Foundations of Unreal Engine 5 and Basic Environment Design

Course Overview

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 provides an in-depth journey into the basics of Unreal Engine 5, guiding you from project setup to creating complex environments. You’ll begin by learning the essentials of UE5, including its interface, layout, and viewport navigation. Once comfortable with the platform, you’ll progress to designing with basic primitives and blocking out initial designs to visualize your projects' structure. As the course advances, you’ll explore environment design techniques using UE5’s Landscape tool, creating terrains and adding fine details to give your world a natural, organic feel. The Quixel Megascans library will open new possibilities, providing access to high-quality assets that can be integrated and modified to fit your unique projects. Along the way, you’ll build a 3D bridge, utilizing cutting-edge UE5 features like Nanite for asset optimization. The final section refines your skills in texture application and asset customization, including UV tiling, material adjustments, and structural detailing. By the end of the course, you’ll have designed a complete 3D environment, with added roof, hut, and foundation elements, optimized to create visually striking scenes. This course equips you with the foundational skills to bring your creative visions to life in Unreal Engine 5. This course is ideal for aspiring 3D artists, game developers, and digital creators interested in learning Unreal Engine 5. No prior experience with UE5 is required, but a basic understanding of 3D modeling software will be helpful.