Yu's Animation blog

This week focused on how to correctly apply textures to a model and turn them into reusable materials. In practice, textures do not work as independent assets. Instead, they are organised and interpreted through the Material system, and then displayed on the surface of a model.

In UE5, textures usually exist as Textures, such as Base Color, Normal, Roughness, and Metallic. These textures do not affect the model on their own. They only contribute to the final render when they are connected to the correct input slots in the Material Editor. For this reason, the first step is not simply dragging textures onto a model, but creating a material and understanding the role and position of each texture within it.

The Material Editor starts with a blank Master Material Node, where you’ll connect textures and nodes to define your material’s appearance. Key inputs for a standard Physically Based Rendering (PBR) material include Base Color, Metallic, Roughness, and Normal.

Essentials:

• Base Color (Albedo/Diffuse): Defines the surface color under neutral lighting, without shadows or highlights.
• Normal Map: Adds the illusion of surface detail without extra geometry. A flat plane with a normal map can appear to have surface detail as if it were modeled.
• Roughness: Controls how smooth or rough a surface is, affecting light reflection.
• Metallic: Determines if a surface is metal or non-metal. Metallic textures use black and white values, with no in-between unless specified by a texture.

Once the material is set up, it can be dragged onto a model in the scene, and the surface result appears immediately. This instant visual feedback is one of the key advantages of UE5’s real-time rendering workflow.

For finding suitable materials and textures

Fab provides a large library of ready-to-use models, materials, and texture assets. These resources are very useful for learning and for project work, and they can be installed directly into a project.

The link to the official UE profile is attached below. For more information, please refer to it：

Unreal Engine Materials Tutorials | Unreal Engine 5.7 Documentation | Epic Developer Community

Sequencer is the main tool in UE5 for controlling the timeline. It is used to manage character animation, camera movement, lighting changes, and other elements that change over time. Unlike timelines in traditional DCC software, Sequencer is not a separate animation tool.

With Sequencer, different types of tracks can be placed on the same timeline, such as camera tracks, character animation tracks, and event tracks. Managing everything in one timeline makes the relationship between animation, performance, and camera work easier to understand. In scenes with multiple shots, Sequencer clearly shows the timing of camera cuts, which helps when checking whether the story flows well during real-time preview.

From a project structure point of view, Sequencer works together with the Level system from last week’s class. Levels organise content in space, while Sequencer organises content over time. This separation of space and time is similar to how traditional film production works, from building sets to planning shots and editing. It also explains why UE5 is widely used for real-time animation and virtual production.

This session focused on three main questions:

• Level
• Assets
• Level Sequences

In Unreal Engine 5, a Level is responsible for both holding content and organising space. All Actors, including models, lights, cameras, and characters, exist within a specific Level. From an animation and cinematic perspective, a Level is closer to a reusable and adjustable filming space rather than a fixed, one-time scene. This approach helps keep projects structured and manageable, even when working with complex stories or multiple shots.

A project does not rely on only one Level.

In animation production, this also makes it faster to switch between different set-ups and supports clearer teamwork and collaboration.

The session also introduced Level Sequences. While Levels define space and content, Level Sequences control time and storytelling. They allow unified control over camera movement, character animation, and lighting changes, helping to create a more cinematic result. By combining Levels and Level Sequences, UE5 functions not only as a real-time rendering tool, but also as a complete platform for animation and narrative production.