Creating your first Fortnite scene with library assets

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Welcome to our new series on 3D design and metaverse build by Polygonal Mind!

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‍Fortnite is an emerging video game that has revolutionised the industry with its creative mode, which allows players to build and design their own virtual worlds.

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If you're a Fortnite enthusiast with lots of ideas for challenging levels but no idea how to get started, this guide will provide you with the knowledge and tools you need to bring your concepts to life.

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In this first episode, we'll show you how to create your very own Fortnite scene using library assets. Let's dive in!

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Getting started

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‍First of all, make sure you have installed Fortnite and the Unreal Editor for Fortnite, you can find both of them in the Epic Games Store.

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You just have to open the application, select your template if you want one, select the path where all the files will be placed and then you're ready to start working in UEFN.

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In this case we will use the “Shoreline Island” template as our base.

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Setting up the project 

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As a first step to start working on your scene, you should change the scalability settings to match your PC specifications: by clicking on auto is enough. This will ensure that your FPS don’t drop as you work on your scene.

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Additionally, you can easily set the daytime for specific lighting parameters.

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The Fortnite library

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Now that we are ready, let’s start placing some assets in our scene. In this tutorial we will use the Fortnite library assets exclusively.

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Every UEFN project comes with all the existing props in Fortnite, so we have a wide variety of assets to create our scene.

You can find them by opening the Content Drawer in the bottom left corner, go to “All” → “Fortnite” → “Props”.

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We will  use the “Castle” props to build our scene.

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Placing your first assets

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Let’s place our first assets by clicking and dragging them into the scene.

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You can press “F” to zoom the camera into the selected asset.

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As you move your assets with the arrows Gizmo you will notice how it snaps into the ground, this is a feature that prevents assets from clipping into each other, but later on we will show you how to turn this off.  

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To duplicate an object just move it with the arrows gizmo while pressing “Alt”.

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Now, let’s see how we can edit the terrain by adding some dirt on the ground.

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Press “shift + 2” to open the Landscape Mode, in this menu you will find different tools to edit your terrain.

If you click on “Paint” you can start adding some dirt on the ground.

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Building the scene

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From here on, it's all about having an idea in your mind and building it into the engine.

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Press “Shift + 1” to go back to Selection Mode so you can keep adding props to your scene.

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A nice tip to build your scenes faster is to select multiple objects with “shift” and then duplicating them by moving them while you press “alt”.  

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As we continue building the scene, we will pick different props from the same folder, don’t be afraid to play with them and try different combinations since you can always go back and delete them.

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Sometimes we'll need to disable the grid snap by clicking on the grid icon on top right, this way we can place assets in a more organic way like these ruins we are placing.

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Have fun and enjoy the process!

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Testing the scene

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Once we are done with our scene and want to test it in-game, it's as simple as pressing the "launch session" button. It will automatically launch Fortnite and open a scene in creative mode where we'll be able to keep iterating and even moving or placing assets.

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Conclusion

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In this article we have covered the basics of creating levels in Fortnite using assets from the game's library. We started with the initial setup, followed by an exploration of the wide variety of assets available.

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We also learned how to select, place and duplicate items, as well as how to perform terrain modifications. In addition, we highlighted the importance of testing our creation in-game through Fortnite's creative mode. Now there are no more excuses not to create!

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Thank you for watching and we hope you feel inspired to create your own Fortnite map. Happy designing and see you in future tutorials!

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