We dive into the world of creativity and productivity while navigating the challenges of a congested voice and a busy life. I’ve been away from the microphone, grappling with a cold and focusing on my family and work, but I'm back to share my thoughts on the importance of maintaining our creative passions amidst the chaos. As I work on launching my website, which will serve as a visual companion to this podcast and a portfolio, I reflect on the progress I’ve made in Unreal Engine, despite the hiccups along the way. We explore the FAB marketplace, discussing its impressive growth and what it means for creators like us, while also contemplating the significant role of AI in streamlining our workflows. Join me as I share my experiences, insights, and the occasional humorous anecdote, all while hoping to connect with those of you out there who share this creative journey. , Here I am, recording while nursing a cold, and let me tell you, it’s been quite the experience! My voice is different, and it feels a bit uncomfortable to talk, but you know what? There’s a strange charm in pushing through these moments. The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of family obligations and work commitments, leaving little room for my creative projects in Unreal Engine. January has felt like being stuck in a washing machine, with thoughts swirling around, and honestly, it’s been tough to find my footing. I share how my energy has been drained, and my creative drive has taken a backseat as I focus on my daughter and the daily grind. I’ve been thinking about launching a website that will serve as a visual companion to this podcast, a portfolio, and a space to document my projects. I want to keep it simple and not overwhelm myself, as I’ve realized that setting realistic goals is key to staying motivated. There’s something exciting about the potential of a dedicated space to showcase my work and keep track of my creative journey. I also dive into the FAB 2025 year in review, highlighting the impressive growth of the marketplace. The statistics are staggering, and it’s encouraging to see the community and opportunities expanding in the 3D asset space. It’s a vibrant ecosystem we’re part of, and I can’t help but feel a sense of connection with fellow creators navigating the same waters. As we shift gears, I get into the role of AI in our creative processes, which is a game-changer. I’ve started using AI tools to enhance my workflows, and it’s fascinating how they can streamline tasks and open up new creative avenues. I’m genuinely excited about the future possibilities that AI integration holds, especially as we look toward more efficient ways to work with Unreal Engine. It’s an exhilarating time for creators, and despite the challenges I’ve faced, I remain hopeful and eager to embrace what’s next.

Takeaways:

1. It's been a challenging January for me, feeling a bit under the weather and overwhelmed.
2. I'm really excited about launching my website, which will showcase my projects and podcast.
3. Creating environments in Unreal Engine is fulfilling, especially when it tells a visual story.
4. Using AI tools has completely changed my workflow, making tasks much more efficient and manageable.
5. I've been focusing on supporting creators by purchasing assets that enhance my projects.
6. I want to explore the integration of AI into animation, as it seems to open up new creative possibilities.

Companies mentioned in this episode:

1. Unreal Engine
2. FAB
3. Epic
4. Figma
5. Cursor AI
6. Quixel

Links referenced in this episode:

1. https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/news/fab-2025-year-in-review

You need to forgive me.

The voice is different this time.

I don't know, maybe it sounds better than my usual voice.

It's certainly less comfortable to speak this time around because, yeah, I'm going a bit of a cold flu state which when I hear myself, it's not too bad.

Can we keep this?

Could this be my permanent voice, please?

But it's not super comfortable.

I'm quite congested and it's actually one of the few reasons why I've been away from the microphone lately.

Well, not because my sound, my voice sounded so great.

It's just I didn't really have much energy and my focus was really mostly around my daughter, around my, my home, my work day work, that is.

And yeah, I couldn't really do anything with Unreal Engine.

I did have a sense of calling or drive, but there was just no energy in me to do anything.

So even now there's dishwasher in the background.

I don't know if you can hear it.

I have rather good dynamic microphone.

It shouldn't really be picking that up.

But if you hear it, it's a little bit like an appropriate sound bed for this because yeah, January for me feels a little bit like being.

Being locked in a.

In a washing machine.

You know, a lot of conflicting thoughts, kind of dizziness because of, you know, the overwhelm and being tired and soaked.

Okay, enough.

Enough of these.

Abstract anecdotes.

There's also my daughter in the other room.

She may pop out asking me about something any minute and I have this tension that, yeah, I'll be disturbed any minute now.

Let's see how it goes.

I'll try to record something.

Actually, on that note, I wonder what it's like for you.

But in my case, I really cannot.

I'm unable to sit down to Unreal engine for like 20 minutes.

I really need to sit down and secure like two hours minimum before I familiarize myself with what's happening in the project.

I look around, I test, maybe I find new problem that I want to solve.

I look through my notes, I look through my documents where I kind of write down what the process is to achieve something.

I need to copy something.

Oh my God, I need to copy.

And now I need to wait 10 minutes.

Like all of this, like so much of meta work around the actual exciting work makes it.

Makes it easier for me to pro stack the Nate.

Sometimes I. I haven't done any work in Unreal Engine this month and it's just horrible.

Now, on a positive side, as a way to treat this situation.

I'll be working really hard next week on launching my website, which won't be much, but I really want to establish it and I want it to be sort of a visual companion to this podcast, but also partially my portfolio, a space where I will be announcing what I'm working on.

And, you know, I realized not to be too ambitious with it.

I just want to get it done.

I don't want to be super critical about projects that I'm working on.

I'll give you an example.

All right.

I really don't feel like there's anything wrong at all.

Taking some assets, some scripts, and combining them together and calling it what it is.

I know many people will argue, they would say it's a lazy work, but hey, if you do it in a unique way, if you attach some story around it, you can really make it yours.

And I've got a bunch of projects like that where I would take some kind of a blueprint that reacts to sound, right?

I'm able to make a character that reacts to sound.

And now I can create this little game that's kind of bizarre, weird, odd, abstract game about a character that needs to go around sound sources because otherwise he breaks apart or something.

And this kind of stuff would take me maybe like one day to, to make.

But all I did was I just combined two pre made elements and I build a story around it, which is mine.

Can I call it my game?

Well, kind of.

I've used a lot of pre made materials, but hey, it is what it is.

It's not a very complex project in this case, but it is something that I find enjoyable and satisfying.

Maybe just a little side thing that I will publish.

And yeah, it is what it is.

So I want to have a website where I can publish this stuff for myself.

Maybe for future clients.

I think mainly for myself.

Man, I need something to.

For sake of transparency with myself.

You know, like when I'm saying January was really passive for me.

I want to be able to go on my blog and see that.

Because right right now it's.

It's like, yeah, I. I could as well disappear.

I could take my toys and disappear for a few months and pretend nothing happened.

This podcast is a single thing that makes me uncomfortable a little bit.

And I want to thank to Elliot who wrote his message.

He is the first person to get in touch with me since I launched this podcast.

I'm really grateful for this signal from the darkness, from the void.

Because ultimately, I just don't know if anyone is listening to this.

Elliot, I'm about to respond to you.

I. I didn't go around it yet, but I will.

Let's get in touch.

Let's have a friendly chat.

And I welcome everyone else who listens who finds some value in this.

Maybe just companionship, that lonely journey through impressive, fascinating, complex software that we try to use to express ourselves with.

So, yeah, my blog.

I mainly would like to publish my flagship project, which is this interactive environment where you've got storytelling, entertainment, education aspect to it and companion short movies that kind of help tell the story.

I have this story in my head.

It's kind of hard to communicate it.

I feel like every junior Unreal Engine developer wants to create something like that because that's exactly what you see as possible and you cannot refuse temptation to work on it.

But I really want to pursue it because you know what?

It's.

I love it.

I love it.

It's.

It always feels like fun and I feel like I'm doing something productive.

So I do what I do and I. I do what I like.

There are two things I would like to really talk about today.

One thing is.

Let's start with that.

I will link it to this chapter.

Mark, I'll try to do that.

If not, I will just have this link in a.

In a show notes.

It's a very interesting page.

I don't know if they had it in previous years.

Let's try.

Oh, no.

Okay.

So I don't know if that's a new thing or not.

I didn't read through that page yet.

But I'll be just focusing on things that stand up the most.

All right, so we've got the major statement that I guess most people are curious about since FAB is a marketplace.

How much money did people earn last year?

It seems like the total was 24 million, Which is, I. I would say maybe insignificant.

I don't know.

I feel like it's not that much.

They say Last year the Fab Marketplace tripled the size of the library to over 420,000 live listings and number of publishing sellings.

Yeah, sorry.

The number of publishers selling on the marketplace doubled to more than 20,000 people submitting to the marketplace.

So we are talking about 20,000 people earning 24 million.

And of course, there will be maybe sharp.

Sharp tail end of people who earn the most and people who earn basically nothing.

I wonder how that breaks down.

But.

So, yeah, when I heard about Fab, I immediately thought, well, this is very exciting.

3D is exploding.

This seemed to be a really impressive undertaking to consolidate all those platforms and create one place where things are bought and sold.

And also given away for free.

Right.

Every month.

No, twice a month.

Twice a month we get three free assets.

Okay.

But I digress.

They go through a lot of features that were added last year, and I think we can agree those features are quite nicely executed.

We've got nice ui, search is improved, but it's not great.

I don't care about Wishlist, to be honest.

We've got metahumans on fab.

That's huge.

Of course, my pet peeve is we really don't have many clothing and groom options.

We've got.

We got to launch FAB from Luncher, which is so great.

Reviews are few and far in between.

There is not many, many reviews to read.

Library.

Yeah, they have Library, but it's quite confusing.

I find that it's really hard to find things in the library, especially things that I bought before FAB was launched.

Do you remember this?

This huge Quixel library that we got to get for free.

It kind of disappeared.

You really need to dig really hard to find it in your library.

But it's there.

But it's.

But it isn't at the same time.

Yeah, but they're doing great work with it and I've.

I'm glad this exists, of course.

Okay, let's see.

Let's go over things that they listed on this page.

So I already said 420k plus listings available.

So things like models, blueprints, environments, stuff like that.

Right.

Quite a lot.

No doubt about it.

20,000 fab publishers.

Again, that doesn't sound a lot, but I guess.

I guess that's.

That's.

Yeah, it's significant.

Let's.

Let's face it.

Yeah.

I don't know if you know, but I'm being interrupted all the time.

Pardon me.

My daughter is asking me about things.

So they paid $24 million to publishers worldwide.

22 million downloads are free and for purchase content.

22 million downloads of free and for public, for purchase.

Okay, so both.

Okay.

So I guess.

I guess a lot of bandwidth, a lot of activity.

I guess most people go come for free for free content.

I personally made some purchases for this first time.

Like I. I got paid content on fab, and you know what?

I felt good about it.

Because why, why am I saying this?

FAB has, FAB has a lot of stuff for free.

And it feels like why would I ever buy anything since there is so much free stuff I could have and use.

Well, I feel like if you're really focused on your, your vision, you, you, you will not settle on compromise because it just takes you away from where you really want to be.

And if you see an asset or a script that, that you know you need, you will get it because you care about your projects.

I think I might be wrong, but I also feel like I want to support creators as well.

I see where my money's going and I got this environment asset that I know it took tremendous amount of knowledge and time for someone to do this.

I got this Ultra.

What is it?

Ultra Sky.

I think they listed it somewhere here.

It's one of the most common purchases in fact.

Ultra Dynamic Sky.

Yeah, it's incredible plugin.

It can, it can achieve any weather, any weather conditions you want.

It's great tool for, for, for any project, I feel like.

Yeah, so supporting creators is, feels quite good and they do quality work that, that, yeah, you feel like you're getting value back.

Okay, let's, let's look.

Majority of projects, product formats 80,000 plus is Unreal Engine.

Then 75,000, Blender, 14,000 Unity, 35,000 Autodesk 3D Max and Maya.

So yeah, of course Unreal Engine is the king here since Fab comes from Epic.

Anyway, limited time for free program.

90 featured products, 15 million claims.

Okay, so these are the free assets, right, that we get twice a month.

90 featured products.

Okay, so that's, that's my pet peeve.

I, I hoard those assets.

I'm getting so many of them.

I'm so happy most of the time.

I just got three new assets today.

They were released yesterday.

Honestly, I, I think they will just end up being there in my collection.

What, what were they again?

Let me see.

I'm launching five here.

There was a medieval castle, stylized log cabin and light detection.

So yeah, kind of random, very nice looking, nothing extraordinary.

But yeah, I'm, I'm really glad this, this exists.

So yeah, 15 million claims of those products.

And yeah, my pet peeve is how do I manage this?

I would like to really create some kind of a system in my library where I can just sort it differently.

There are filters, there are types.

Is it?

No, sorry, I'm looking at in the wrong place here.

I go to library.

Yeah, we've got filters.

That's about it.

We've got this long, long list of assets.

Just they have like a really small thumbnail and each asset can be a missile or it can be like huge environment with hundreds of assets inside.

So it's really hard to find your way around it.

I find this a little bit problematic, but yeah, I don't want to complain too much.

Top performing event sales.

Fab Friday number one.

Spring sale and summer sale.

Yeah, I got my, I bought my things during some kind of sale and yeah, it really helped me to pull the trigger eventually.

I think it was Black Friday.

I went nuts.

I spent a lot of money that day.

Okay, that's interesting.

25%.

Sorry.

Flash sales accounted for 25% of months revenue on average and major sales contributed over 50 of months revenue on average.

So yeah, we love sales, don't we?

Okay, this is, this is really interesting.

This is the most meaningful part of this report.

Top performing categories, number one, 3D environments.

Why is this interesting?

Well, I think environments are assets.

Collections of assets that one are the most interesting to create.

They're most visual.

You create not only collection you, you of.

Of elements, you also create a kind of a visual story.

You create environment for things to happen.

When I see environment and this, this medieval castle for example that I just mentioned, it's you, you launch this level and you can already see things happening there.

You've got lights, you've got weather, you've got, you know, we've got just.

There's nothing happening.

There's no life there.

But you feel like there's a potential there.

I, I've been working on, on my own environment once at the beginning, which is kind of, kind of a usual thing.

You're starting, you're starting off and you, you're about to create the most ambitious thing you can, you can imagine.

Instead of, you know, creating a donut or something.

I, oh, I'll just create the whole environment.

Why not?

So I think they are the most interesting to create.

They are most fulfilling and they can contribute to most of things because yeah, sometimes can be a game, sometimes can be a cartoon, animation or a movie.

And I feel like they're also most expensive.

So you put an effort and you get your, you know, you get to earn a lot and you get to spend a lot, but then you, you get the value that you, that you need.

Because creating environment requires knowledge, it requires experience.

And when you get it because someone else invested that you save time.

Number two of top performing categories.

We've got characters and creatures now.

Yeah, I can relate.

So again you get environment, you get your characters, you animate them and you've got your movie.

Right.

Or you've got your game.

You can.

That's already like 70% of your product.

Number three, we've got tools and plugins.

Engine tools.

Yeah.

So things like this.

Ultra Weather tools.

Yeah.

I've got some smart tools in my Unreal engine that do save me time and simplify the process quite a lot.

Then we've got procedural systems.

Number four.

I'm not doing enough with procedural stuff, but again, huge time saver.

And then gameplay features.

Category Number five.

Yeah, I've never actually played with this stuff.

I imagine that's like UI and controls.

I've got some free, free stuff that I use, but yeah.

Anyway, top performing themes.

I won't be reading all the percentages, but realistic is on the top.

Fantasy.

Number two, three.

Stylized, medieval and then horror.

Okay, okay.

And others makes up one third of the total.

Just so you know.

Um, I can relate to that.

I think I'm driven mostly to the, to the realistic stuff.

And I think mostly because if something is stylized, it's really hard to match other assets to that particular style.

You know what I mean?

It's.

It's like it's very cartoony, maybe low poly.

And then you need something or it's just something else is really tempting you would like to use.

And it's just slightly different amount of polys.

Different.

Not colors, but not materials, but just different style, like new ones.

It's really hard to point out exactly what is different about it.

They just don't match.

So you're getting stuck with the stylized path you went on and you need to create something custom to match the story.

Medieval stuff.

I also have like a strong resistance to this because I don't really know about medieval stuff.

I feel like it's really easy to make a mistake and much wrong flavors of medieval style and horror.

I need to explore that one day.

I. I feel like it's a.

It's a.

It's a cool theme because you can play a lot with just sound design and darkness.

You don't really have to show a lot.

You can really play a lot with a mystery and with Undefined.

I. I was very, very proud of my feedback once that I shared on Reddit.

Someone posted a movie asking for feedback and I said, well, there's really a lot going on in your shots and I feel like you like, the more you introduce to your shot, the more you're responsible for.

Why don't you curate elements that are in the shot then There'll be just less things to worry about.

And that's usually how things go when you, when you're shooting with camera, you, you frame things that make sense and if you don't need something, you just cut that out.

What was I talking about?

Like I said, I'm still a little bit sick.

Let's move on.

Top subcategories, 3D animation, audio game system.

Okay, blah, blah, blah.

Look, I will post the link.

I just want to say I invite you to look through this page.

It's a nicely done long scroll page presentation and it may give you some idea what people do, what people are into.

Yeah, look at the link.

You may enjoy it.

Now, the last thing I want to talk about before my voice completely breaks down is AI.

I've been, you know, it's not like I've been completely inactive for the last, what, three weeks I've been.

When I was working, I was working mainly for my employer, working on user experience and interface design.

And I started to embrace coding tools powered by AI.

And my mind is just completely blown at this point.

I feel like.

We see this exponential growth of tools, systems, workflows and also quality.

I feel like it's no longer wandering in the darkness.

You really can leverage AI those days to achieve your goal.

I'm hoping that AI will really improve this unknown to me mundane portion of Unreal and I'll be able to, to prompt and get, you know, prompt to blueprint path.

I just.

Today I created this web page with very sophisticated loading screen and I was working between Figma, which is a prototyping tool for, for apps and websites.

Oops.

And I was, I had it connected to Corsor and Corsair was coding whatever I did in, in figma.

Absolutely incredible stuff.

And once I get this design done, I got to prompt Courser and I've been doing really effective changes.

Basically I've been saying move this here, change this to that, make this, turn this to animation and make it looped for 10 seconds.

I want the same in Unreal and I think it's just a matter of time.

You have it won't be a long time until we get that.

I know Epic is about to introduce the assistant in Unreal and I think it's already there, but in experimental version, very limited and I think it's not even touching code.

But I feel like once they open that up, you'll be able to connect cloud code or Any other AI model and get your blueprints and code done.

And then there will be no more question about sitting down to your workstation and thinking for half an hour.

Where is.

What, what is this error?

How do I connect this blueprint to whatever it will be?

Basically the whole process will be simplified and it will be limited to the most satisfying experience.

It will be about moving models in the environment and asking by writing prompts what to do.

And it will be good enough.

It would be good enough to become a game or animation, whatever.

I'm also looking forward to possibility of having mocaps, you know, full body mocaps done with AI in inexpensive way.

I would like to be able to prompt.

Prompt AI to get me a mocap, which is one of my biggest bottlenecks.

I'm working on this movie, those.

The series of shorts.

And I just.

I need specific animations and I. I just don't know how to capture them in expensive way.

And I can, I think, give myself my own advice.

I just won't be capturing the whole sequence.

I will, I'll use a lot of ambiguity, you know, if I.

If I don't have to show the whole character getting out of the chair, for example, in a cafe, I'll just show his hand being placed on the table and maybe shoes moving, his legs moving.

That's it.

That's character getting up of the chair, you know.

But I would really like to prompt and get that motion without, you know, all the hassle.

I think this is even necessary because I mean, AI can produce an actual movie sequence.

So we need something equivalent.

Equivalent of that in Unreal where you get to keep a lot more of creative control and you can, you can.

You know exactly what I mean.

Okay, maybe it's a topic for the future episode.

Animating with AI versus animating with 3D animating with Unreal Engine.

This is something I've been playing with.

I have a very strong opinion about that.

I feel like there is no need to choose.

We can integrate one with another depending on what your movie is, what the.

What the purpose is.

But I'm really excited about integrating AI in any digital work that I do now.

All I really need is time and I don't have much of this.

And I'll be doing my best to apply myself more in February and apart from more episodes and the website, I hope to publish work that gives me credibility, gives me visibility and accountability.

Again, I hope to hear from you guys.

More is yet to come, both from me and from Epic.

I suppose I gotta go because I feel like my daughter is.

Is going crazy in the other room, and I need to see what the damage is.

Thank you for listening, and have a good time.

Stay safe and everything.