POWER UP YOUR SKILLS

Move with the times and get up to speed with the likes of Unity and Unreal Engine

The worldwide demand for Unreal Engine skills was projected to grow 138 percent over 10 years, according to insight from labour market analytics firm Burning Glass in 2021. The company mined their database of nearly a billion past and present job postings to discover that demand for Unreal Engine skills is growing faster than any other segment in real-time 3D.

These job market stats show what everyone in the industry is feeling: a clear shift from traditional workflows and applications to real-time game engines such as Unreal Engine and Unity. Companies all around the world are seeking new ways to deliver more immersive and interactive experiences to clients, and it's contributing to one of the biggest shifts the industry has witnessed in a long time.

Traditional workflows within the 3D industry for the past couple of decades could be summarised as centring around a modelling application followed by a rendering engine, which would either be a plugin or standalone program. I, for example, have spent most of my career working with 3ds Max as my modelling tool and V-Ray as my rendering plugin.

This combination has enabled artists to create breathtaking images and videos but has, in recent years, begun to lack the necessary firepower for an upsurge of interactive and realtime workflows, whether used for pre-visualisation, in-project modelling and simulation, or for rendering and creating experiences for end users.

These seismic shifts will cause a whole host of different thoughts and feelings to rise up in the mind and heart of a 3D artist. Those who are comfortable with a traditional workflow and find it hard to pick up new software will see it particularly difficult to adapt to this changing landscape. On the other hand, 3D artists who can shift their workflows and pick up new tools will find themselves much more successful in futureproofing their skills.