Hi
I’m relatively new to UE, but I’ve been using it for 1-2 years now as a hobbyist, creating random renderers and videos, as well as 3d environments.
I want to take it more seriously and work within the live events industry, but I’m not sure where to go and what to do.
What should I be learning and doing in UE to get a job in live events? What is your experience using it in events? What advice could you give me? What are the possibilities and what are the use cases for UE in live events?
if you’re new to ue start with the basics.
you’ll need that for almost everything.
once you’re comfortable with that you can keep learning easily on your own.
every job requires different things, i’m sure for “live events” is the same.
the best way would be to check the job descriptions for those jobs and start with the common stuff.
if for live events you mean attractions installed where people go and play with stuff that interacts with hardware. you might want to check stuff like osc, dmx. or other protocols (like rabbitmq).
but i’d say that’s about 1%, 99% is still general unreal stuff.
To expand on Live Events, I met someone randomly sometime ago and he mentioned that some functions and some people do use Unreal Engine on Live Events - gigs, music festivals as well as in Broadcast studios to create and play with the graphics during the live production.
The thing is , I have not come across a place where its an :“official job”, most of the jobs are in game development or related to Blueprint and development of the game, but I haven’t seen any jobs in Live events or some other places where you use UE in Real-time, except Virtual Production jobs.
Where can I find other job opportunities in UE, or what else can I learn to explore more creative possibilities in the Live Events scene?
I’m not sure If you know, but I’m just trying to expand more on my question.
That’s because it’s rarely an “official job”.
There aren’t that many companies who dedicates all resources 100% of the time for these sort of stuff.
Usually, (in my experience and ymmv), these are multimedia companies (more generalized, or animation focused), or game companies (more specific), that are contacted for a one-off event. By an event creator that is “visionary enough” to think “oh i want to do this”. but there’s usually not an established thing. since by definition is very very variable depending on the event.
In fact, most times, what happens is the Artist talks with his friends, has an idea, and implements it with those he knows, which might not have any experience in the field. and then you see the result and it’s pretty lackluster. i’ve seen that a ton. but that’s because it’s not really something that everyone has in their mind, and something really established. So it’s a matter of contacts.
There ARE some companies that do specific things, but usually you’ll find them under the umbrella of virtual production, since, virtual production is kind of the more formalized way of selling these kind of experiences. And also the easiest ones for clients to understand and know that they want to do them. (the key part in selling a service).
For example, i’ve seen companies that do VP for news shows, or some do real time stats using unreal on sports (i know a company that does that).
But i don’t personally know a company that does music shows and live events. (though i would LOVE to work on one).
I’ve worked in what some people call “Installations” (like theme parks and such). But that was not the main work for the company, they were outsourced. I think the companies that do installations 100% of the times are really few, i only know 2; because of economics and market.
This company i’ve worked for had couple of projects like “music video” (a standard one). and other random projects like an advertisement rendering.
But even on most of these companies there’s not a constant influx of the same type of work. So maybe a year you work on a live event, the next year you work on a match3 game, the next you work on a random thing.
So my recommendation is still the same.
If it sound general is because it is. you are at the start. It really does not make a ton of difference that it’s a live event or a game.
Learn the basics of ue as much as you can, no matter what you do, you’ll need them. and it’s potentially a waste to start learning other stuff. it might even block you from getting A job.
Focus on what you enjoy doing. Music? Animations? VFX? Coding? focus on your stuff. it doesn’t matter which field is applied. one day is a game another is a movie. sometimes you can’t choose, and that’s fine. you still grow. I’ve been a teacher for years, and i find a lot of people worry on what “the work wants for me”. but in my experience it’s better to think the other way around, learn what you love doing, THEN you’ll find the job where YOU can give something.
search, and keep searching. searching is constant.
build your network. most stuff comes from a network. go to events and such.
reach out. For example, in your city there’s an event with stuff like you like, go and talk to the organizers, send an email, ask which company did the thing and send a cv, ask for an interview. etc.
make it yourself. people are scared of this, but it’s actually the best way, and it’s a waste of time not to do it. i really think it’s the best way to learn. just start trying to build a demo of the job you want to be part of, and it will tell you exactly what you need to learn at the exact time. Because again, no-one can tell you what you NEED to learn, since everyone has different motivations, skills, knowledge, passion, etc. It’s a super specific question. For example, i could tell you to learn DMX (like i did), but maybe your thing is Animation. Also make your work public (while you do it, don’t wait to finish, the important part is the process), and you’ll attract attention from the right people. that can either connect you or get you an interview, or motivate you or teach you. Best case scenarios you end up creating a company that does it (i’ve seen this happen, and it’s awesome). This is what gave the best results to me and the people i know.
keep it up. it’s a process. can take years.
About 6: you can actually try things in real life and it’s pretty easy. I recommend you. You can go to a random pub somewhere and offer to do some live vfxs on one of their screens for free on a saturday night (or even a thursday when nobody goes). and it’d be easy way to start. i’ve almost did some VJ with live visualizations once, where i had a friend that was doing DJ on some pubs. It’s a way lower barrier of entry, and if you “fail” not a lot of pressure, since it’s free work. it’s a win-win for you and the bar. you might end up earning some money too (or getting free drinks and meeting people).
for example, do some research. i just found this
i really like that youtube channel, and he spoke with the company. check it out, you can find a link to the company or how they describe themselves or what they are looking for.
you might not be interested in making music videos, but it’s pretty likely that a company that makes music videos, would make a live interaction.
As a note, if you listen closely to the speaker, he’s a movie director (not a game producer or smth), that got into the idea of using UE kinda randomly, and had no prior experience. He said it clearly.
In fact UE changed their licensing a couple of years after this. so maybe now it’s a bit more established (since epic is pushing the idea of using the engine for animation and events), but imho, it’s still something like this, a bit random, and it’s easier to sell the idea to a director to use ue than to find a company that does this all the time.
i’m happy it helps. feel free to add me on linkedin if you want, it’s on my profile.