Introduction to Unit 4

Get started with VFX

Play around with a Particle System

Create an environmental Particle System

Create a burst particle

Challenge: Add some magic to your scene

Add VFX to your game

Unit 4 - VFX

In this unit, you’ll learn how to implement visual effects (VFX)  in Unity. Then you’ll apply those new skills and add VFX to your own game. 

Unit 4 - Visual Effects

Welcome to the course

Install the Unity Hub and Editor

Get started with the Unity Editor

Create a balanced primitive structure

Introduction to Unit 2

Setting up the Game

Moving the Player

Moving the Camera

Setting up the Play Area

Creating Collectibles

Detecting Collisions with Collectibles

Displaying Score and Text

Adding AI Navigation

Building the Game

Fill out a Game Design Document

Introduction to Unit 3

Get started with audio

Create 3D sound effects

Add special effects to existing audio

Challenge: Your own soundscape

Add audio to your game

Introduction to Unit 5

Get started with user interfaces

Add a title to your scene

Manage screen size and anchors

Create a menu background with images

Add basic button functionality

Add toggles and sliders

Challenge: Make a worldspace UI

Add UI to your game

Introduction to Unit 6

Get started with animation

Create your first 3D animations

Refine your animation

Control animation with an Animator

Import animation

Challenge: Bring the scene to life

Add animation to your game

Introduction to Unit 7

Get started with shaders and materials

Explore meshes and rendering

Explore shaders

Simulate solid surfaces

Map materials with textures

Create translucent and transparent effects

Add physical texture with bump mapping 

Challenge: Create your still life composition

Add materials to your game

Introduction to Unit 8

Get started with lighting

Get started with lighting in Unity

Configure the Directional Light and skybox

Add light sources to your scene

Configure shadows in your scene

Bake a lightmap for your scene

Improve your lighting with Light Probes

Examine and complete the indoor scene

Refine and troubleshoot the indoor scene

Showcase your work with lighting

Add lighting to your game

Introduction to Unit 9

Explore the production cycle

Reimagine your game on multiple platforms

Iterate on the player controller

Source new assets

Unity pro tips

Prepare for the UCA Game Dev exam

Finalize your project

Unit 1 - Unity fundamentals

Unit 2 - Program a basic game

Unit 3 - Audio

Unit 5 - UI

Unit 6 - Animation

Unit 7 - Materials

Unit 8 - Lighting

Unit 9 - Iterate on your game

In this unit, you will create your first Unity project, get comfortable using the Unity Editor, and then design your first scene. 

Unit 1 - Get started in Unity

In this unit, you will create a simple game called Roll-a-Ball that will be the foundation for your personal game project, which you will work on for the entire course.  

In this unit, you’ll learn how to implement audio effects in Unity. Then you’ll apply those new skills and add audio to your own game. 

In this unit, you’ll learn how to create user interfaces (UI) in a Unity project. Then you’ll apply those new skills and add UI to your own game. 

Unit 5 - User Interfaces

In this unit, you’ll learn how to create and control animations in a Unity project. Then you’ll apply those new skills and add animations to your own game. 

Add physical texture with bump mapping

In this unit, you’ll learn how to add custom materials, including a repeating pattern and a normal map to simulate height and surface texture. Then you’ll apply those new skills and add animations to your own game.

In this unit, you’ll learn how to add lighting to your scene to make things more polished and visually pleasing. Then you’ll apply those new skills and add lighting to your own game.

In this unit, you’ll reflect on the process so far, iterate on the player controller, swap out the assets in your game, and then you’ll learn some Unity tips and tricks to take your skills to the next level.

Unit 9 - Iterate on your Game

In this unit, you’ll make sure you’re ready to take the certification exam and make any final adjustments to your game to make sure it meets the goals outlined in your Game Design Document.  

Unit 10 - Prepare for certification and publishing

This course is designed to help you prepare for the 

Unity Certified Associate: Game Developer

In this course, you will master the fundamental skills needed for game development with Unity, including programming in C#, designing immersive audio and stunning visual effects, crafting intuitive user interfaces, and applying unique animations, materials and lighting.

You'll start by creating a design document for your own game, then gradually build a working prototype. Throughout the course, you'll enhance your game using the skills you acquire, taking it from a simple idea to a finished product.

Towards the end of the course, there is dedicated time for a comprehensive review of everything you’ve learned to ensure you’re fully prepared to ace the exam

When you're done with the course, you will not only have the skills to pass the Unity Certified Associate exam and continue creating your own games, but you'll also have a fully realized game that you've designed and created from scratch.

2022.3

UCA: Game Developer - Certification Prep Course

005726cc-41d9-5275-88f3-60cbf80c6b0a:VjARa8C3EIBGSbYTjQ53q1

Overview

Determine a creative direction

Create some magical particles

Challenge criteria

Next steps

Submit your work

magic fire 

kimcoburn10_unity

Added magic scenes like fireflies, particle emissions, etc.

week8_assignment1.mp4

VFX Magic, Fire flies, and Particle emissions

debug-dynamo

added magic scenes like  fireflies, shooting stars to the scene.

CreativeCore_Prototypes 2025-03-23 16-09-16.mp4

Add some magic to your scene

Vijayagiridharan

VFX Magic

Shreyas2422

Fire flies

ashwin_raikar

 My Fireflies VFX scene adds a touch of enchantment with glowing, floating particles that mimic the natural movement of fireflies. Using Unity’s particle system, I crafted a mesmerizing effect to enhance the magical atmosphere of the environment. 

Glowing Fireflies: A Mystical VFX Scene

SanjuktaKambol

Its okay. Don't know why I decided to have the magical element be green stuff floating around.

Unity VFX

Soft_cats

There is rain and fire. also has smoke when fire is turned on/off. Fireflies🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Campfire

nice_banana

fireflies.mp4

Ori and the Blind Forest Trailer

VFX have the power to add intrigue, mystery, and whimsy to your environments. In this tutorial, you will attempt to add a sense of magic to your scene with fireflies, shooting stars, or some other effect of your choice.

By the end of this tutorial, you'll be able to demonstrate your new skills in particles and visual effects.   

Designed for post-secondary and K-12 educators at accredited academic institutions teaching Unity in the classroom, the Unity Educator plan provides you with free access to the same real-time 3D development tools used by professionals to support your students.

Included in this plan are Unity Pro, cloud-based collaboration, cloud build, free Unity assets, and much more!

Creative Core Pathway Facilitator Kit.zip

Creative Core Pathway Facilitator Kit (Google Drive)

Unity Educator Hub

The Unity Creative Core Pathway Facilitator Kit includes everything you need to successfully bring this Pathway into your learning context including a syllabus, complete lesson plans, standards alignment, teacher preparation guide, and more. 

Games

Film

Automotive

Now that you have a pretty good understanding of how Particle Systems are made, you are ready to create one entirely on your own. 

On a digital project, VFX artists are usually given creative license as they bring their effects to life. In this challenge, your goal is to introduce a bit of whimsical magic into your scene using a Particle System. 

Your task is to introduce a feeling of magic into the scene. As a VFX artist, you might have some creative freedom in how you make that happen. 

Think of magical or whimsical environments you’ve seen in games or movies. What made those feel magical?

For inspiration, watch this trailer for Ori and the Blind Forest, a game made with Unity that is full of these types of magical, surreal scenes. 

From this example above, you might be inspired to create magical fireflies or shooting stars in your scene. 

With your creative direction in mind, add a new magical Particle System into the scene. You could add fireflies, shooting stars, or some other whimsical element to the scene.

By the end, your scene might look something like this:

You should expect to spend at least 30 minutes on this challenge.

To successfully complete this challenge, your magical particles should: 

Include some element of randomness (direction, lifetime, spawn rate, etc). 

Change color over time (opacity or hue). 

Congratulations! You have completed the learning required for Core VFX. 

You have the core skills and knowledge for one of the primary creative domains within the Unity Engine. 

Now you’re ready to apply these skills in other projects! We can’t wait to see what you make next.

After you’ve fulfilled the requirements, please submit and share your project! Before you do though, make sure you’ve thoroughly tested it — or even better, ask a friend or family member to test it too.

Follow these instructions to submit your project:

1. Take a screenshot or screen recording of your project.

2. Add a submission title and description. Make sure to include the video recording. If you have additional details to share about your process or the project that you have created, you can share them in the description too.

5. Check your submission preview and then complete the CAPTCHA test and select Submit and continue.

We highly recommend that you comment on at least one other creator's submission. Did they successfully complete the challenge? What do you like about the project? What would be a cool new feature they might consider adding?

Challenge: Add some magic to your scene

1. Overview

2. Determine a creative direction

3. Create some magical particles

4. Challenge criteria

5. Next steps

6. Submit your work

Please login to submit