Watch the course trailer:
Expand your VFX skillset with real-time destruction simulations directly inside Unreal Engine 5. Level up your reel, cinematic, or short film. The course is ultra beginner-friendly, teaching you fundamental concepts and slowly introducing more advanced setups. Included are many unique FX which are exclusive to this course. Chaos Destruction by RedefineFX is the only complete Chaos Destruction course on the market today, covering every main feature in-depth, and taking you from an absolute beginner to an advanced level at creating breathtaking real-time destruction effects at an astonishing level of detail previously only possible in traditional 3D software.
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Enhance Your Projects with Next-Gen Destruction & Pyro Simulations
Follow me step-by-step through over 50 ultra beginner-friendly, project-based lessons covering unique effects you can’t learn anywhere else
Axe Slash Wall Destruction
Superhero Landing
Anti-Gravity Discoidal Blast Gun
Ground Destruction
Unlock a New Skillset & Become a Full Stack VFX Artist
- Master Unreal Engine fundamentals – prepare your project like a pro, setup sequencer, import assets, and so on…
- Fracture objects in a variety of ways (radial, brick, slice, custom…)
- Break objects in a thought-out, performance-friendly way (only add detail in certain areas)
- Understand how to cluster fractures for radically improved realism
- Optimize destruction sims to run in real-time. Remove tiny pieces. Put jittering pieces to sleep, & more
- Add a different material to internal fractures for more realism
- Add smoke, dust, or fire with Niagara Fluids
- Add debris, rocks, or wooden splinters with Niagara Particles
- Trigger additional simulations based on conditions such as speed of falling pieces
- Mix multiple smoke & fire emitters within one sim (explosion with black smoke and brown dust trails etc.)
- Easily setup Niagara Collision & Location events (carpet bombing bonus lesson)
Most importantly: Become a well-rounded, “Full-Stack” VFX artist that can setup particles, volumetric pyro AND destruction sims, making you a swiss-army knife and an indispensable part of any Unreal Engine VFX team
“RedefineFX has got you covered with their easy-to-follow and breathtaking tutorials and examples that deep dive into Niagara Fluids”
– Unreal Engine Community Spotlight, Epic Games
Why Now is The Best Time to Start Learning VFX in Unreal
1.) Don’t fall behind the Unreal Engine real-time revolution
It has simply never been a better time for you to start learning these valuable skills that there is massive demand for. With Unreal Engine releasing industry-changing features with every new version and production studios in every industry adopting UE into their pipelines, you don’t want to be left behind the Unreal train.
2.) Become a Full-Stack VFX artist by learning multiple VFX tools
Combine Chaos, Niagara, and Niagara Fluids and build complete, highly-detailed VFX shots that combine destruction, pyro, and particles
3.) Stay on the cutting-edge & get ahead of everyone else
Unreal Engine is a new playing field – everyone is a beginner all over again. While others are still procrastinating knowing “they probably should start learning Unreal” and piecing together the basics from random YouTube tutorials, you could be light years ahead and already creating high-level VFX all in real-time.
4.) No VDB and Alembic imports. Do everything without ever leaving Unreal.
Chaos lets you create high-quality destruction simulations directly inside Unreal Engine. This is absolutely huge, as it eliminates the need to run these sims in external software and bring them in as (often large and buggy) alembic sequences, plus you can make changes instantly right in your UE viewport without ever leaving the app.
5.) Attract new career opportunities with an in-demand skillset
Create amazing FX for cinematics, film, previz, and every other sector that uses Unreal Engine. There is currently huge (and growing) demand for non-gaming use of UE, and that’s where you can secure your next gig.
Why Chaos Destruction?
After an overwhelming response to Niagara Fluids Immersion, I immediately started working on taking it a step further by combining Niagara with Chaos Destruction.
Inside of this course, I’m sharing everything I’ve been posting – every simulation and every setup that has brought so much industry attention my way. It’s all here for you.
This is once again your chance to jump in and learn a new tool early. This could easily be your opening card to getting a VFX job at any studio that uses Unreal Engine (which these days is almost all of them).
“Only a handful of people I trust to learn VFX from, RedefineFX
being one of them!”
– Logan Pinney, Educational Advisor, Epic Games
Introducing:
Chaos Destruction by RedefineFX
A Beginner Real-Time VFX Simulation Course in Unreal Engine 5.4
Go from Absolute Beginner to an Advanced Level (in a few hours, not weeks)
Start with easy setups you can create even as a complete beginner
Cluster destruction pieces for more realism
Avoid common mistakes (and save yourself hours of troubleshooting)
Avoid the ‘low-res look’ and create
highly-detailed simulations
Instantly elevate your cinematic, short film, or previz
with destruction simulations
Learn from an award-winning, experienced & trusted instructor
About Your Instructor, Jesse Pitela:
- Unreal Engine Authorized Instructor
- Work featured at Unreal Fest Orlando 2025
- Training featured by Epic Games and 80 Level
- Featured in Autodesk Media & Entertainment Showreel
- Official Judge in The Rookie Awards
- Autodesk Excellence Award Winner
- Recorded 1000+ lessons across 25+ premium courses
- 7+ years teaching VFX to thousands of students
Hi, I’m Jesse and I started RedefineFX in 2018 out of pure frustration of not being able to find the kind of VFX training I was looking for – something concise that shows you the entire process, so you walk away with a finished result, that you can immediately use to attract better career opportunities.
Subtitles Now Available in 6 Languages
Subtitles are now available for all courses in English, Spanish, Korean, Japanese, Portuguese, and French
What You Will Learn: Course Outline
Chapter 1: Introduction to Chaos Destruction
- Intro, Hardware, Optimization, Recommendations
- Setting up UE Project
- Intro to Chaos
- Intro to Damage
- Intro to Selections
- Intro to Clustering
- Intro to Materials
- Intro to Fracture Types
- Intro to Fields
- Summary of Chapter
Chapter 2: Chaos Destruction Projects
- Axe Slash Scene Prep
- Importing character, setting up sequencer
- Fracturing the wall into multiple levels, interactive selections
- TinyGeo tool, Optimizing and Activating Destruction
- Animating gradual destruction
- Adding detail, tweaking force field
- Linking Niagara & Chaos
- Adding dust with Niagara Fluids
- Improving dust simulation, Chaos data interface settings
- Lighting & overall presentation of effect
- Axe slash energy particles
- Superhero Landing scene prep
- Radial fracture
- Clustering, Flatten, Auto Cluster
- Landing destruction
- Taking care of jittering pieces
- Adding smoke
- Character energy trail
- Ground destruction scene prep
- Custom fracture
Chapter 3: Chaos & Niagara Fluids: Blockbuster VFX
- Ground cracks, animating force field
- Making our Niagara VFX template
- Chaos destruction settings in-depth
- Laser Blast
- Creating a damaged ground asset
- Gravity Magic Part 01
- Gravity Magic Part 02 Smoke
- Pulse weapon
- Brick fracture & Grout
- Combining wood & concrete within one simulation
- Statue Explosion Part 01 – scene prep
- Statue Explosion Part 02 – fracturing
- Statue Explosion Part 03 – explosion
- Statue Explosion Part 04 – dust trails
- Statue Explosion Part 05 – ground dust
- Statue Explosion Part 06 – debris mesh particles
- Statue Explosion Part 07 – final improvements, lighting
Chapter 4: Beyond the Basics
- Mesh Fracture Part 01 – Intro & Logo Cutout
- Mesh Fracture Part 02 – Scatter Geo for Unique & Irregular Detail
- Wood Fracture using Noise & Recompute Normals
- Magnet Cluster – add edge detail fractures
- Rising from underground
- Gradual destruction activation
- Rockfall
- Dirt explosion alternative
- Axe slash (wood version)
- Caching Niagara Fluids
- Caching Chaos Destruction
- Rendering with Path Tracer
- Retiming & Bullet-time
- Optimization tips for faster simulations
- Attach geometry to destruction
- UVs, Materials, and adding fracture detail
- Combine fractures with GeoMerge
- Niagara laser beam FX
- Circular laser beam FX
Chapter 5: Bonus Lessons
- Carpet bombing part 01 – user parameter to move emitter
- Carpet bombing part 02 – collision & location event handler
- Carpet bombing part 03 – Niagara data channels
- Carpet bombing part 04 – adding emissive particles / light renderer
- Office destruction part 01 – dealing with many objects in Chaos (desk, office supplies)
- Office destruction part 02 – fracturing & optimization
Chapter 6: New Bonus Lessons
- Matrix Awakens Bridge Destruction Part 1
- Matrix Awakens Bridge Destruction Part 2
- Matrix Awakens Bridge Destruction Part 3
- Matrix Awakens Bridge Destruction Part 4
- Matrix Awakens Bridge Destruction Part 5
- Matrix Awakens Bridge Destruction Part 6
BONUS COURSE #1
Chaos & Niagara Fluids: Blockbuster VFX
Combine Chaos with Niagara. Add detailed explosions, smoke trails, and trigger additional debris simulations based on conditions such as a fracture breaking, or pieces colliding with the ground.
Gravity Magic
Detailed Wood Destruction
Rock Fall
Laser Blast
BONUS COURSE #2
Chaos: Beyond the Basics
Go beyond the basics and learn advanced techniques. Featured are bonus lessons full of workflow tips & tricks to improve realism & speed up simulations, along with hidden features you might otherwise miss.
Retiming simulations & real-time bullet-time effects
Mesh Fracture
Add edge detail in-between primary fractures
Combine multiple materials (e.g. brick wall with wooden paneling) within one simulation
Attach geometry to destruction pieces for added realism (e.g. rebar inside concrete)
Generate UVs and textures for internal fractures’ material IDs
And many more bonus lessons, quick tips & tricks!
BONUS #3
Chaos Trailer Shots
Follow me step-by-step as I recreate the extra VFX setups created for the course trailer
Carpet Bombing (combine Niagara collision events with Niagara Fluids data channels)
Office Destruction
BONUS #4
Matrix Awakens Overpass Destruction
New series of lessons added in April 2025.
Featured by 80 Level
Multiple simulations from this course have been featured by 80 Level
What RedefineFX students say
Below reactions are collected from all of our courses
“Jesse is one of the best instructors I ever found in the digital art field. He has the ability to make really complex content look simple, with straight to the point explanations and great examples. Truly one of the best options available to learn new techniques for real time VFX.”
Charles Moreira – VFX Artist at BioWare. Enrolled in both Niagara Immersion & Chaos Destruction
Enroll in Chaos Destruction
Make the Investment in Your VFX Career
Enrollment in the course closes when the countdown expires. When it re-opens in the future, the price and bonus content is subject to change.
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70+ total lessons teaching you Chaos Destruction from the ground up
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Bonus lessons #1: Chaos & Niagara Blockbuster VFX
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Bonus lessons #2: Beyond the Basics
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Bonus #3: Chaos Trailer Shots
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Learn from an experienced instructor with work featured by Epic Games
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Lifetime access
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Access to a beautiful learning platform
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Subtitles available in 6 languages
$295
one-time payment
Tax will be calculated at checkout based on your country of residence
The Complete Collection of All 9 Courses
Niagara Megabundle CORE
Includes NEW Niagara MCP, Carnage, Pyro & Liquids 5.8
Our #1 best-selling bundle. This one-of-a-kind collection of courses provides the most complete deep-dive into Unreal Engine’s real-time Niagara VFX, Chaos, and Motion Design Tools. Built for beginners who want to create high-end real-time VFX. Over 400 total lessons included.
The Megabundle Core Includes:
All 9 Unreal Engine Courses
Your complete Niagara + Motion Tools package for Unreal Engine
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Niagara MCP Crash Course (NEW)
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Niagara Carnage (NEW)
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Niagara Pyro (NEW)
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Niagara Liquids (NEW)
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Niagara Automotive
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Niagara Motion
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Chaos Destruction
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Niagara Magic
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Unreal Motion
Master multiple real-time skillsets across fire, smoke, liquids, destruction, particles, cloners & effectors, character effects, and automotive visuals, all inside Unreal Engine.
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Get instant access to over 400 lessons
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All bonus content & new 5.8 lessons included
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Lifetime access
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Subtitles now available in 6 languages
If purchased individually: $1,670
Launch Week Price: $595
one-time payment
Tax will be calculated at checkout based on your country of residence
Save Time & Learn Faster by Adding Project Files
Niagara Megabundle PRO
Includes Everything + Project File Library
This is the “I just want everything” bundle
The Megabundle Pro Includes:
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All 9 Unreal Engine Courses
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Project File Library (50 total setups)
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10 New Pyro & Liquids 5.8 Files
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10 New Carnage 5.8 Files
Includes my exact Niagara setups used in trailers
+ EmberGen Bootcamp (included as a bonus)
+ LiquiGen Immersion (included as a bonus)
Get access to all courses and a full project file library with ready-to-use templates for over 50 of my most popular effects. Use them to learn or drop them directly into your own shots.
If purchased individually: $1,670
Launch Week Price: $795
one-time payment
Tax will be calculated at checkout based on your country of residence
Your Most Frequent Questions:
Will the course still be available after the countdown expires?
I'm completely new to Unreal Engine, is this for me?
I'm more advanced, will I still get value out of this course?
Absolutely. The course gradually introduces more advanced concepts and there’s a lot to learn for all skill levels. The later chapters include multiple advanced setups.
Does the course teach just Chaos or Niagara also?
This course focuses primarily on Chaos, but we will also cover a lot of Niagara Fluids & standard Niagara particles along the way, specifically when adding explosions, smoke, and additional debris particles.
Is the course up to date?
Yes, you can follow the course in 5.8 without issues. Niagara has changed only minimally between versions and I’ve added additional lessons to cover the few changes.
What project files are included with Megabundle Pro?
- Beach Waves
- Water Force Field
- Temple Flood
- Water Attack
- Wheel Mud
- Hydroman
- Blue Origin Explosion
- Rocket Launch Plumes
- Meteor Impact
- Nuke Explosion
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Starship Launch
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Helicopter Rotor Wash
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Car on Fire
- Airplane Engine Fire
- Zero-G Water Sphere with Foam
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Burnout
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Wheel Dust
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Tire Marks
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Tail Light Trails
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Snow & Ice Debris from Under Wheels
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Dirt & Sand Debris from Under Wheels
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Airflow Visualization Trails
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Advection
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X-Ray Reveal & Exploded View
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Falling Leaves, Snow, & Rain
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Wall Destruction
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Wood Destruction
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Force Field
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Portal
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Harry Potter Duel (From Niagara magic)
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Object Voxelization (from Unreal Motion)
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Magnetic Orb (from Unreal Motion)
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Character Ghost Particles (From Niagara Motion)
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Particle Physics Attraction (From Niagara Motion)
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Bombing with Shockwave Impacts
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Sandstorm
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FLIP High Quality Water with Foam #1
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FLIP Muddy Water with Foam #2
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FLIP Sticky Lava Liquid Sim
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Liquid Particles Color by Speed
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Liquid Reactive Particles Multi-Color
- Car Crash Explosion and Rolling Fire
- Car Crash Debris, Sparks, Smoke
- Bending Metal
- Bullet Hits System
- Laser Gun System
- Laser Beam
- Stylized Rendering
- Audio Visualizer Histogram
- Audio Visualizer Fire Line
- Crowd Sim with Collisions
Are there subtitles available?
Yes. English, Spanish, Korean, French, Portuguese, and Japanese subtitles are available.
What is Chaos and is it worth learning? What makes it special?
If you’re using Unreal Engine and want to create VFX without the need to import simulation files from an external application, Chaos and Niagara are the best tools for you to learn right now. They are both free and come bundled with UE. You can also quickly make changes directly inside your Unreal Engine viewport, without the need to keep exporting & importing simulations from an external app.
Especially if you’re already familiar with Niagara, combining it with Chaos will give you an additional edge.
Will you be optimizing the simulations for games? What about Blueprints?
No. We will not be optimizing the simulations in any way to improve their performance in real games and there are no Blueprints setups covered in this beginner-oriented course. The focus is on VFX for cinematics, short films, previz, VR, AR, and other real-time experiences. I will share all of my optimization tips with you, to make the sims run faster in your viewport, however our goal here is simply to make the simulations look as good as possible inside Unreal Engine.
What are the PC system requirements?
I recommend a 2070 RTX as a minimum to run the sims in real-time. The more VRAM your GPU has, the better.
Have a not-so-powerful machine? No worries. I will show you how to easily lower the simulation resolution for smoother performance, and how to render it with Path Tracer (enabling higher resolution only during rendering), so you are good to go even on a slower PC.
Can I use these skills in VR, ArchViz, ProductViz, Motion Design, Previz, Automotive, Film, and other areas of CGI?
Absolutely. These simulations are not limited to explosive cinematics for games. Whichever industry you’re in, you can enhance your Unreal Engine projects with volumetric simulations.
Will my boss / studio / workplace pay for this course?
It’s very possible that your place of employment will cover an educational expense, such as this course, if it directly relates to your job duties. It sure doesn’t hurt to ask.
When does the course start and finish?
This is a completely self-paced online course. I’ve made the lessons bite-sized so you can make progress every day without feeling overwhelmed.
How long do I have access to the course?
You get lifetime access, meaning you get to access the courses for as long as RedefineFX exists.
Do I get a Certificate?
Yes! Upon completion of all lessons, you will automatically receive a unique Certificate of Completion.
Can I enter my TAX ID / VAT ID at checkout?
Yes. There is a dedicated VAT field on the checkout page. After checking out, you will automatically receive a standard business invoice to your email. Please note that the invoice cannot be modified after the transaction has been completed, so please double check that all information is correct.
Didn’t find an answer to your question?
Email: jesse@redefinefx.com
“I’ve already taken multiple RedefineFX courses and what I appreciate most are Jesse’s teaching skills. He manages to break everything down into short parts that are very easy to understand & follow, with visually stunning results. Super recommended!”
– Alexandre Lino, VFX Artist. Enrolled in both Niagara Immersion & Chaos Destruction