Discover Unreal Engine: the secret sauce powering your favourite film, games and audiovisual projects

Unreal Engine is a real-time digital creation platform that students on our Visual Effects, Digital Arts & Animation programme use throughout their time at Catalyst. It is also the sole focus of the Unreal Engine – Short Course, a four-week introduction designed for beginners. Photorealistic sci-fi movie scenes, stylised animations, music videos, indie games, 3D modelling for a range of industries and, of course, AAA video games all make use of Unreal Engine. Unreal Engine is currently free for most people. Below are a few examples of works to inspire our community of makers.

Star Wars: The Mandalorian, a space western that hit our screens in 2019, requires out of this world computer graphics. Creator Jon Favreau, uses Industrial Light & Magic's stagecraft – powered by Unreal Engine, to create immersive virtual environments displayed on high-resolution LED walls. This approach allows the makers to visualise and adjust environments live on set. Acting can be much more responsive, rather than relying entirely on post-production.

While story remains central, real-time environments can shape how scenes are written, staged and performed. Screenwriters and directors take note! This documentary-style BTS shows how real-time graphics became one of the defining features of the show’s first season.

Rocket League takes a mad idea – football played with rocket-powered cars – and turns it into a highly competitive, physics-driven game. Developed using Unreal Engine, it prioritises responsiveness and consistency over complex narrative or visual realism. The game demonstrates the scale and flexibility of projects built on the engine.

Its competitive scene is substantial. The Rocket League World Championship has filled arenas such as the LDLC Arena in Lyon-Décines, drawing nearly 10,000 spectators, with prize pools reaching hundreds of thousands of dollars. For our programmes, this points to potential career paths for graduates.

While we won’t train you to compete at championship level, both the Visual Effects, Video Game & Digital Arts programme and the Unreal Engine – Short Course will help you develop transferable skills. Real-time 3D workflows are also widely used in fields such as architecture and automotive design.

Unreal Engine is not limited to games or film production. Music videos like 'Live Again' by The Chemical Brothers show how real-time tools can move fluidly across media formats. Released in 2023 as part of the album 'For That Beautiful Feeling', the track features French singer Halo Maud and a CGI-heavy video directed by DOM&NIC.

The video centres on performer Josipa Kukor, placing movement and performance at the heart of an immersive, digitally constructed world. The environments are responsive and fluid, mirroring the tone of the music and performance. It’s a clear example of how Unreal Engine can support collaboration between performers, directors and digital artists.

Since its release in 2017, Fortnite has evolved from a multiplayer game into a platform for live events, experimentation and large-scale collaboration. Built on Unreal Engine, it demonstrates how real-time engines can support constantly updating worlds.

For Catalyst, this kind of crossover is very important. We’re interested in the spaces where disciplines meet, whether that’s film, performance, sound or interactive design. Real-time engines increasingly operate as shared creative environments rather than single-purpose tools.

At the end of 2025, Epic Games collaborated with Quentin Tarantino to bring an unfilmed 'Kill Bill' chapter to life inside Fortnite. Titled 'Yuki’s Revenge', the experience centres follows a storyline written in 2004 but never produced on screen.

The project blended cinematic storytelling with Unreal Engine’s real-time rendering and featured Uma Thurman returning to her role as The Bride. For actors, writers and directors, this points to new forms of performance beyond traditional sets. It also highlights Unreal Engine’s growing role as a platform for immersive storytelling across film, games and live digital experiences. The Lost Chapter is available to watch here – but the BTS below is definitely worth a watch too.

One final reason that Unreal Engine has caught our attention is its advocation for women through initiatives such as the Women Creators Programme. Emerging practitioners in animation, game design and digital arts throughout Southeast Asia are provided with support and visibility. Participants develop original projects while building industry connections and technical confidence.

Our student body connects people from over 75 countries. So we know better than most that bringing together a wide range of creative voices is a huge benefit to the creative ecosystem.

At Catalyst, you'll learn the tools and techniques to bring your ideas to life and apply them to the demands of the film, gaming and design industries. We value the inherently creative process of storytelling, whether on the dedicated Visual Effects, Digital Arts & Animation BA programme, Unreal Engine – Short Course or across the programmes taught at all of our Schools. What better place to grow as a creative than one in which you are within arm's reach of broad-minded musicians, talented screenwriting specialists, up-and-coming filmmakers and actors ready to step onto the set.