Unreal Engine Fundamentals

SCHEDULE: TBA

DELIVERY: Live Virtual

DURATION: 12hrs (4x3hrs)

COST: CAD $595+ HST

DESCRIPTION:

Unreal Engine is at the forefront of Virtual Production, leading with advanced real-time 3D creation tools for photo-real visuals and immersive experiences. This introductory four-session course will give participants a working understanding of Unreal Engine 5.3 newest real-time toolset. Learn through hands-on lessons the fundamentals of Unreal Engine’s user interface and navigation; work with Quixel and Marketplace assets; scene building; setting up basic cinematic quality lighting; simple sequencing (using Sequencer for camera animation); and final rendering. These tools enable the creation of high quality environments with photo realistic and stylized cinematics, animated characters, visual effects and immersive audio.

NOTE: Participants must have at least some experience working with 3D applications.

This course will be delivered virtually via an online platform (Zoom) and a meeting link will be sent prior to the start date.

Unreal Engine Fundamentals focuses on creating an environment and virtual cinematics and does not cover real-time compositing techniques with live video feeds and LED walls, green screens, or other virtual production techniques.

Participants must have access to a powerful enough computer to run Unreal Engine in Cinematic quality (preferable with an RTX GPU for ray tracing)

• Must have Unreal Engine installed (5.3) before the start of your first session
• Go to: https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/download

Basic System Requirement Recommendation:

Windows 10 64-bit

• Quad-core Intel or AMD, 2.5 GHz or faster
• 16 GB RAM or more
• GeForce 1060 or Radeon RX 570 graphics card or higher

macOS Big Sur

• Quad-core Intel, 2.5 GHz or faster
• 8 GB RAM or more

INSTRUCTOR:

Tamara Abas is Canada’s first female Unreal Authorized Instructor who is passionate about virtual production and game development. Most recently, Tamara was a VAD (Virtual Art Department) Unreal Engine Generalist for the ETC (Entertainment Technology Center at USC School of Cinematic Arts. She worked on an in-camera visual effects (ICVFX) production in collaboration with Sony Pictures Entertainment, Pixomondo, and Qube. As a Junior Technical Director for Herne Hill Media, she assisted in solving problems related to pipeline, plugins and technical issues.

In 2023, Tamara completed the Unreal Fellowship Animation program with Epic Games. This three-week virtual training examined the principles of animation and the technical foundations of constructing keyframe and or motion capture data within Unreal Engine.

She was one of the Lead Unreal Engine instructors for Canada's first Indigenous Virtual Production Microcredential program through IM4 Media Lab and Emily Carr University of Art and Design. She provided virtual and in-person training for numerous topics including previsualization, lighting and ICVFX and technically supported 24 students from across Canada. Tamara also led Unreal Engine 5 and Word Building workshops through New Media Manitoba, the Sector Council lead for Information, Communication and Digital Technologies and a non-profit industry association dedicated to supporting Manitoba’s Interactive Digital Media (IDM) industry. She also assisted in teaching Unreal Engine for Seven Oaks MET school, where students grade 9 to 12 participated in learning 3D Fundamentals, alongside utilizing Unreal Engine for worldbuilding projects. 

In her spare time, Tamara loves exploring developing tools in Unreal Engine using Python, UMG, Blueprints and strives to always learn and grow in the ever-evolving creative industry. She is passionate about sharing her knowledge and skills to help others thrive and find community in the industry.

Skills include Unreal Engine, Houdini, Substance Designer, Substance Painter, Material Creation, Lighting, Rendering, Blueprints, Optimization, Look Development, Remote Teaching, and Course Development.