Unreal Bucket: Working on an Asset Library for UE4

Michał Orzełek talked about Unreal Bucket, a new asset library for UE4 projects already available on the Marketplace.

Introduction

My name is Michał, and I’m a self-taught computer graphics artist, specializing in 3D and real-time rendering. For the past 12 years, I worked as a graphic designer and UI/UX, I tried motion graphics and even VFX. Finally, I found my real passion when a friend showed me UDK. I fell in love with Unreal Engine, and I have been using it ever since. To get more experience with the engine I started a blog with free content, made some tutorials on YouTube, and joined Epic Marketplace (you may know my Advanced Glass Material Pack).

I’ve always wanted to do creative things. Luckily, I met many talented people during my studies who think the same. We worked on various projects together, participated in game jams, and quickly became friends. I teamed up with Paweł, Mateusz W, Tomasz, Mateusz K, and Kasia last year and we started Unreal Bucket.

What Is Unreal Bucket?

It all started with a proof of concept. I wanted to improve my asset workflow and find a way to simplify the steps I do in every UE4 project. I created an easily manageable content library that I could quickly reuse, and focus on the fun part. I realized that it would be great to have the library every time I need it, no matter what projects or PC I work on. I shared this idea with my friends and we decided to give it a shot.

We made a plugin that smoothly integrates with the editor, allowing users to download and import assets directly to their projects. There would be no Unreal Bucket without content. We are building a standardized, high-quality asset library with native Unreal Engine features such as Blueprints, custom materials, and more.

I was lucky enough to find amazing artists who liked the Unreal Bucket idea and decided to support us with their works. We wouldn’t have had so many great assets in our library without them!

The Unreal Bucket Plugin

It definitely was a challenge to make the plugin. Mateusz did a really good job converting my UI concepts into pixel-perfect and fully-featured prototypes.

Paweł, our backend wizard, created the entire infrastructure. We knew from the beginning that the Unreal Bucket must be easily scalable and provide a great user experience.

Our Library

We paid a lot of attention to usability and quality standards. We believe the library must be optimized for the engine and provide at least basic customization for users. We use convenient naming conventions for our assets, meshes share common texel density, we include LODs for heavier geometry, and much more.

I created a set of tools and level templates to test all assets before uploading them to the library. I can easily preview materials, see all PBR channels, and check if textures are correctly calibrated.

I use the newest Unreal Engine version to make all previews and thumbnails of the assets. Ray Tracing and HDR lighting give stunning results in real-time. I streamline the process with Blueprints and predefined lighting rigs. What a time to be alive as an artist!

Our library is growing really fast. We keep adding new packs every week. I am very excited to see more and more artists share their work with the Unreal community via Unreal Bucket. If you would like to see your assets in the library, I am happy to invite you to our Bucket family. We make all kinds of assets.

Customization

Being able to quickly tweak assets is really useful and saves a lot of time. Every project is different and requires creative solutions. Fortunately, Unreal Engine provides great tools for that. Our assets come with customizable materials and blueprints. Here are some examples:

Comparing Unreal Bucket with Quixel

Recently, we’ve been getting a lot of feedback and some people compared Unreal Bucket to Quixel Bridge. I think it’s absolutely amazing! Quixel is one of the best companies out there, and I’ve always been inspired by what they do. We are a little bit different though. First of all, they have the world’s best scans library. We focus on handcrafted assets that are difficult or even impossible to scan with traditional photogrammetry. We want Unreal Bucket to be a more community-focused project. Ideally, our ecosystem becomes an extra resource for the entire Unreal Engine universe.

How to Get Started

To get started with Unreal Bucket you need to install the plugin to the engine. Just put all the files into your Unreal Engine plugins folder, enable the plugin, and restart the editor. We hope to add Unreal Bucket to the Epic Marketplace and make installation more convenient.

We launched our beta version in February, and we would like to invite you to test the Unreal Bucket plugin. Since it’s a beta, not everything will be perfect yet, but with your help, we can make it as good as possible. We’d love to hear your feedback.

Please sign up on our website.

Future Plans

It’s just the beginning, and we’ve got a lot of ideas for the future. First of all, we want to improve content management and allow users to synchronize their own assets with Unreal Bucket. We believe it’ll change the way people collaborate and share their work. We plan to introduce subscription plans to cover infrastructure costs and be able to hire more people to build the best UE4 library!

Our Core Team

Michał Orzełek, Founder/3D Generalist
Mateusz Kołaziński, 3D Artist
Tomasz Miniszewski, 3D Artist
Paweł Miniszewski, Systems Engineer and Graphics Programmer
Mateusz Więch, C++/UE4 Developer
Kasia Zamaria, Front-end Developer

Michał Orzełek, Founder/3D Generalist

Interview conducted by Arti Sergeev

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