UE5: Beginner’s Guide to Building a 3D Environment

About this course

Updated in May 2025. This course now features Coursera Coach! A smarter way to learn with interactive, real-time conversations that help you test your knowledge, challenge assumptions, and deepen your understanding as you progress through the course. This course, "Unreal Engine 5 Beginner’s Guide to Building a 3D Environment," takes you from basic concepts to creating a fully detailed 3D environment. Starting with a simple grey box, you will learn to sculpt terrains, generate mountains using height maps, and make full use of the Quixel library for 3D assets, textures, and vegetation. You'll create a reusable water system, sculpt atmospheric sunset lighting, and simulate fire for a fireplace. Additionally, you’ll animate birds and fireflies to bring life to your environment. By the end, you’ll build a riverside setting complete with a fisherman’s hut and wooden walkway. This course covers Niagara fire systems, HDRI backgrounds, color grading, and more. It’s ideal for aspiring game designers or gamers transitioning from Unreal Engine 4 to UE5, offering a thorough introduction and practical skills to unleash creativity in 3D modeling and game environments. Basic computer skills and an interest in game design or 3D modeling. No prior Unreal Engine experience is required, but familiarity with Unreal Engine 4 is a plus.

Course objectives

• familiarize with basic concepts of Unreal Engine 5
• develop practical skills for 3D modeling and game environments
• build a complete and dynamic 3D environment from start to finish