Archive notice: These Unreal Engine learning sessions were published in June 2020 and reflect the Unreal Engine 4.25-era toolset. Interfaces and licensing may have changed.
Epic Games released three learning sessions for artists exploring Unreal Engine, covering Niagara effects, Quixel Megascans and natural environment construction.
Niagara effects
Chris Murphy introduces Niagara through a character disintegration effect. The session provides a practical entry point for developers building particle-driven effects and exposes the system in the context of an assembled shot rather than as an isolated feature tour.
Megascans assembly
Galen Davis demonstrates how Bridge, Mixer and the Megascans library feed environment work in Unreal Engine. For Unreal projects, the library could be used without an additional asset charge under the terms available at the time, giving artists a fast route from scanned materials and objects to a photorealistic scene.
Natural environments
Paulo Souza builds a natural environment with Megascans and Unreal’s world-building tools. Runtime Virtual Textures are used to produce transitions between terrain and placed assets, helping scanned elements sit more convincingly in the landscape.
Teams should verify current engine requirements, asset licences and rendering behaviour, then test the workflows in a representative production scene before standardising them.
