The Challenge
Starting from June 8, 2023 at 2:00 PM Eastern, you have four weeks to create a video entry inspired by the theme, Furious Elegance, which must be submitted by 2023-07-06T23:00:00Z. The Grand Prize winner for the UEFN and Unreal Engine category will receive $1,000 cash plus prizes from ArtStation, MOVE, Reallusion, and fancy swag; runner-up winning entries will also receive prizes. For the full prize breakdown, see the prize section on this page.
In previous challenges, weâve had a fantastic turnout from students, and we want to continue to nurture that. The Unreal Challenge will be awarded in three groups, Unreal Engine individuals overall, Unreal Engine individual student, and the NEW category; Unreal Editor for Fortnite individuals overall.
While the overall composition of your scene is important, environmental visuals do not play into this particular challenge, so you are encouraged to focus on animation and how the animations may interact with the environment from both a technical and a creative/visual standpoint. It is recommended that you create an environment that is something fitting to your idea and your interpretation of the theme.
Animation, motion, facial expressions, and more can convey strong emotion, aspiration, and atmosphere, whether it is in a stage performance, movies, traditional animation, in games, simulation, stylized or realisticâthe possibilities and applications of animation as a skillset are broad and expanding within a myriad of industries.
Want to stay in the loop for announcements during the event?
Join the dedicated challenge group on the forums!
Video Requirements:
To enter the challenge, you need to create a video highlighting the challenge theme, Furious Elegance, and the focus, animation. Your video must be:
- Posted in the Unreal Challenge forum category by the submission deadline, July 6, 2023 at 7 PM ET. 2023-07-06T23:00:00Z
- Between 20 and 90 seconds long, with a minimum resolution of 1920 x 1080
- 30 or 60 frames per second is preferred; others are welcome for creative exploration, but these may not be able to be used in a potential winner or honorable mention sizzle.
- Created using Unreal Engine or UEFN without any post-production software or tools outside of those permitted as outlined in the official rules.
- Fully creditedâyou may use premade assets that you have the right to use as part of your entry, but you must credit your sources.
Please note the submission criteria for UEFN Entries differ from Unreal Engine and Unreal Engine Student Submissions.
HOW TO SUBMIT AN ENTRY
- Create a new Discussion in the Unreal Challenge category , or here for UEFN submissions and use the tag âFuriousEleganceContestâ FuriousEleganceContest
- Include a title for your video
- Link to your video; please make sure this is viewable.
- Indicate whether or not you are currently a student
- Include which Engine version you used to create your project
- Attach a screenshot of your project in the Editor (whether a UE or UEFN entry)
THE NEW TOPIC TEMPLATE WILL HELP GUIDE YOU TOO!
UNREAL EDITOR FOR FORTNITE
Weâre happy to introduce a new category set for Unreal Editor for Fortnite Creators!
Weâre excited to shine the light on everything that UEFN, developers, and creators can achieve together, which is why weâre bringing UEFN to the Unreal Challenges, and youâre hearing it here first; UEFN will be coming to the Epic MegaJams too, which is FAB!
New to UEFN? Learn more and get started here.
Whether honing your robust Unreal Engine skills or dropping into Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) to hone new abilities, weâre excited to see what stories youâll tell during the Unreal Challenge: Furious Elegance.
Check out our all-new course that covers recording with OBS so that you can show off your UEFN experiences in style, not to mentionâyour Unreal Challenge UEFN entry!
Looking for a student challenge?
It can be daunting to join global challenges when just starting your journey into the creative industries, whether studying in higher education or an accredited short course. Epic Games wants to give you every opportunity to grow, learn, and succeed.
Last year we split the Unreal Challenges into two categories, one as a general category and the other as a dedicated category to recognize outstanding students!
Take part in the Unreal Community Challenge series to learn new skills and showcase your work while receiving feedback from fellow creators. Whether studying game development, film, or storytelling, these challenges are for you! Our latest challenge Furious Elegance is your chance to hone and showcase your animation skills.
GETTING STARTED
Join us this week on a special Inside Unreal as we kick off the latest challenge, Furious Elegance. A panel of talented individuals will join us as they take us through the choreography of animation fundamentals, cool moves, tips, tricks and best practices! Come hang out as we walk through the rules, prizes and the live Q&A!
Learn more about the livestream here.
SPONSORS
Reallusion
Reallusion software is a platform for digital human character creativity and animation. Emphasizing character scalability for creative and industry projects, Reallusion real-time characters are populating across Media and Entertainment, Metaverse, Digital Twin factories, Architectural visualizations, and AI Simulations.
AccuRIG is a free application designed for fast and easy character rigging, aiming to reduce production effort for character artists by focusing on model design with automation and simplicity. Achieve accurate and superior rigging results in 5 simple steps for models in A/T/scan poses, or with low/high/multiple meshes. Direct export to all major 3D tools, or upload directly to ActorCore and try tons of production-ready animations for game, film, archviz, digital twins and more.
MOVE
Move.aiâs mobile app transforms the complex workflow of motion capture into four simple steps, taking minutes to set up and start processing data.
Move.ai brings markerless motion capture to the masses. Using the Move.ai app, creators can capture high-quality motion data, previously only available to major studios. Move.aiâs patented software extracts natural human motion from video using advanced AI, computer vision, biomechanics and physics, automatically retargeting the data to your character rig. Capture footage in any environment, using an iPhone, with no suits, markers or additional hardware needed. Move.ai captures performance data from anyone, anywhere.
ArtStation
ArtStation was shaped with the goal of empowering artists and creating opportunities for success. Itâs the place for artists to connect with others in the community and showcase their work.
Sign up for free today to build your portfolio, find jobs, access an ever-growing library of video learning content, and more.
PRIZES
| Unreal Engine Prizes | UE Student Prizes | UEFN Prizes |
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Community Recognition Awards
In addition to the above awards, this Challenge we are trialing the âCommunity Recognition Awardâ in which the most voted on eligible entry by the community will receive the following:
Unreal Engine Community Recognition Award Prize:
- One (1) $250 in Marketplace Credits
- One (1) featured highlight on the official Unreal Engine blog
- One (1) featured highlight on the official Creator Portal
- One (1) feature in the form of the Unreal Challenge: Furious Elegance Sizzle Reel
UEFN Community Recognition Award Prize:
- One (1) $250 in Marketplace Credits
- One (1) featured highlight on the official Unreal Engine blog
- One (1) featured highlight on the official Creator Portal
- One (1) feature in the form of the Unreal Challenge: Furious Elegance Sizzle Reel
Judging Panel
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HaZ Dulull |
Niall Hendry |
Heather Storm |
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Enoc Burgos |
Carol Andrea Madrigal |
Jim Geduldick |
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Koina Freeman |
Learning and Resources
Looking for more Character and Animation tutorials and courses from Epic Games? Head to this filtered view of the Epic Developer Community Learning Library! If it is Cinematics and Media that youâre after; here you go!
Donât forget that we have learning content from both Epic Games and the community that covers everything from programming, world creation, audio, and pipelines to rendering, animation, asset creation, and more! For the full UE Learning Library, head here.
- Slay Animation Sample in UE Feature Samples - UE Marketplace
- Build a Third Person Character from Scratch | Course
- Unreal Futures: Careers in Animation | Course
- Animation Ecosystem for Game Development | Course
- Creating and Modifying Control Rig | Course
- Procedural Rigging with Control Rig | Talks and demos
- Technical Guide To Linear Content Creation: Sequencer | Course
- Virtual Puppeteering and Input Based Animation | Course
Are you looking for Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) related learning course and tutorials? The Epic Developer Community has host of in-depth material to get you started, as well as comprehensive UEFN documentation!
Official Rules
Please read the official rules for complete details, including a full list of submission guidelines, prizing, and more.
The rules for this challenge are also available in Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, Spanish (EU) (LATAM), and Turkish.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Challenge?
Challenges shift focus to honing skills, talents, and workflows, allowing individuals to concentrate on a specific type of skillset within Unreal Engine or development, such as animation, VFX, etc. Another benefit to challenges is that they can reach a broader range of industries, from games, AEC, Film and TV, and beyond, while catering to busy professionals or students alike with four weeks rather than seven days like with the MegaJam
Do I have to use Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite to participate?
Yes. Other tools and software are permitted in the production pipeline; however, it is required that the final render is directly encoded from Unreal Engine without the use of post-production software unless otherwise specified in the Challenge rules or event page. If a UEFN submission, the only post-production permitted (outside of other noted permitted uses) will be to trim the overall screen recording but not to edit/move clips. The content in your game session should be unchanged in the screen-recording final export.
Can I provide an entry for each categoryâUnreal Engine, Student, and UEFNâor a subset of those?
No, you can only provide one entry across the challenge or MegaJam. If you submit multiple entries, the one closest to the deadline will be counted as your submission, and former submissions will not be eligible for judging.
What is UEFN?
Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) is a new PC application for designing, developing, and publishing games and experiences directly into Fortnite. UEFN works side-by-side with Fortniteâs existing Creative toolset, and teams of creators can work together across PC and console to develop and test islands in real-time. Learn more and get started with UEFN here.
Will judges scores be revealed?
No. Judges scores will not be revealed at any point.
Challenge FAQs | UE & Students
How do I submit my entry for the challenge?
Create a new discussion in the challenge category on the Unreal Engine forums, and use the tag âFuriousEleganceContest.â
What is classified as a Student Entry?
To be eligible as a student submission, the Entrant must be enrolled in higher education. This can be full-time or part-time, or a short course. Entrants may be required to show evidence of this in line with the official rules which can be found on the announcement blog and event page.
Can I use Movie Render Queue?
Your video file must be encoded directly from Unreal Engine only, using any methods described in the documentation, including Movie Render Queue. We reserve the right to ask you to provide a screen recording of running the render from Movie Render Queue.
Can I use audio or dialogue?
Yes, but be advised that it is not a part of the judging criteria. If you use post-production software, you may ONLY use it for adding audio, and not to manipulate the visuals in any way; we reserve the right to ask to see a screen recording of the render within Unreal Engine. You can also add audio from within the engine using the command-line encoder (in the case of Movie Render Queue) or by adding audio tracks via Sequencer.
Is ray tracing or path tracing allowed?
Yes, ray tracing and path tracing are permitted for this challenge.
Can I work as part of a team?
No, you must work on your submission as an individual. Team entries do not qualify.
Can I use Unreal Engine samples and demo projects?
Yes, you can. If you find you have time or want to challenge yourself further, you could even create your own environment, by kitbashing assets you already own or have access to, such as free Marketplace content. If using an Animation sample, ensure there have been considerable changes to the base content.
Can I use Marketplace assets that I own?
Yes, you are encouraged to use what you own and have permission to use to create your scenes. Upon submission, you will have to credit any non-original assets used. Failure to do so would result in disqualification.
My submission hasnât shown up after I posted it. What should I do?
If this is the first time you have posted on the forums, your post will enter the moderation review queue and will be approved shortly. If this is close to the deadline, donât worry: we can see what time these are attempted to be posted; if a submission post hits the review queue before the deadline, it will still be approved.
Can I use older engine versions?
Yes, though using the latest stable version(s) might be more advantageous. Remember to use Experimental features at your own risk.
I have a question regarding the challenge that is not covered in the FAQ. How can I find the answer?
Create a new question in the challenge category, and use the tag âUnrealChallenge.â
Challenge FAQs | UEFN
How do I create a submission video?
As there are still feature developments to grant the ability to render exports from UEFN, the best way to submit a video will be for the UEFN Entrant to screen-record using software such as OBS. This can then be trimmed (not changed) and submitted per the submission criteria.
Will my UEFN submission directly compete with Unreal Engine or Student submissions?
No. UEFN submissions have their own category. Your entry will not compete with other categories.
Do I need to publish my island for my submission to be eligible?
No. You do not have to publish your island to be eligible for submission. However, we may ask you to publish so that we can check the eligibility of the entry. You do not have to do this unless we reach out.
Can I participate multiple times in the same category?
No, you can only provide one entry across the challenge. If you submit multiple entries, the one closest to the deadline will be counted as your submission, and former submissions will not be eligible for judging.
Where do I post my submission video?
Your UEFN submission video will need to be posted video the Unreal Challenge category on the forums and using the âFuriousEleganceContestâ tag. Ready to submit now?
Why canât I post in the Forums?
If you are receiving the message âYour account does not yet meet the requirements of this site. Terms of Service - Epic Games please contact support via https://www.fortnite.com/help-center.
