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    Lesson 1 in Unreal Environments

    Lesson Information

    In this lesson, you'll learn the basics of Unreal and begin crafting your environment idea. You'll find references, build a library of assets, and assemble those assets together into one convenient staging area. By the end of this lesson, you'll have all the tools you need to start building your own environment.

    Homework
    Set the Mood

    Using your idea from the Brief Builder Tool, create a mood board. Even the act of searching for reference can spark your creativity! If you don't have Photoshop, don't worry. There are plenty of free options for photo editing.

    Take Control

    Before doing any building, get comfortable with the Unreal Engine controls. 

    Bring in Assets

    Find and import assets for your project. Don't forget to make sure the assets have everything you need before making a purchase.

    Build the Zoo

    Once you've imported all the assets you want to use, build an Asset Zoo scene. Make sure everything looks good from various camera and lighting angles. 

    Share Your Work

    Upload an image of your Asset Zoo using the 'Upload Homework' button above, so your instructor and fellow students can see your progress!

    260 Comments

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    Matthew Burton

    Yeah the content is downloaded so doesn't appear in the vault. There are a few ways i've been getting it into the engine, you can copy it over into an existing project but i've had a few issues with textures not connecting etc this way. Also you can just run it from the launcher included in the download folder. I'm still looking into this issue and have posted a few questions on the UE4 LS discord channel. Hopefully Joe will chime in again with a clearer answer?

    Joe Garth instructor

    That's done on the unreal engine marketplace, you just add the product to your Cart just like any other storefront, and purchase. Once it's purchased it will automatically appear in your Epic games Vault.

    Christian Kugler

    When I go into game mode and hit play and start to navigate around after clicking the mouse my character glitches and goes above the sky sphere. Not sure what is causing this or if i set something incorrectly. I am just setting up my asset zoo for now. Its nothing lesson specific just wanted to see if someone could help me solve this.

    View 1 reply

    Matthew Dunn

    Trying to add the Skybox per the tutorial. When I add it, all of my assets (and the scene generally) goes dark and is labelled 'preview'. If I turn **off** the option to Force No Precomputed Lighting (i.e. I relight my scene) and build, I get the error that there is no Importance Volume and therefore can't compute.

    I am on version 4.25.4

    Any ideas here?

    Thanks in advance.

    View 3 replies

    Joe Garth instructor

    Hello,
    There are 2 things going on here:

    1. Your dynamic light should be set to Movable. This will stop shadows being labelled as Preview. This sets the lighting to Dynamic mode. You should also tick Force No precomputed lighting in world settings as well.
    2. You need to disable Dynamic Shadows on your Skydome static mesh. That is why your scene is fully shadowed.

    Cheers,
    Joe

    Kevin Cantrell

    So I am on to the Brief Builder Tool. There is no link to this. Is it an actual tool or an idea? Lastly, we keep referring to our creation as a world, does that mean in this course we will be exposed to the World Composition tool in UE4 and how to use it with Brushify because I would really like to know that?

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    Brenna Davis

    I'm quite new to UE and have been able to download and navigate the game level fine. I redownloaded the project file today, but trying to open the first project file LS_learnsquared_uproject and nothing happens? It says it's only 110 bytes which seems odd. It just opens up Unreal and then I don't see his work. I'm using UE4.25.4 on a Mac OS Catalina. Am I missing something?

    View 2 replies

    Brenna Davis

    It's working now, I believe I just had to have the right version of Xcode which took over an hour to download. I see your level now and the brushify contents. Thank you for quick response!

    Joe Garth instructor

    Hey, do you have a brushify folder in content browser?
    The project file itself is usually under 1kb. it's simply a file that opens the project and contains a few settings.

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