PORTRAIT LIGHTING
MADE EASY
Watch this sneak peek into Unreal Fundamentals and learn the cheat code to create cinematic character lighting every time.
Ready to level up?
UNREAL
FUNDAMENTALS
This is the playbook to create stunning VFX and animations in real-time
HAVE YOU EVER Felt Lost IN THE
COMPLEX WORLD OF UNREAL ENGINE?
Maybe you’re a filmmaker wanting to take your movies and ideas to the next level
Maybe you're a VFX hobbyist, eager to level up your skills, but scattered YouTube tutorials aren’t solving your problems
Or you're an industry professional, comfortable with Maya, Cinema4D or Blender, but the transition to Unreal feels steep and intimidating
Then you’ve realized the learning path of Unreal and Virtual Production can be unclear.
Unreal Fundamentals is here to bridge the gap and guide your transformation.
A GUIDE FOR BEGINNERS TO
creatE films inside of Unreal Engine 5
With over 11 hours of video training, you'll gain an in-depth, hands on understanding of Unreal Engine's workflows and systems
We’ll cut through the confusion and focus on what matters most for
VFX and Filmmaking
LEARN UNREAL
THE FUN WAY
What’s inside?
unreal fundamentals course
DON’T JUST LEARN CREATE!
Together, we’ll create four detailed environments from scratch and learn the complete Unreal Filmmaking workflow as you go!
Avoid the pitfalls of troubleshooting alone and sifting through endless tutorials
By the end, you’ll be ready to create films complete with characters and animations
Start your career change
Master the Fundamentals
Create advanced materials from start-to-finish
Construct artist-friendly blueprints, demystifying this powerful tool
Build Niagara and FX systems created from live-action footage
Animate in Sequencer for compelling cinematic sequences
Build your at-home renderfarm with Movie Render Queue, and learn the building blocks of studio-grade render pipelines
Render AOVs and composite them seamlessly inside of Nuke in ACES with perfect color accuracy
Design landscapes, we’ll block out interior and exterior scenes using Landscapes and Modeling Tools
The tools to build a portfolio — learn the workflows to be production-ready, giving you and future job prospects tangible evidence of your growth and new skills
Transform Your Skills
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understand blueprints
Create artist-focused blueprints and learn an easy framework for troubleshooting
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Character Workflows
Learn each module of the Character Pipeline by dissecting a real-world production case study
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BLOCKOUT ENVIRONMENTS
We’ll break down the concepts and immediately apply them by building environments and animations as we go
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FILMMAKER FOCUSED
Recreate on-set filmmaking techniques to make
your films feel true to life -
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TECHNICAL + CREATIVE
You’ll understand the simple workflows and frameworks to create looks from your favorite Hollywood films
learn from hollywood pros
MEET YOUR
INSTRUCTOR
You’ll be learning from Josh Toonen who’s experienced in on-set Virtual Production as a Lead Unreal Operator on projects like Avatar the Last Airbender and Virtual Production Supervisor at Pixomondo. He knows exactly what it takes to achieve Hollywood-level VFX in Unreal Engine
He brings 8 years of VFX experience as a Compositing Artist, Lead, and Supervisor on blockbuster movies like Star Wars IX: Rise of Skywalker, Deadpool 2, and Across the Spiderverse at studios such as ILM, MPC, and Framestore.
lesson plan
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CHAPTER 3 - GAME MODE
Beginners make mistakes because they skip over Game Dev.
Guess what. We’re using a Game Engine to make movies. Thankfully, you’ll create your own game in just 30 minutes and focus on what matters for VFX. -
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CHAPTER 4 - Environments
Build an Environment from Scratch, and finish with Lighting and Animation
By the end of this chapter, you’ll be ready to create environments on your own. -
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CHAPTER 5 - Characters
Master the complete Character Workflow in Unreal Engine.
Learn the workflow for indie Motion Capture. -
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CHAPTER 6 - Materials
Recreate on-set filmmaking techniques to make
your films feel true to life -
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Chapter 7 - Lighting
This is the secret ingredient. Lighting takes your work from amateur to pro.
Learn on-set techniques and how to recreate them in Unreal -
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CHAPTER 8 - NIAGARA
Create Drag and Drop VFX elements for your scenes.
Includes templates for spark hits, dust and debris, and dynamic gun tracer fire. -
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Chapter 9 - final project
Our final project built step-by-step! Create environment, assets,
and assemble a timeline for final animations and rendering. -
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CHAPTER 10 - RENDERING
Includes my Personal Nuke Render Template and 8 Rendering Presets.
Understand how to Render AOVs and comp in NukeX in ACES -
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CHAPTER 1 - GETTING STARTED
Whether you’re a VFX Artist or Filmmaker, let’s get you up and running fast in Unreal.
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CHAPTER 2 - THE BASICS
Create your first environment the right way.
We’ll start learning Unreal as we go.
BONUS MATERIAL
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Project Files included
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THE MOST USEFUL MATERIAL NODES ALL IN ONE PLACE
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BLUEPRINTS FOR BEGINNERS CHEATSHEET
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NIAGARA VFX TEMPLATES
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
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Unreal Fundamentals is designed for Filmmakers new to 3D or VFX Artists comfortable with tools like Maya, Cinema4D, or Blender. You’ll learn the best practices for creating movies with characters in Unreal 5
Even if you’ve started learning Unreal, our goal is to ensure every student walks away with a deeper, practical understanding of Unreal Engine 5, tailored for high-end production in VFX, Animated Films, and Virtual Production.
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You start right away! The course has 78 video lessons, meaning you can learn at your own pace. You’ll get access to all of the Project Files, Cheatsheets, Templates, and an invite to our Private Discord. The entire course focuses on crucial Unreal filmmaking workflows – teaching you how to create advanced materials and blueprints to rendering and compositing.
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Absolutely. While there are various Unreal courses out there, Unreal Fundamentals stands out because it's specifically tailored to VFX, Animated Films, and Virtual Production. Whether you've taken other courses or are already familiar with some aspects of Unreal, our course dives deeper into artistic techniques that are vital for virtual production. If you're looking to truly master Unreal for filmmaking and VFX, then Unreal Fundamentals is the perfect next step.
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YouTube is great, but for Unreal Engine, it doesn't always connect the dots for Filmmaking. They often lack the comprehensive, structured approach that is required to learn Unreal. When I first learned Unreal to create films, I got stuck constantly because I didn’t understand how the entire system worked together.
Unreal Fundamentals gives you the entire picture in a structured, engaging format that's designed to take your VFX and filmmaking skills to a professional level.
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We're here for you. You’ll have private access to our Discord community, filled with animators, 3D artists, and filmmakers just like you to help troubleshoot!
Our entire course is searchable, meaning you can search for any topic or question and jump directly to the timecode of the answer.
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Absolutely, click this link to view our entire syllabus with Chapters, Video Lessons, and Resources.
START YOUR future IN
REAL-TIME VFX and Filmmaking
