The C&W animation toolkit · Unreal Engine

Your first steps in Unreal Engine.

Free real-time 3D, for games and films. Worlds you can walk around in.

Unreal Engine builds 3D worlds that run in real time: games, virtual sets, interactive experiences and fully animated films. It’s free to download and learn. Follow the twelve steps below to make your first level and film a shot of it.

Start at step 1 ↓ Get Unreal Engine ↗
iMe wearing a VR headset
Richard Redcroft as a clay character

“With Unreal there’s no waiting around. Move a light and the whole world changes in front of you. It’s the closest thing we have to building a film set you can actually walk around in.”

Richard RedcroftTechnical Director at Carse & Waterman
£0

Free to learn

Free for students, schools and individuals. Games only pay a 5% royalty once they’ve earned over $1 million.

Real time

No waiting for renders

What you see is what you get, at once. Move a light and the whole scene changes as you watch.

Games + film

From Fortnite to TV sets

The same engine runs huge games and powers the virtual sets used to film big TV shows.

Step by step

Twelve steps to your first 3D world.

Pick a step, watch it play, then try it in Unreal Engine. Use the arrow keys to move between steps.

    1

    Keep this handy

    The Unreal Engine cheat sheet.

    Everything from the steps above on one card. On a Mac, use Cmd where it says Ctrl, and Option where it says Alt.

    Moving around

    Hold Right mouse + WASD
    Fly
    Hold Right mouse + Q / E
    Down / up
    Right mouse + Scroll
    Fly faster or slower
    Alt + Left mouse
    Orbit
    F
    Focus on what’s selected

    Building

    W
    Move
    E
    Rotate
    R
    Scale
    Ctrl + Space
    Content Drawer
    Delete
    Delete

    Playing and filming

    Alt + P
    Play
    Esc
    Stop playing
    S (in Sequencer)
    Keyframe the selected thing
    Ctrl + S
    Save the level
    Ctrl + Shift + S
    Save everything

    Where next

    Keep going. It’s all free.

    Done the steps? These are the places we point people to next.

    From the makers

    Epic Developer Community

    Epic’s own free courses and tutorials, from your first level to cinematics.

    Start learning ↗     Look it up

    Unreal Engine documentation

    Every tool and panel explained, with quick-start guides for beginners.

    Read the docs ↗     Video

    Unreal Engine on YouTube

    Official tutorials, livestreams and behind-the-scenes on games and films.

    Watch on YouTube ↗     Ask for help

    Unreal Engine Forums

    A huge community of developers and artists who answer beginner questions.

    Visit the forums ↗

    Where it can take you.

    Real-time skills lead into games, film, TV and more. These are some of the roles that start with what you just learned.

    • Level designerBuilds the worlds players explore.
    • Technical artistBridges art and code to make things look great and run fast.
    • Virtual production artistBuilds digital sets that actors film in front of.
    • Real-time animatorAnimates characters and cameras for games and cinematics.
    • Game developerMakes the game play, with Blueprints or code.
    • XR developerCreates virtual and augmented reality experiences.

    Made something? Show us.

    Tag @carseandwaterman with your first Unreal level. Or if you’d rather the humans made it for you, we’d love to hear what you need.

    Let’s talk →