Starting with UE as a newbie, softwares and ressources.

Community Community & Industry Discussion
1

Hello.

First of all this topic must have be written a colossal amount of time, so please excuse me, i made my research to make it easiest for anyone wanting to help me to step-in into this world.

I’m starting to learn Unreal Engine as engine for level designing, concept art making, and other reasons. As i’m starting from scratch, i must say my knowledge is pretty limited. I’m counting on gentle people of this community to let me know the must have to start to learn in the easiest way. First of all, speaking of softwares, i’m looking for some little things. It’s pretty obvious that i will use UE as engine, for multiple reasons, and the first is it’s “Free” to use and possess a huge base.

I think i also need a texturing tool, and Quixel Mixer seems to be pretty solid one. I’m starting my learning sessions on it.

I should also need a modeling tool for assets and maybe little scenes, and here i have no clue of the one i must choose. My budget is small, and i think i have not access to Indie version of Maya or 3DS-max. Blender seems to be the best option here, not only because it’s free, but also because the lack of competence i possess will make any tool good to start learning with.

I will also use Photoshop for height map and textures, maybe for small arts too, even if i think Mixer as built-in painter tools.

And i’m sure i forgot a lot of tool, assets & textures database, free course, that will help me to jump right into it with a very limited budget. I’m not focus right now on making a game, i start really low with only be able to make scenes and environment for concept art making. It’s the first step i need to reach.

Maybe a little more about me will help in helping me to start in the right direction. I was a network engineer, i’m pretty confident with any computer system, code learning, not afraid of C++ or any basic code, even if i know that a lot of easy tools exists now. With life issues (health) i have now full-time to work on what i wan’t, so time will not be an issue in my learning process.

Thank you all very much for your kindness and your help, you must have a lot of knowledge to share and i can’t wait to read all of your answers.

Stay safe.

2

hi

:slight_smile: I am new myself to the engine, just learning my way around, I found this gentleman’s tutorials to be newbie friendly :
this dude does c++(unreal version) and blueprints so ur not missing out ( big thing is the author EnableDev trys to explain “every” detail, just learn to take good notes : personally i like all my notes within the editor using comment bubbles, works better because u can move them around + color code them! I also suggest pausing after each step he goes fast.) :

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCL1…9LkFRKA/videos

I am still using this guys tutorials to learn blueprints and c++
in this video series, he teaches how to combine blueprints and c++ together in the same project, starting from a blank project, very useful for newbies like myself :

once u get started, it gets a lot easier, the hardest part is the start.

hope this stuff helps :slight_smile:

God Bless you. May Jesus Christ be Charitable unto you.

Acts 10 : 33 - 48, google it, its Awesome.

3

TerreScupltor 2.0 and L3DT are free software for quick heightmap terrain generation including world composition tiles.

ArmorPaint is a cheap 3D painting software.

4

Thanks you two for your kind answers ! Nice to read you.

I love your suggestions and will use it. For height maps i’m used to photoshop but will try this software to see if faster.

I’ve been thinking a lot (still think at first and then run into it like a dog) and made a planning for my courses 2 days ago (i started it right away), and i decided to first focus on Blender (wich is awesome since 2.8) and a little of Quixel Mixer wich seems a good combination. So i’m focusing on it for at least 3 months at “full-time”, and will introduce UE (C++ & Blueprint) little by little after that with still focusing on Blender. Once i will be good at making assets (not wanting to be a masterchief before a while), i will be able to add more UE, and focus more on UE later on. First goal will be to make little games/scenes with low poly, and then extend. I know i will need to focus on making better arts or coding better games one day.

I also saw a lot of common tutorials about blender, and maybe it could help others to know what i’ve come to put in place :

  • I choose to focus on low poly to start. I’m doing half time tutorials (i like Grant Abbitt & Imphenzia) and courses, and half time free use to put me in difficulty, i do about 22h of blender per week, doing only courses or tutorials is a bad idea to my taste as it could lead me to only do work that others do. I also have 4 hours of weekly challenges to create little scenes/models at first, but forcing me to be creative (It’s like sculpting with a knife at this point, but i learn fast).
  • I choose the same split for Mixer, but only 6h a week, to prepare some textures for later on.
  • I have 4-6h of documentations focusing,to arrange notes, clean them, check missing points and prepare short notes.
  • I have 5 hours a week to check news about 3D industry, Blender/UE news, video games, tutorial news, etc, to stay tuned.
  • And i have a debrief at the end of each week to see the progress and what needs to be focused.

I use this planning for 3 months, with a lot of free time inside (almost half) to work more (or play and see creative stuff) if i wan’t but not forcing myself more than that (it’s a marathon).

Good luck Mount_Zion777, and if others can put more suggestions here, i will be pleased !

Stay safe as always.

5

Read the Unreal docs carefully.
Consider learning basic audio while learning other aspects of making games / scenes.
Try to not rely on the forums too much as it can waste time and result in delays to learning.
Don’t worry about low-poly versus higher poly. Low-poly doesn’t necessarily mean it’s easier to learn and do things in Unreal (it can be the contrary).
Get solid knowledge of export / import from Blender to Unreal, and between other apps and Unreal.