FMX 320 · Animation for Interactivity & Games

Overview

This studio takes you through the full real-time art pipeline: build a 3D asset, wrap it in surface and light, rig and animate it, then make it move, respond, and ship as something a player can pick up and play. You bring the modeling foundation from your prerequisite; here you learn to make it interactive.

What's new this year

Engine

Unreal Engine 5.8

Epic's current release — Nanite virtualized geometry, Lumen dynamic global illumination, and Megalights are all production-ready in 5.8, and Blueprints give you visual scripting without leaving the editor. We use it for interactivity, VR, and multiplayer.

New · AI

Agents in the pipeline

For the first time, AI coding agents are part of the toolchain. Claude Code and OpenAI Codex wire Blueprints and write C++, build editor tooling, and — through the first-party Unreal MCP built into 5.8 plus Epic's UE skills plugin for Claude Code — can even act inside the editor. You direct; you verify; you keep the log.

Ship it

Playable builds

Everything you make this semester is meant to be played. You'll package standalone builds (Windows, or a VR headset) and put your final piece on itch.io, plus a first taste of VR and networked multiplayer.

Course objectives

Model game-ready 3D assets with clean topology, on a polycount budget, and unwrap them for texturing.
Author PBR surface textures and build real-time materials in Unreal's Material Editor.
Light real-time scenes using Lumen dynamic global illumination and Megalights, plus a Post Process Volume for exposure and grading.
Rig and skin a character, then author animation clips — idle, locomotion, and action — for interactive playback.
Drive animation with an Animation Blueprint and gameplay with Blueprints — plus a taste of C++ — and direct AI agents to help build it.
Integrate assets into an Unreal project, add an OpenXR VR mode or a replicated multiplayer interaction, and package a standalone build.
Use Claude Code and Codex responsibly: prompt, review, verify, and document AI-assisted work.
Develop your own voice as a maker of interactive and playable work.

A Wednesday in studio

We meet once a week for four hours. Every session follows the same rhythm:

1:00 · Brief

Demo + concepts. New territory introduced on the projector — a technique, a tool, a bit of the pipeline.

1:45 · Guided lab

You build the same thing at your station, step by step.

3:00 · AI lab

Same problem, agent-assisted: prompt Claude Code or Codex, review what it did, fix what it got wrong.

4:15 · Crit / share

Screens up. Show progress, trade techniques, plan the week's homework.

Grade breakdown

Component	Weight	Notes
Guided asset training	25%	In-class practical exam (Week 7 · Oct 14)
Game-Ready Asset Kit	10%	Weeks 3–5
Rigged & Animated Character	15%	Weeks 6–9
Interactive Vertical Slice	10%	Weeks 10–12
Final Project	40%	Weeks 12–15 · a playable build, exhibited in Week 15

Scale: 95–100 A · 89–94 A/B · 84–88 B · 77–83 B/C · 72–76 C · 66–71 C/D · 60–65 D · below 60 F. More than three absences: NF. Every production project includes an AI development log as a required deliverable.

Equipment & software

Laptop or desktop capable of running Unreal Engine 5.8 and Blender (a discrete GPU strongly recommended).
Free accounts: an Epic Games account (to install Unreal Engine 5.8), a GitHub account — projects live in version control from Week 1; it's how you and your AI agent stay honest.
Blender (free); Maya is available in the lab and free with a student license if you prefer it for rigging.
Claude Code and Codex CLI installed (setup in Week 1; see the AI Lab).
Suggested: a three-button mouse, 1 TB external SSD, and a graphics tablet for texture painting.
UT Adobe Creative Cloud is free for this class: creativecloud.adobe.com with your UT email.

University policies (Title IX, ADA, attendance, academic integrity, campus closure, disruption) are stated in full on the official syllabus in SpartanLearn / Canvas — that document governs.

Semester Map

Fourteen Wednesday studio sessions (Sep 2 – Dec 9, no class Nov 25) plus a finals-week showcase, in four phases: build the asset, give it motion, make it interactive, then ship the playable final. Amber notes mark each week's AI lab.

Phase 1 — Assets & Form · Weeks 1–5

01Sep 02

Orientation: the real-time pipeline

Course tour: how a 3D asset becomes a playable game, and where real-time art is in 2026.
Install party: Epic Games Launcher + Unreal Engine 5.8, Blender, GitHub, Claude Code, Codex CLI.
Create your first Unreal project; connect it to source control.

AI LabFirst contact: ask Claude Code to explain the folder anatomy of the Unreal project it's sitting in — Content, Config, the .uproject. Learn the golden rule — the agent proposes, you approve.

State of the Art · Where real-time art lives in 2026Real-time engines have escaped games: virtual production, architecture, automotive, and simulation all hire the same skill set you're starting today. Unreal is the engine across both of Prof. Perkins' courses, and reported hiring data keeps saying the same thing — portfolios and demonstrable skills land jobs, not degrees alone. Discussion: FMX 320 is games-and-animation Unreal and FMX 430 is spatial-computing Unreal. Why does going deep on one engine across very different contexts pay off?Unreal Engine 5.8 release notes · Robert Half tech hiring

02Sep 09

Modeling for games I: topology & budgets

Game-ready vs. render-ready geometry: quads, clean edge flow, and why triangles are the real currency.
Polycount budgets, modular kit thinking, and the grid you snap everything to.

AI LabUse the agent as a research partner: have it explain silhouette-first modeling and generate a written spec for a modular sci-fi wall kit before you build it. You model; it documents.

State of the Art · The polygon still mattersUE 5.8's Nanite virtualized geometry makes "just use more polygons" a real option, but skeletal and animated meshes, standalone VR, and clean deformation still reward strict budgets and good topology. Discussion: when does polygon efficiency stop being a constraint and start being a craft?Nanite virtualized geometry

03Sep 16

Modeling for games II: UVs & greybox Project 1 launch

UV unwrapping, texel density, and trim sheets — the economics of texture space.
Import to Unreal; assemble a modular blockout and walk it at scale.

AI LabHave the agent build a small Editor Utility Widget that reports the polycount and texel density of selected meshes (or drive it from Unreal's Statistics window and stat tools), so your budget is measured, not guessed. Read what it builds before you run it.

State of the Art · Reality as a raw materialPhotogrammetry and 3D Gaussian splatting turn captured reality into scene assets, and Unreal ingests splats through plugins while libraries like Quixel Megascans put scanned surfaces one click away. Yet hand-authored, budget-conscious geometry is still what ships in a playable build. Discussion: for your kit, when do you scan, when do you model, and when do you kitbash?3D Gaussian Splatting (SIGGRAPH 2023)

04Sep 23

Surface texturing: PBR materials

The PBR mindset: albedo, metallic, roughness, normal — what each map really controls.
Texture painting in Substance Painter / Blender; building Material Instances in Unreal's Material Editor.

AI LabPrompt-driven material variants: ask the agent to set up three Material Instances (clean, worn, painted) from a parent material for your kit, then art-direct the best by hand. The taste is yours; the boilerplate is the agent's.

State of the Art · Generative texturing arrivesText-to-texture and material-generation tools now sit inside real DCC and engine workflows, and Substance's generative features keep expanding. They accelerate the boring 80% — but a coherent, art-directed surface is still an authored decision. Discussion: what does a texture artist's job become when the base maps are generated?Unreal Engine materials

05Sep 30

Digital lighting for games Project 1 due · crit

Lumen dynamic global illumination and reflections, Reflection Capture actors, and a Sky/SkyLight.
Post Process Volume, exposure and tone mapping, and how mood is built from a handful of lights.
Crit: Game-Ready Asset Kit.

AI LabUse the agent as a lighting consultant: have it suggest a three-point setup for your scene and place the lights, then judge it with your own eye and rebalance by hand.

State of the Art · Real-time GI gets cheaperUnreal's Lumen delivers fully dynamic GI and reflections, and Megalights — production-ready in 5.8 — makes many-light scenes affordable in real time. Cheaper light means more of it is your decision, not the bake's. Discussion: what does a lighting artist control when the engine handles the bounce?Lumen global illumination

Phase 2 — Character & Motion · Weeks 6–9

06Oct 07

Character rigging I: skeletons & skin Project 2 launch

Joints, hierarchies, and the humanoid skeleton; Blender Rigify and Maya's rigging tools.
Skinning and weight painting: making deformation believable.

AI LabHave the agent explain weight-painting problem areas (shoulders, hips) and generate a checklist for testing your skin weights through extreme poses. It advises; you paint.

State of the Art · Auto-rigging is real, and partialServices like Mixamo auto-rig humanoids in minutes — you then retarget onto the UE skeleton with the IK Retargeter — and ML-driven rigging keeps improving, but custom creatures, faces, and props still need hand rigging, and knowing what a good rig is lets you fix the auto-rigged one. Discussion: when is auto-rigging a shortcut, and when is it a trap?Mixamo auto-rigging

07Oct 14

Guided asset training practical exam Exam · 25%

In-class, hands-on: model, unwrap, texture, and light a small asset to spec, then import it into Unreal.
No AI agents during the exam: this is the skill floor the rest of the course stands on.
After the break: the 12 principles of animation, seen through an interactive lens.

State of the Art · Why the skill floor mattersReported hiring data says AI fluency commands a premium on top of fundamentals, not instead of them — studios still test whether you can model, unwrap, and light unaided. Today's no-AI exam is the floor everything else stands on.Robert Half 2026 tech hiring

08Oct 21

Animation clips I: cycles & principles

Keyframing a walk and run cycle; timing, spacing, weight, anticipation.
Authoring loopable clips that read at gameplay speed and hold up from any angle.

AI LabDescribe the feel of a walk in plain English ("heavy, tired, cautious") and have the agent draft pose-timing notes and a shot list for reference video. You animate; it scaffolds the plan.

State of the Art · Motion capture in your pocketEpic's free MetaHuman Animator does markerless, single-camera mocap from phone video, and Unreal ingests it through retargeting onto your skeleton. Hand-keyed animation stays the gold standard for stylized, readable game motion. Discussion: for your character, when do you capture and when do you key?MetaHuman Animator markerless mocap

09Oct 28

Animation clips II: Animation Blueprints Project 2 due · crit

The Animation Blueprint: the AnimGraph, a State Machine, transitions, and Blend Spaces.
Root motion, retargeting (Mixamo → the UE skeleton with the IK Retargeter), and driving state from variables in Event Blueprint Update Animation.
Crit: Rigged & Animated Character.

AI LabHave the agent build an Animation Blueprint and the variable wiring that sets its state from input, then trace every transition yourself — an animation graph you didn't author is exactly what you'll inherit on a real team.

State of the Art · Animation systems get smartMotion Matching — a shipped Unreal feature — blends huge clip libraries into responsive motion without hand-built state machines. The Animation Blueprint you're learning is still the literacy that makes the smart systems legible. Discussion: what does an animator do when the transitions are learned?Animation Blueprints

Phase 3 — Interactivity & Code · Weeks 10–12

10Nov 04

Blueprints for interactivity I Project 3 launch

Actor Blueprints, the event graph, Event BeginPlay vs. Event Tick and its Delta Seconds; reading input with Enhanced Input and moving a Character.
Driving your animation from Blueprints — input becomes motion.

AI LabAgent-built player controller: describe the movement you want, let Claude Code wire the Blueprint (via the Unreal MCP) or draft the C++, then trace it node by node and change one behavior yourself. You must be able to explain every step at crit.

State of the Art · Agents write game code nowAI coding agents are genuinely good at wiring Blueprints and writing C++ — controllers, state machines, editor tools — and, through the first-party Unreal MCP, can act in the editor directly. They're also genuinely capable of confident nonsense, so the studios adopting them fastest are inventing the review process to catch AI errors before they ship. Discussion: what does code review look like when your teammate is a model?Claude Code docs · Unreal MCP

11Nov 11

Blueprints for interactivity II: game feel

Event Dispatchers and Blueprint Interfaces, a simple UMG widget, and a minimal game loop (goal, feedback, state).
Game feel: juice, timing, and the difference between "it works" and "it feels good."

AI LabHead-to-head: give Claude Code and Codex the same "add a coin pickup with a satisfying pop" task. Compare approach, correctness, and how each explains itself. Write up which you'd hire and why.

State of the Art · Small teams, bigger reachIf one creative technologist directing agents can do what took a small team, the economics of indie games shift — and the new bottleneck is taste and QA, not raw output. Your head-to-head today is practice for a real hiring question. Discussion: where does a human have to stay in the loop?OpenAI Codex

12Nov 18

Into space & players: VR + multiplayer Project 3 due · crit

A first VR mode with OpenXR in Unreal — the VR Template, a VR Pawn, and grab/interaction.
A first networked interaction with Unreal replication — a Listen Server, replicated variables with RepNotify, and RPCs; packaging a standalone build.
Crit: Interactive Vertical Slice. Final project proposals pitched.

AI LabUse the agent as an integration assistant: have it wire up a VR Pawn or a basic listen-server connection from the docs, then verify the packaged build actually runs on the target — agents are confident about APIs they've half-remembered.

State of the Art · One project, many surfacesThe same Unreal project can target standalone desktop, a Quest/VR headset build, and a networked session — but every surface adds real cost in performance and testing. Standalone VR is a shrinking-but-dominant install base; desktop is the frictionless one. Discussion: for your final, which surface actually serves the idea?Unreal XR / OpenXR · Unreal networking

—Nov 25

No class — Thanksgiving break

Phase 4 — The Final · Weeks 13–15

13Dec 02

Production sprint I

Studio time on finals with instructor desk-crits; Sequencer and a Cine Camera Actor for trailers and documentation.

AI LabYour agent, your pipeline: by now the AI workflow is yours to direct. Sprint goal set at 3 pm, demo what you (and the agent) shipped at 4:15.

State of the Art · Free tools change the sprintFree markerless mocap, coding agents, and Sequencer for trailers mean a solo student can now attempt what recently needed a small team. The scarce resource in your sprint isn't labor — it's judgment about what to cut. Discussion: what does free production change about how you scope a final?Unreal Sequencer

14Dec 09

Production sprint II & playtesting

Structured playtests with classmates; triage what feedback to act on before ship.
Building, packaging, and publishing to itch.io; the standalone build checklist.

State of the Art · The sectors nobody told you aboutGames are the visible slice; the same real-time interactive skills hire into training simulation, healthcare, automotive HMI, architectural walkthroughs, and location-based entertainment. Discussion: describe your final project in the language of three different industries.itch.io publishing

15Finals

Final crit & showcase Final due · 40%

Finals week (Dec 14–17) — playable builds exhibited during our scheduled exam slot; invited guests play your work.
AI development log and process documentation submitted with the build.

State of the Art · Position your work in 2026The field you're shipping into: Unreal everywhere with UE6 on the horizon, agents in the editor, mocap in your pocket, and distribution one upload away. At crit, every project answers one question: where does this work sit in that landscape — and what would you build next?Unreal Engine

Projects

Four production projects, each building on the last, from a static asset to a playable game. Every project ships with an AI development log — the record of what you asked the agents to do, what they did, and what you had to fix or decided to reject.

01 · Game-Ready Asset Kit

10%Weeks 3–5

A small modular set — a prop family or a piece of environment — modeled, unwrapped, textured, and lit in Unreal to a stated polycount and texel budget. The test: it looks intentional, reads at game distance, and stays on budget.

3–5 modular pieces with clean topology and non-overlapping UVs
PBR materials with a considered wear/story pass
A Lumen-lit Unreal level showing the kit assembled

Budget sheet: polycount and texel density per piece
AI development log (what the agent scripted or documented vs. what you authored)

02 · Rigged & Animated Character

15%Weeks 6–9

A character — yours or a provided base mesh — rigged, skinned, and given a clip set that plays through an Animation Blueprint: an idle, a locomotion cycle, and one action. The test: the deformation holds up and the motion has weight and intent.

Clean skeleton and skin weights that survive extreme poses
Three authored clips: idle, walk/run, one action
Animation Blueprint with a working State Machine and Blend Space, driven by variables

A short turntable + in-engine playback clip
AI development log

03 · Interactive Vertical Slice

10%Weeks 10–12

A playable slice: the player controls your character, animation is driven by input, and at least three Blueprint interactions respond to the world. Stretch options: an OpenXR VR mode or a replicated multiplayer interaction.

Packaged standalone build (Windows, or a VR headset)
Input-driven character with animation states from Project 2
At least three authored Blueprint interactions

Playtest notes from at least two classmates
AI development log

04 · Final Project

40%Weeks 12–15

Your voice as a maker of interactive work: a complete playable game or interactive piece, pitched in Week 12, produced in the sprint weeks, exhibited and played in Week 15, and published as a build. Ambition is graded — so is finish.

Written + visual pitch (approved Week 12)
Published packaged Unreal build (itch.io standalone, or headset)
A 60–90s trailer/documentation edit for your portfolio

Process book: references, iterations, playtests
Full-semester AI development log with a one-page reflection: where the agents made you faster, and where they made you worse

How production projects are assessed

Criterion	Weight	What it looks like
Craft & technical execution	30%	Clean models, UVs, materials, rigging, and code; it runs and stays on budget.
Concept & design	25%	The work means something; composition, motion, and pacing are authored, not defaulted.
Interactivity / game feel	20%	Interactions are discoverable and satisfying; the thing is fun to touch.
Process & AI development log	15%	Honest record of prompts, agent output, your review and fixes. You can explain every asset and line in the build.
Crit participation	10%	You show up, show work, and give your peers real feedback.

AI Lab

This course treats AI coding agents the way a studio treats any powerful tool: you are the director, the agent is a fast but overconfident assistant, and nothing ships that you can't explain. Here's the toolchain, the setup, and the rules. And this site has its own AI TA — the amber button in the corner — tuned to each week's material for questions between studio sessions.

The toolchain

Agent

Claude Code

Anthropic's terminal-based coding agent. Reads your project, wires Blueprints and writes C++, builds Unreal editor tooling, and runs commands. It's the primary agent we lean on this semester.

Agent

OpenAI Codex CLI

OpenAI's counterpart agent. We use both deliberately — comparing how two different agents attack the same Unreal problem is itself a course exercise (Week 11).

Bridge

Unreal MCP (built into 5.8)

Unreal Engine 5.8 ships a first-party MCP server: enable "Unreal MCP" in Edit > Plugins, restart, then start it from the console with ModelContextProtocol.StartServer. It exposes the editor to agents — spawning and editing Actors, running commands — so an agent can act in the editor, not just on files.

Skills

Epic's UE skills for Claude Code

Epic's unreal-engine-skills-for-claude-code plugin teaches Claude Code current Unreal workflows and APIs. We pair it with project context (a good CLAUDE.md) and make the agent look up the current API instead of trusting memory.

Setup (Week 1, step by step)

Install the agents
Claude Code (npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code) and Codex CLI per current docs. Sign in with the accounts provided/discussed in class.
Create the Unreal project + repo
New Unreal Engine 5.8 project, then git init and push to GitHub with an Unreal .gitignore (Saved/ and Intermediate/ ignored). Version control from day one — it's how you and the agent stay honest.
Point the agent at the project
Run Claude Code from the project root and add a short CLAUDE.md describing the project, so the agent has context. Ask it to summarize the project structure back to you.
Enable the Unreal MCP + Epic UE skills
In Edit > Plugins enable "Unreal MCP", restart, and start the server with ModelContextProtocol.StartServer; add Epic's unreal-engine-skills-for-claude-code plugin so the agent can act in the editor and knows current UE workflows.
Smoke test
Ask the agent to spawn and describe a few Actors in your level. If it can reach the editor through the MCP and report what it did, you're wired up.

Prompt patterns that work in Unreal

Look up before you build. Have the agent check the current Unreal class and docs before building — the UE API shifts between versions and models remember old signatures.
Small, verifiable steps. "Add WASD movement to this Character" beats "make my game." Compile and test in Play In Editor (PIE) after every change.
Spec first. Write the behavior as three plain-English sentences before prompting. If you can't spec it, the agent can't build it — it will just build something.
Make it explain. After the agent wires a Blueprint or writes a script, have it walk you through it. Then read it yourself and confirm the explanation matches what's actually there.
Distrust performance claims. Agents assert; the profilers measure. Use stat unit, stat gpu, and Unreal Insights to settle arguments about what's slow.

Course AI policy

Allowed and expected: using Claude Code and Codex on all production projects, with every session recorded in your AI development log (prompt, what the agent did, what you kept/fixed/rejected).

Required: you must be able to explain every asset, material, animation state, and line of code in your submitted build, live, at crit. "The AI did it" is the new "I found it on YouTube" — it's a starting point, not an answer.

Not allowed: AI agents during the Week 7 practical exam; presenting agent output as hand-authored in your process documentation; using AI to fabricate playtest notes, references, or reflection writing.

Undocumented AI use on graded work is an academic integrity matter under the University's policy.

The AI development log

A running document (Markdown in your repo is ideal) with one entry per working session: date, goal, the prompts that mattered, what the agent produced, what you changed and why, and one thing you learned about directing it. Five honest minutes after each session. It's worth 15% of every project grade and is the backbone of your final reflection.