Character Rendering in Unreal Engine 5

Archive translation. Specifications, services and availability reflect the original publication date in 2022. Verify current compatibility before production use.

In brief: Character artists interested in Unreal Engine 5 but wary of the game engine may find a useful starting point in lead character artist J Hill‘s one-hour tutorial, “Rendering Characters in Unreal Engine 5 | Full Process”. It provides a broad workflow overview, covering the import of a custom character model, material creation and high-resolution image rendering. The complete video is embedded below.

What does the tutorial cover? Participants learn how to transfer a self-created 3D character into Unreal Engine 5. The tutorial concentrates on producing portfolio imagery. Los Angeles-based J Hill guides the session, drawing on character work for Back 4 Blood, Apex Legends and Titanfall 2. The public tutorial developed from a longer video he had made available to Patreon followers.

Tutorial chapters:

Creating the Project
Basic Master Material
Skin Material
Eye Material
The Hair
Improved Skin Material
Micro Normals
Rendering Images
Iteration
Cavity Map
Final Renders

Further reading: Artists building an Unreal Engine pipeline can also consult the free Animation Field Guide, introduced by Digital Production on 8 July 2022. It explains how industry professionals structure efficient Unreal Engine pipelines. Test the demonstrated setup with representative assets before adopting it in production.

Rendering Characters in Unreal Engine 5 | Full Process