Overview

Learn to create immersive virtual worlds in Unreal Engine

Become a real-time 3D technical artist with training from an Unreal Academic Partner. Learn how to tell compelling stories through film-quality cinematics using the world building, lighting, and camera skills you'll learn directly from industry experts. 

Why study virtual production with us:

  • We are an Unreal Academic Partner and Authorized Training Center
  • Receive mentorship from real-time 3D professionals
  • Learn to use industry-standard tools and techniques
  • Choose private 1-on-1 or small group classes (max. 4 students)

Gain speed and confidence using Epic's Unreal Engine, learn cutting-edge real-time 3d techniques and learn how to build high-quality scenes that you can add to your professional portfolio to show prospective employers.

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Qualification

Industry Certificate

Duration

9 months

Commitment

20 hrs weekly

Skill level

Beginner to
Intermediate

Start date

November 4th, 2024

December 2nd, 2024

January 6th, 2025

Delivery Mode

Weekly live online classes
Video lectures
Mentor feedback
Access to vibrant community

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Why study with us

Learn virtual production and real-time 3d technical art from industry pros

Our expert-led courses prepare you for a fulfilling career as a realtime 3D technical artist. Learn virtual production techniques and build practical job skills studios are looking for.

Flexible Scheduling

Plan your studies around your work and family commitments

Industry Mentors

Learn from mentors who have worked in the film and games industry

Job-Ready Skills

Build practical, relevant job skills that studios are looking for

Payment Plans

Options to help you pursue your passion and start working sooner

Curriculum

Industry-focused online course to help launch your career as a real-time 3D artist

Term 1: 12 weeks

Foundations 1: Essentials of 3D

In this term, you'll start with the fundamentals of 3D, learning how to set up models, scenes, rigs, and animation to set the stage from which all other 3D skills be built.  Developing a good foundation in this area is essential for moving on to the more advanced terms where you'll apply your new skills to the world of Unreal Engine to bring your visions to life.

  • 3D Modeling basics and geometry
  • Texturing and lighting techniques
  • Foundational animation principles
  • Rigging basics
  1. Introduction to 3D Space
  2. Modeling Projects and Pipeline
  3. Modeling Tools and Techniques
  4. Modeling Workflows
  5. Modeling for Real-time 3D
  6. Principles of UV Mapping
  7. Principles of Materials and Rendering
  8. Animation Principles
  9. Applied 3d Animation
  10. Animation Cycles
  11. Principles of Rigging
  12. Lighting and Rendering
Term 2: 12 weeks

Foundations 2: Core Real-time 3D Principles

In this subject you'll start with the fundamentals of Unreal Engine, learning how to set up animated characters in the engine, along with a wide variety of features, plus rigging and motion basics. Developing a good foundation in this area is essential for moving on to the more advanced Real-Time 3D topics where you'll apply your new skills to creating a film-quality cinematic shot.

  • How to use a wide range of Unreal Engine features
  • Basic animation and rigging skills
  • Working with motion capture
  • An overview of real-time and virtual production pipelines
  1. Intro to Unreal and White-boxing
  2. Modeling in Unreal and File Management
  3. Basics with Materials
  4. Intro to Niagara
  5. Exporting and Importing Meshes and Animation
  6. Intro to Sequencer Animation
  7. Animating with Control Rig
  8. Metahuman and Interactive Characters
  9. Facial Performance Capture
  10. Introduction to Rigging
  11. Character Rigging Basics
  12. Unreal Control Rig
Term 3: 12 weeks

Foundations 3: Professional Worldbuilding

Discover what it takes to build a believable virtual world. You'll start by learning different methods of creating landscapes within Unreal Engine, and QuadSpinner Gaea before moving on to advanced texture blending, auto materials, and water systems. Next, you'll look at all lighting, VFX, and the post process volume to bring your scene to life. Finally, you'll work to set up a basic camera shot to take your scene to a final film quality render.

  • How to create landscapes using Gaea & Unreal Engine
  • Advanced texturing & lighting
  • Optimizing your scenes for render
  • Camera set-up & rendering film-quality cinematics

Portfolio project: A cinematic ready real-time environment scene.

  1. Scene Blockout and Project Management
  2. Creating a Landscape
  3. Advanced Landscapes & Blending Materials
  4. Lighting Systems in Unreal Engine
  5. Planning & Layout
  6. Foundations & Photogrammetry
  7. Detailing Your World
  8. Good Practices & Polishing
  9. Lighting & Atmosphere
  10. Adding Life, & Optimization Workflows
  11. Rendering with Movie Render Queue
  12. Color Grading & Delivery with Davinci Resolve
Course structure

Your pathway to the industry

The 9-month Foundations Course is the first half of our Career Track, helping you pave your pathway into the creative industries. Gain foundational skills and knowledge that will prepare you for advanced industry training.

Pathway illustration for Foundations 9 Month Course
Mentors

Get direct access to real-time artists with years of experience

Our real-time 3D and virtual production courses are taught by industry pros. You'll receive expert guidance from a new mentor each term!

Student Showcase

High-quality work that's out of this world!

We help students build their competitive edge by learning the tools and techniques used in the industry. This helps them produce impressive content that stands out. See some examples below!

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Studios that hire our students

Our commitment to job outcomes and a focus on career development has helped graduates find work at studios all over the world.
Frequently asked questions

Realtime 3D & Virtual Production Course FAQs

Age Minimum
The minimum age to be able to enrol in our career track courses is 16. We require parent or guardian consent during the enrollment process for applicants under 18.

English Proficiency
We expect our students to have a good understanding of written and spoken English. There’s no specific ’level'; however, you must be able to understand video tutorials in English (no subtitles) and speak with your mentor in English during your live Q&A session.

Computer Literacy
To be successful in this program, you will need basic computer skills and a computer that meets the minimum specifications (see next question).

Preparation
If you would like to prepare before starting the this course, you could work on the following basic skills:

  • Polygonal modeling principles and workflows
  • UV unwrapping workflows 
  • Animation timeline and graph editing workflows
  • 3D Rendering workflows

Software:

This course requires you to purchase/download the following software:

  • Unreal Engine (free)
  • Autodesk Maya (educational license)
  • Substance Painter (educational license)
  • QuadSpinner Gaea (educational license)
  • DaVinci Resolve (free)
  • RealityCapture (free)

Instructions for how to obtain an educational license for this software will be provided upon enrollment.

Hardware:

Students will need a dedicated graphics card and a computer that meets the minimum requirements for Unreal Engine, Gaea, RealityCapture, and DaVinci Resolve.

Please note: as the software we use is regularly updated, please check the specs against the latest available version at the time of enroling.

No, we do not currently plan to support physical hands-on training. Our focus is more on storytelling through Unreal Engine.

It can be if it's specifically using Unreal Engine to build a more immersive experience.

 

3D animation is explored within Term 1 ("Essentials of 3D"), using Maya, and again in Term 2 ("Core Real-time 3D Principles"), using Unreal Engine, including general 3D animation rigging principles. For those who want to learn animation in more detail, we recommend exploring our 3D animation courses.

Real-time 3D students will also study elements of visual effects using Niagara, Unreal Engine's next-generation VFX system. There is one lesson on Niagara in Foundations Term 2 ("Core Real-time 3D Principles"); however, the Real-time 3D Specialization course covers it in much more detail, dedicating a full term (six weeks) to it.

FX is a broad discipline, so besides the fire and power-ups covered in this course, those seeking a deeper understanding of FX and simulation are encouraged to explore our FX courses.

Basic post-production concepts are included within Foundations Term 3 ("Professional Worldbuilding"), however, to continue understanding professional compositing workflows using Nuke, we offer compositing courses that can be explored further. 

Matchmoving is not part of the virtual production curriculum but is introduced in our Digital Compositing Foundations course.

Contact the student admissions team about possibly accommodating this within the course.

This real-time 3D course would provide excellent technical knowledge required for the architectural presentation of characters, lighting, camerawork, and rendering.

It doesn't specifically focus on the architectural industry, so topics related to the design, layout, and material matching standards required for architectural visualizations might be missed.

For those interested in architectural development, explore 3D Visualization courses.

This course gives you an excellent understanding of real-time 3D and virtual production fundamentals, and depending on your level of commitment, skills, and portfolio pieces, you may be ready to start applying for entry-level artist positions.

To further hone your skills and increase your hiring potential, the Real-time 3D Artist Specialization course (available early 2025) is recommended. It covers more complex techniques and includes an entire term dedicated to career development and building your portfolio to prepare you for junior real-time 3D jobs such as:

Skilled real-time artists are in demand across the film and game industries and beyond. Read more about the role of a real-time 3D technical artist and how real-time workflows are being adopted by a wide range of industries.