Unreal Engine 5.8 – Complete Environment & Metahuman Course

Name: Unreal Engine 5.8 – Complete Environment & Metahuman Course
Rating: 3.9 (9 reviews)

Master custom Metahumans with Animation, Mesh Terrain Tool, Procedural Vegetation Editor, PCG and PCG Splines

Created byJan Benkwtiz

Last updated 6/2026

English

What you'll learn

Learn the new Custom Mesh to Metahuman Feature
Use your own Metahuman as your Third Person Character
Set up Live Link Face for realtime face animation with your iPhone
Learn the new Mesh Terrain Tool
Use your own trees in the Procedural Vegetation Editor
Paint your own trees as Actor Foliage with bone driven wind animation
Use Nanite Voxelization on your trees for extreme performance
Create your own PCG Graph to scatter Grass, Bushes, Rocks, Tree Logs, Mushrooms etc.
Add Roads, Lakes etc. to your PCG Graph procedurally
How to use the new PCG Spline Tool for Roads, Cliffs and Lake scatter transitions
Cinematic exterior lighting with Exponential Height Fog, HDRI Backdrop, Post Process Volume and Directional Light

Course content

1 section • 15 lectures • 4h 10m total length

Introduction1:43
Explore Unreal Engine 5.8, mastering MetaHuman workflows, mesh terrain, procedural vegetation editor, pcg spline tool, and bone-driven wind with nanite voxelization for cinematic Nordic environments.
Metahuman - Install Metahuman Core Data4:30
Install MetaHuman core data and use the static mesh importer in Unreal Engine 5.8 to wrap your own humanoid mesh or head into a MetaHuman, then apply textures and rigs.
Metahumann - Import your own Character into a Metahuman Mesh21:46
Import your own character into a MetaHuman in Unreal Engine 5.8 by preparing head and body meshes, aligning points with ctrl-click, and autosolving topology for a seamless MetaHuman rig.
Metahuman - Apply Materials and Export our Metahuman7:52
Explore how to customize a metahuman's materials, skin tone, texture, freckles, lips, and eyes, import groom assets via mhpkg, and assemble and export a rigged character.
Metahuman Creator
Metahuman - Use Metahuman as your Third Person Character in 5.86:28
Explore using MetaHuman as a third-person character in Unreal Engine 5.8, converting to a character blueprint and applying Live Link for facial morphs and a food IK fix.
Metahuman - Use Live Link Face for realtime Face Animation in 5.82:12
Mesh Terrain - The Complete Walkthrough51:42
Mesh Terrain
Procedural Vegetation Editor - Modeling and Texturing the Tree for PVE7:51
Create a nordic pine tree using the procedural vegetation editor, from Blender sapling generator to Unreal Engine, detailing UVs, bark material, textures, and foliage distribution with geometry nodes.
Procedural Vegetation Editor - Setting up our Tree inside the PVE9:33
Procedural Vegetation Editor - Export our Spruce Tree as Instanced Skeletal Mesh15:52
Import textures and resources, configure two-sided foliage and needles material instances, then apply to spruce assemblies. Use the vegetation editor to distribute and export a skeleton mesh for wind animation.
Procedural Vegetation Editor - Add Bone Driven Wind Animation7:01
Discover bone-driven wind animation for procedural vegetation in unreal engine 5.8, using instanced foliage, bp pine tree blueprints, global wind actor, and adjustable wind amplitude for realistic motion.
PCG - Environmental Concepts14:01
PCG - Prepare Road Spline and Landscape46:45
Explore pcg workflows to prepare road splines and landscapes in Unreal Engine 5.8, mastering road placement, spline shaping, and terrain setup.
PCG - PCG Spline Tool and Improve Lighting22:00
Master the pcg spline tool to scatter grass, rocks, leaves, and mushrooms with density filters and extents, and set hdri backdrop with skylight for balanced lighting in unreal engine 5.8.
PCG - Finish the Environment31:30

Requirements

Basic knowledge in Unreal Engine as a Beginner

Description

Master Unreal Engine 5.8's most powerful new features with me. I am an experienced Unreal Engine Artist and using Unreal Engine as an Indie Game Dev and Environment Artist for many years now. I went extra deep into the experimental Version of 5.8 to find out all the useful and necessary features. Please keep in mind, that 5.8 is still experimental and a lot of things will be updated by Unreal Engine.

This course is your complete guide to building stunning real-time environments and cinematic characters from scratch.

We start with the full MetaHuman workflow – custom mesh import, joint rig setup, Live Link Face integration for facial animation, and animating your MetaHuman as a fully playable third person character.

Next we explore the new Mesh Terrain Tool before diving deep into the Procedural Vegetation Editor. You'll use the same Nanite voxelization technique seen in The Witcher 4 to create your own spruce trees, convert them into Actor Foliage and paint them independently from your PCG system for maximum control.

Speaking of PCG – we build a complete PCG graph from scratch with endless scatter freedom. Foliage, stones, mushrooms, leaves, dead branches and tree logs – all procedurally placed with full control over density, scale, rotation, noise and falloff distances. Roads are cut out procedurally and PCG performance features are enabled throughout. The PCG Spline Tool adds a third scatter method for natural transitions along roads.

We finish with a full cinematic Nordic environment project – atmospheric exterior lighting, cinematic composition and advanced performance tips to bring everything together.

This is UE5.8 at its most powerful. Let's get into it.

Who this course is for:

Game Developers
Film Makers
Environment Artists learning the new 5.8 Tools in Unreal Engine
Character Artists who want to learn the new Metahuman Creator in 5.8