Blender to Unreal Engine Character and Animation Basics

via Coursera Specialization

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Provider

Coursera Specialization
Pricing

Paid Course
Languages

English
Certificate

Certificate Available
Effort

4 weeks, 10 hours a week
Sessions

Self-Paced
Level

Beginner

Found in

Overview

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This Specialization is intended for beginners and aspiring 3D artists seeking to develop foundational modeling, rendering, and character animation skills. Through 3 courses, you will cover Blender fundamentals, 3D modeling techniques, lighting, rendering, and Unreal Engine character creation and animation, preparing you to create original 3D assets and interactive characters for games, animation, or digital media. Learn from experienced instructors Harry Helps and Lucas Ridley, who bring years of professional experience in 3D art, animation, and game production.

Syllabus

Course 1: Complete Beginners Guide to Blender 3D
Course 2: Blender 3D for Beginners: Learn to Model a Balloon Dog
Course 3: 3D Animation in Unreal Engine: Create an Original Character

Courses

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Bring a character to life with the power of 3D design in Unreal Engine. In this class, your instructor, Lucas Ridley, will teach you how to use Unreal Engine for the first time and leverage the software to create your own custom character. From recording a personalized facial capture to customizing a Metahuman character, you’ll discover that creating a playable character within Unreal Engine isn’t as intimidating as you might think. With Lucas as your guide, you’ll: - Discover Unreal Engine and how to navigate the software - Use the Metahuman app to create a customized character - Import your character into Unreal Engine - Play your character within a template level - Plus, you’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at Lucas’ work process as a full-time animator. Whether you dream of working as an animator in films or video games or you are just curious about 3D character animation, you’ll leave this class knowing how to create your own unique character that your audience can connect to. To take this class, you don’t need any Unreal Engine experience. All you need is an interest in creating your own 3D films or video games as well as the Unreal Engine software, a computer, and a three button mouse. To record your own facial capture you’ll need an iPhone and the Live Link App but you can also download free motion capture data online if you don’t have an iPhone. Instructor bio: Lucas Ridley is a professional animator whose work has appeared in films by directors like Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis, as well as in major game studios. Originally from Kentucky, his career has taken him around the world, from Los Angeles to London, contributing to blockbuster projects while also pursuing personal creative work. Lucas brings that industry experience into teaching, where he focuses on making animation approachable and frustration-free. His goal is to give learners clear, practical guidance to help them build confidence and create with independence.
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Hi, my name is 'Harry Helps' and In this class I'll guide you through a fun beginner exercise where we’ll create a 3d balloon dog in Blender. We’ll go through each part of the process step-by-step, so you should find it fun and easy to follow along with me. We’re using Blender for this tutorial, which is an amazing and totally free 3d software. The only barrier to entry is having a computer to run the software on. A balloon dog might seem like an odd choice for a beginner project, but it really is a perfect place to start! You'll learn: - Modeling - Creating the body of the balloon dog - Modifiers - Additional modeling effects, such as smoothing - Shading - Making the balloon dog look like a colorful rubber - Lighting - Adding lights to illuminate our scene - Rendering - Positioning a 3d camera and generating a picture of our balloon dog At the end, we’ll have a cute balloon dog to render to our heart’s content. It’s also a model that can be easily altered into a different animal just by adjusting some proportions or adding a new piece! Our class project will have you take all of the techniques you learned making the balloon dog, and apply them to make another animal of your choice. You can keep the shape simple and abstract like the balloon dog, or you can go all out and make a balloon masterpiece! Post your balloon animal to the gallery to show off your hard work and imagination to myself and all the other students! I hope you’ll join me on this fun little beginner’s journey through Blender by making your very own balloon dog! Instructor bio: 'Harry Helps' is a 3D artist and educator with over a decade of professional experience in modeling, texturing, animation, and post-production. Throughout his career, he has worked across diverse industries—from MMORPG game studios and video production companies to award-winning architectural visualization firms—holding roles such as Studio Director, Lead 3D Artist, and Greenscreen Editor. His work has been featured in 3D Artist magazine, where he also contributed tutorial content. With extensive expertise in Blender, 3ds Max, V-Ray, and Photoshop, Harry is passionate about sharing his knowledge and inspiring the next generation of 3D creators.
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Hi, my name is 'Harry Helps'! In this class, we’ll learn everything we need to know to get up and running in Blender! > This class has been updated for the release of Blender 4.1! < We’ll be going through the entire process of learning Blender from a complete beginner’s perspective to avoid as much confusion as possible. Every topic covered builds upon previous lessons to form a solid foundation as we progress through the class. I designed this entire class to follow a premade starter file. You’ll have access to every single model that I’m using in class, so you’ll never need to worry about missing out on an important feature or tool! Please note, Blender 4.1 or newer is required to use this starter file! I’ve also included a handy cheat sheet filled with important keyboard shortcuts, that you can reference during the class and in the future! This class is meant to teach you the basics of Blender, and as such won’t focus heavily on version specific features. That means, even if you watch this class and the current version is Blender 4.0, 4.5 or even higher, you can still gain a solid foundation! Throughout this class, we'll get a basic understanding of almost every important aspect of 3d artwork during your time with me. You'll learn topics like: - Downloading and Installing Blender - Interface Navigation - Editing Objects - Organizing Your File - Common Modeling Tools - Materials - Modifiers - Lighting - Animation Basics - Camera Placement and Settings - Saving Your Final Image And much more! You'll create: After we've set up a solid foundation, I'll lead you through our class project, where you'll assemble and customize your very own cozy campsite utilizing a premade project file! I hope you'll join me on this exploration of the wonderful world of Blender! See ya in the first lesson! Instructor bio: 'Harry Helps' is a 3D artist and educator with over a decade of professional experience in modeling, texturing, animation, and post-production. Throughout his career, he has worked across diverse industries—from MMORPG game studios and video production companies to award-winning architectural visualization firms—holding roles such as Studio Director, Lead 3D Artist, and Greenscreen Editor. His work has been featured in 3D Artist magazine, where he also contributed tutorial content. With extensive expertise in Blender, 3ds Max, V-Ray, and Photoshop, Harry is passionate about sharing his knowledge and inspiring the next generation of 3D creators.