Announcing a new animation-themed Unreal Challenge—with a special UEFN category!

June 8, 2023
It’s time for another Unreal Challenge, and this one’s got us really excited. This round, we’re inviting you to use either Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) to create your entry, with a focus on animation and a theme of ‘Furious Elegance’ for you to interpret as you see fit.

Whether subtle or dramatic, the ability of carefully choreographed movements and perfectly poised facial expressions to convey emotion and atmosphere has long been valued in real-life stage and screen performances. The most successful animated games, films, TV shows, simulations, and more all share these attributes. Across industries, well-executed 3D animation is enhancing experiences and expanding opportunities.

This new challenge represents an opportunity to explore all that and more, whatever your industry background or experience level. 
 
What will you create?
What will you feel?
What will you learn?

We can’t wait to see you make your moves!

The challenge

Starting June 8, 2023 at 2 PM ET, you have four weeks to create a video entry inspired by the theme ‘Furious Elegance’ and focused on animation, which must be submitted by July 6, 2023 at 7 PM ET.

In previous challenges, we’ve had a fantastic turnout from students, and we want to continue to nurture that. The Unreal Challenge will be awarded in three groups: Unreal Engine individuals, Unreal Engine students, and a NEW category—Unreal Editor for Fortnite individuals.

The Grand Prize winners for the UEFN and Unreal Engine individual categories will receive $1,000 cash and prizes from Reallusion. The winner of the Unreal Engine student Grand Prize will receive $500 cash. All winners will also receive prizes from ArtStation, and MOVE—not to mention fancy swag; runners-up will also receive prizes.
For resources, learning content, and more details, head to the challenge’s official forum event page.

While the overall composition of your scene is important, environmental visuals do not play into this particular challenge, so you are encouraged to focus on animation and how the animations may interact with the environment from both a technical and a creative/visual standpoint. It is recommended that you create an environment that is something fitting to your idea and your interpretation of the theme.
 

Unreal Editor for Fortnite

As we mentioned, we’re happy to introduce a new category for Unreal Editor for Fortnite creators and developers.
We’re excited to shine a light on everything that developers and creators can achieve with UEFN, which is why we’re bringing UEFN to the Unreal Challenges. And you’re hearing it here first: UEFN will be coming to the Epic MegaJams too, which is FAB
 
New to UEFN? Learn more and get started here.
Control Rig Sequence in Unreal Editor for Fortnite
Whether honing your existing Unreal Engine skills or dropping into UEFN to add some new chops to your resume, we’re excited to see what stories you’ll tell during the Unreal Challenge: Furious Elegance.
 

Unreal Engine Students

Looking for a student challenge? 

It can be daunting to join global challenges when just starting your journey into the creative industries, whether studying in higher education or an accredited short course. Epic Games wants to give you every opportunity to grow, learn, and succeed.

Last year we split the Unreal Challenges into two categories, one as a general category and the other as a dedicated category to recognize outstanding students. 

Take part in the Unreal Community Challenge series to learn new skills and showcase your work while receiving feedback from fellow creators. Whether studying game development, film,  visualization, or any other field, these challenges are for you! Our latest challenge, ‘Furious Elegance,’ is your chance to hone and showcase your animation skills.

We will also be continuing the Community Recognition Award, in which, after submissions close, the community votes for their favorite entry, excluding their own. Participants are encouraged to post their submissions on social media to gain further traction for their entries. See the official rules for more details on this.
 

Sponsors

We’re grateful for the continued collaboration of our sponsors to bring the community together in learning opportunities and fun! 

Reallusion

Reallusion software is a platform for digital human character creativity and animation. Emphasizing character scalability for creative and industry projects, Reallusion real-time characters are populating across media and entertainment, metaverse, digital twin factories, architectural visualizations, and AI simulations.

MOVE

Move.ai brings markerless motion capture to the masses. Using the Move.ai app, creators can capture high-quality motion data, previously only available to major studios. Capture footage in any environment, using an iPhone, with no suits, markers, or additional hardware needed.

ArtStation

ArtStation was shaped with the goal of empowering artists and creating opportunities for success. It’s the place for artists to connect with others in the community and showcase their work. Sign up for free today to build your portfolio, find jobs, access an ever-growing library of video learning content, and more. 

Judges panel

We’re pleased to reveal our specially selected panel of judges, whose expertise will put them in good stead to evaluate your entries. 
Learn more on the forum event page!

Carol Andrea Madrigal

Sr. Motion Capture Editor | Animator
LinkedIn

Enoc Burgos

Director of Partnership Marketing at Reallusion
LinkedIn

HaZ Dulull

Director
HaZimation

Heather Storm

Creator Evangelist Manager
@iamheatherstorm

Jim Geduldick

Virtual Production & Visual Effects Supervisor
LinkedIn

Koina Freeman

Technical Artist: XR & Virtual Production
LinkedIn
 

Niall Hendry

VP Partnerships
MOVE
 

Getting started

We’ll be kicking off the challenge festivities during our special challenge airing of Inside Unreal on Thursday, June 8, 2023 at 2 PM ET.

Inside Unreal | Unreal Challenge & Animation Fundamentals - June 8 

Join us this week on a special Inside Unreal as we kick off the latest challenge, ‘Furious Elegance.’ A panel of talented individuals will join us as they take us through the choreography of animation fundamentals, cool moves, tips, tricks, and best practices! Come hang out as we walk through the rules, prizes, and the live Q&A!

Want to stay in the loop for announcements during the event?
Join the dedicated challenge group on the forums!

 

Submissions

To enter the challenge, you need to create a video highlighting the challenge theme, ‘Furious Elegance,’ with the focus on animation. Your video must be:
  • Posted in the Unreal Challenge forum category by the submission deadline, July 6, 2023 at 7 PM ET
  • Between 20 and 90 seconds long, with a minimum resolution of 1920 x 1080
  • Created using Unreal Engine or UEFN without any post-production software or tools outside of those permitted as outlined in the official rules
  • Fully credited—you may use premade assets that you have the right to use as part of your entry, but you must credit your sources
 

Rules

Please read the official rules for complete details, including a full list of submission guidelines, prizing, and more.

The rules for this challenge are also available in Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, Spanish (EU) (LATAM), and Turkish.

Please note, the submission criteria for Unreal Engine and Unreal Engine Student entries differ from those for UEFN entries. 

Got questions?

Check out the FAQ at the bottom of the challenge's offical forum event page

    Unreal Challenge

    Visit the Unreal Challenge: Furious Elegance forum event page for more details and to join in on the discussion.