighting, importing characters into Unreal Engine and rendering.
• Live, daily expert tuition in all key aspects of Unreal Engine.
• Online support from our Studio Assistants.
• Use Discord to communicate for project work, it’s a great chance for networking!
• Learn from case studies of Unreal Engine production from across Europe by meeting industry practitioners and creators.
• Work with colleagues from across Europe to solve creative briefs whilst learning.
• Hear directly from Epic Games about new developments.
• Hear panels of experts discuss how Unreal Engine is changing media production.
• Find out how you can make Unreal Engine work for your workflow.
• Participants will be able to collect digital badges for each day, and on collecting an attendance of at least 80%, gain a certificate of attendance from Escape Studios and signed by Epic Games.

This course is free for industry professionals with at least two years of experience working in an animation studio or on animation projects in any artist role including Rigging, Layout, Pre-visualisation, Concept Art, Animation, Lighting and Rendering.

This course is also open to tutors and educators. Priority will be given for higher education, but applications from further education and gymnasia-style schools will also be considered.

Unfortunately, this course is not open to students or alumni – please do not apply unless you are already working in the industry. Participants are also expected to sign up for the whole month.

The Summer of Unreal aims to focus on the wider animation production industry. Our training is aimed at those helping create animated content in a professional capacity, but film and TV operatives are not excluded. It would also be useful for VFX and motion graphics artists, as well as producers and directors, who are looking to understand how Unreal Engine could fit into their workflows. You’ll need to be familiar with basic 3D digital content creation tools. Epic Games are also keen for tertiary level teachers and lecturers to attend.

Originally developed for the games industry, Unreal Engine has been increasingly used in VFX due to the level of detail it can capture and create, including projects like Game of Thrones or The Mandalorian. Next in line is the animation industry and the many opportunities the software brings for real-time production. Make sure you join that new wave!

Unreal Engine is the world’s most open and advanced real-time 3D creation tool. It has changed the way games have been made for years, but recently has become a powerful tool for Animation and VFX creators with its ability to run photoreal and complex 3D scenes in real time. It has opened up incredible new opportunities for the Animation and 3D CGI industries.

It gives creators the freedom and control to deliver cutting-edge entertainment, compelling visualisations, and even immersive virtual worlds.

Demand for real-time 3D skills are at an all-time high and learning Unreal Engine opens up your career potential. On the Summer of Unreal you’ll not only learn how to use Unreal Engine in your work, you’ll also meet the companies across Europe who are leveraging its power to create new animated possibilities.

Find out more here

Week 1

• Introduction to Unreal Engine
• Materials
• Lighting
• Partner showcase

Week 2

• Functional lighting
• Animation in Unreal Engine
• Partner showcase

Week 3

• Creating photoreal sequences with Megascan and other software
• Rendering in Unreal Engine
• Motion graphics in Sequencer
• Partner showcase

Week 4

• Technical information and diagnostics
• Using Niagara
• Partner showcase
• Project delivery and showcase

This course will be taught in English through Zoom and Discord over a period of four weeks, split into days of experimentation and practice. This course offers a breathable curriculum which means there will be room for participants to keep up to date with their own work and leisures. The course will feature daily workshops covering all the major aspects of using Unreal Engine interspersed with practice time, teamwork, as well as demonstrations and masterclasses from some of Europe’s premier companies and artists showing how they use real-time technology in their work.

Daily hours are 9.30am to 3.30pm (UTC+1 UK time), Monday to Friday. Most training will take place in the morning and weekends are free. For planning purposes, lunch will be an hour at 12.30pm (UTC+1 UK time).

Students will be divided into smaller groups and set a project. The groups will then be supported on Discord by Escape Studios’ Studio Assistants.

The demand of Unreal Engine in the creative industry is rapidly growing, so make sure to keep your skillset strong by studying the Summer of Unreal course. It will help you to begin your journey into the world of Unreal Engine and the implementation of it into your animation pipeline. It will also introduce you to a huge community of users across Europe, giving you an abundance of networking opportunities.

Saša Živković
Education Manager @ Crater Training Center

With thousands of educated trainees of all ages under his hat, Saša is an expert in IT-related education certified by Adobe and Autodesk. A consistently top-rated Autodesk instructor for Serbia, he was also licensed by the Institute for the Advancement of Education and Training to provide IT training to high school teachers. In collaboration with Computer Library Čačak, he has authored four AutoCAD instruction books.
A multi-talent, Saša also worked on various projects related to stage design, advertising, and business process monitoring software implementation. Formally educated as a Naval Architect at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, he has spent his life expanding his knowledge of computer graphics and its cross-industry applications. At Crater Training Center, he teaches AutoCAD 2D, AutoCAD 3D, 3ds Max, Teen 3ds Max, Architectural Visualization, Photoshop, Teen Photoshop, Digital Editing and Creation, Architecture Student Module 1 and Architecture Student Module 2.

You will need your own PC or Mac and a solid internet connection. Unreal Engine will work on much older systems, but it is recommended that you have a bare minimum of a GTX 770 or equivalent.

Click here for the tech specs for Unreal Engine, as well as Epic Games’ support documentation, so you can check if it will run successfully on your machine.

Mac users might experience issues with Unreal Engine, so it’s best to check your version of Xcode, Apple’s integrated development environment (IDE) for macOS.

You can check here for the different versions for different operating systems: https://xcodereleases.com/

Unfortunately, Escape Studios cannot help out with Mac issues as we are PC/Linux based.