The Master List of Questions

Unreal Engine 5
Written By Feorie Frimon

(Last updated 4/30/24)

It’s all about this one simple question really:

Can Unreal Engine 5 produce NAMARA as good, if not better, than Second Life?

The short answer is: Yes - yes it can. I can’t express what a HUGE relief this has been for me over the past month because I had developed this intense love for filming and editing over the last year - creating stories with this really interesting medium. Leaving Second Life removed that medium completely, so discovering UE5 as a real possibility to continue something I’ve grown to love so much was special. The trick now is figuring out how to do it, or finding the people that can help me do it if I can’t do it myself. That’s both exciting and exhausting.

For anyone else following along, here is the master list of questions I think I’m going to have to understand in order to produce Namara the way that I want. Udemy was running a special on THIS COURSE for $20 USD. I bought it on a whim, and at worst, I figured it would give me the basics I’d need to get around the platform and figure out what I’m doing.

I will update links to everything I learn here on this blog post, whether it’s a tutorial I find myself (and tested to make sure it works) or something I had to make to explain a concept. That way if anyone else finds themselves in this little corner of the internet, these blogs will be helpful for them as they create.

Buckle up! Here we go! :)

UE5 Machinima Question List: Is this possible? If so, how?

How to effect the environment

  • QUESTION: Can I build sets? Or ‘regions’ like in Second Life? If so, is it really hard?

    • Yes, you can totally build sets. The process is very similar to Second Life, the trick is just learning what key does what.

  • Question: How do ‘regions’ work?

    • UE calls them ‘projects’, and these projects have ‘levels’. Those levels are what Second Life residents would consider ‘regions’. It has a terrain level that you can smoosh around, and you can rez objects and avatars out on the ground that you can ‘script’ and ‘animated’ to do different things.

  • QUESTION: Are there ‘prim limits’?

    • Not as far as I can tell - at least, not yet. I think the big ‘limit’ here is that you are actually storing this Project somewhere on a computer at your house (or cloud or whatever). So - I think you can have a REALLY huge project, but it might take forever to load and it has to be stored on a hard drive somewhere (your computers, an external one, etc.) So - Pros? I get to keep everything I collect over time. It’s MINE. Cons? I have to store it somewhere and that means I need a MEGA computer and/or hard drive.

  • QUESTION: How to move / rotate / upload / delete / copy things

    • You can learn the basics in this Udemy Course or with a simple search on YouTube. There are tons of videos that answer these questions pretty quickly.

  • How can I change the sky?

  • Does ‘stuff’ have physics? (Like, if I walk in the water, does it react automatically?) 

  • Can I have rain?

  • How about wind?

  • QUESTION: Where can I get stuff for my environment?

How do avatars work?

  • Metahumans (Blog Post: 4/19/24)

  • QUESTION: How do I upload a metahumans?

    • This Udemy Course talks about Metahumans a TON. He did a pretty good job of explaining some of the pros and cons, and how to get around them in terms of filming things. That being said, it’s pretty easy to find loads of videos on YouTube about how they work and cool things you can do with them. Try making one HERE.

  • How to attach a metahuman to your ‘3rd person avatar’

  • How to put clothes on them

  • QUESTION: Where do I get get clothes for metahumans?

  • QUESTION: How do I animate Metahumans?

  • How to make them move (Udemy Course)

Water

Horses

  • Animating them

  • Riding them

  • Everything else about them

Magic

  • Animations

  • Effects in UE5? Stick with Premiere Pro?

Hiring Artists

  • How to find good artists/blender objects that don’t eat me alive in costs and fees

  • Second Life marketplace is SO good - Maybe use contacts I’ve made in SL somehow?

Feorie Frimon
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UE5: Metahumans