Creating an interactive interface is one of the easiest ways to make your Unreal Engine project feel polished and engaging. With Unreal’s UMG system, you can quickly build menus, buttons, and HUD elements without writing a single line of code.
This guide will walk you through the basics of designing and displaying UI, making buttons interactive, and ensuring your interface looks great on any screen. These foundational skills are a perfect stepping stone into broader creative fields like 3D modelling and digital animation, and align well with comprehensive programs such as VCAD’s 3D Modeling Animation Art and Design Diploma.
Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Interactive Interfaces in Unreal Engine
Step 1: Understanding Unreal Engine’s UI Tools
Unreal Engine offers two primary systems for building user interfaces: Slate and UMG (Unreal Motion Graphics).
- Slate is a C++ framework used to create the engine's own editor interface.
- UMG is the visual editor you'll use, providing a designer-friendly canvas for building your game's UI.
Within UMG, you work with Widget Blueprints, which combine visual layout and interactive logic. The Designer tab lets you drag and drop elements like buttons and text onto a canvas, while the Graph tab is where you use Blueprint nodes to program their functionality.
To use a widget in your game, you create it with the Create Widget node and then display it with Add to Viewport. This separation—designing a standalone UI element and then calling it from a character or level blueprint, makes your project highly flexible and organized.
Step2:Getting Started with Widget Blueprints
To create your first widget:
1. Right-click in the Content Browser.
2. Select User Interface > Widget Blueprint and give it a name.
When you open it, you'll see the Designer tab. Key areas include:
- Palette: A library of UI elements (buttons, text, images, etc.).
- Hierarchy: Shows how widgets are nested within each other.
- Details: Allows you to adjust properties like size, position, and style.
UMG provides various panel widgets, like Vertical Box, Horizontal Box, and Grid, to control the layout of child elements. While you can use a Canvas Panel for absolute positioning, relying on a mix of layout panels with consistent anchor points will create a more flexible UI that scales well across different screen resolutions.
Step3: Designing for Different Screen Sizes
A professional interface must look good on multiple displays. Start by defining a target resolution (e.g., 1920×1080) and set your DPI Scale to 1.0. Design all your UI elements with this resolution in mind.
When creating artwork, set your document to 96 DPI to match Unreal’s default coordinate system. To ensure consistent sizing, avoid textures with built-in padding; instead, control spacing directly through the padding options in the Details panel.
Step4: Building Reusable Buttons and Menus
Buttons are the cornerstone of interactivity. Here’s how to build a reusable button template:
- Create a new Widget Blueprint and name it CustomButton.
- Drag a Button from the Palette and wrap it in a Size Box to enforce a specific width and height.
- In the Graph tab, drag the button reference into the canvas and connect it to a Set Style node. Promote the style to a variable so you can easily edit colours and textures later.
- Set the Normal image for the button, then duplicate that style for the Hovered and Pressed states, adding a tint to provide visual feedback.
- For the interaction, add an OnClicked event. Instead of programming the specific action here, create an Event Dispatcher (e.g., ButtonClicked). This allows each instance of your button to broadcast its own event, which other blueprints can listen for.
Step5: Assembling and Displaying Your UI in the Game
To show a widget to the player, use the Level Blueprint or your Character Blueprint:
- Add an Event BeginPlay node.
- Use the Create Widget node to instantiate your widget (e.g., MainMenu).
- Store the returned widget in a variable, then use Add to Viewport to display it.
- Use the Set Input Mode nodes to manage how the player interacts. Game and UI allows control of both, while UI Only restricts input to the interface.
- Show or hide the mouse cursor with Set Show Mouse Cursor.
When you need to close the menu, simply call Remove from Parent on the widget variable and reset the input mode. This pattern works for HUDs, pause menus, inventory screens, and more.
Step6: Updating Dynamic UI Data
For a HUD that displays changing values like health or ammo, create these variables in your character blueprint. In your HUD widget, use Bindings to automatically update text or progress bars whenever the variable changes. Bindings are ideal for simple, frequently updated values. For more complex updates involving multiple elements, it's often better to trigger changes through custom Blueprint events.
Best Practices for a Polished Interface
- Plan Your Layout: Use container panels like Grid and Vertical/Horizontal Boxes for cleaner, more scalable layouts than nested Canvas Panels.
- Use Auto vs. Fill: Auto lets a UI element take only the space it needs, while Fill makes it stretch to the available space.
- Avoid Heavy Transforms: For permanent scaling, wrap elements in a Scale Box instead of using the Render Transform, which is meant for animations.
- Think Modular: Create templates for common elements and expose style variables so you can tweak the appearance without rewriting logic.
- Leverage Right-Click: In the Widget Editor, right-click widgets in the Hierarchy to quickly wrap them in a new panel or duplicate styles.
Taking Your Skills to the Next Level
The skills you learn building UMG interfaces are directly applicable to professional development. A strong grasp of UI design in Unreal is a fantastic foundation for a career in games, interactive experiences, or 3D animation.
If you're looking to move beyond self-directed learning and build a career, consider formal training. The 3D Modeling Animation Art and Design Diploma Program at VCAD is a 72-week online program designed for aspiring artists. It provides hands-on experience with industry-standard tools like Maya, ZBrush, and Unreal Engine, helping you build a professional portfolio and prepare for roles in animation, game development, and post-production.
Final Thoughts
Learning to create an interactive interface in Unreal Engine is a powerful step toward building more professional games and digital experiences. By mastering the design of widgets, scripting interactions, and managing input, you can create everything from simple HUDs to complex menu systems.
These foundational skills will support your creative future, whether you continue exploring on your own or through a structured program like VCAD’s 3D Modeling Animation Art and Design diploma.
