Shadowing Practice: How video game rocks get made - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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This is a rock.
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But this man is not a geologist.
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My name's Galen.
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I work as a producer and an evangelist here for Quixel at Epic Games.
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Video game developer Epic Games makes games like Fortnite, but they're as well known for Unreal Engine, the ever-evolving game engine for a ton of video games
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and other industries that use 3D from Hollywood movies to demos for architecture.
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That's part of why Epic Games Studio Quixel sends people here.
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Because getting high resolution scans of rocks like these represents an evolution in making video games and all three-dimensional art.
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Where actually were you when you were doing these scans?
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The area specifically that we spent the most time in is an area called Hurra Pass.
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And Hurra Pass takes about 90 minutes to get to at least where we were scanning to in an off-road capacity.
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Pavement stops, there's sheer drop-offs, it's really sketchy, for lack of a better way to put it.
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And since we're so far off the grid and we didn't bring a generator or anything like that, we would just scan and tell the batteries we go completely dead.
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Galen is out there searching for rocks that might look good for Epic's tech demo, set on a moody, slightly alien landscape.
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In this clip, Galen is taking high-resolution pictures of this rock from a bunch of different angles.
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The tent keeps light even, no hard shadows.
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On the back, he's got a battery pack to keep going longer.
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And on the ground, there's a scale marker so they'll know how big the boulder is.
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These pictures are pulled into software, then they're stitched together into a 3D model.
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The software figures out what a complete rock looks like from the common points in the picture.
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All this makes up a scanned asset.
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The Quixel team did a similar process for big structures by capturing via drone, and for textures by photographing a rock wall and capturing the canyon floor.
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Making them can be pretty hard work.
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You walk into an area and you think, oh, this is awesome.
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And then you start breaking it down, thinking about what's actually going to be useful.
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And it becomes less awesome very quickly.
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Mostly just because of the time, you know, the time constraints.
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It's like, oh, well, I could shoot that, but I mean, is it the best use of the few hours we have left today, you know?
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But shifting that time to Quixel and other scanners and then distributing their work saves time for individual video game designers.
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And the treacherous highlights of the canyons of Utah are available for download and insertion into your own game.
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In the past, artists had to manually make these assets and textures, sometimes pixel by pixel.
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These days, you might sculpt your own assets using special software.
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Sometimes it works better than others.
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I guess it's a face?
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Downloading textures and models from a cloud marketplace cuts that out of the workflow.
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They aren't just photos.
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For example, they include additional images, like this normal map, which uses color to tell the program how high or low certain parts of an image should be.
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And you can even remix and customize assets once you have them.
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The example that I always use whenever I'm describing the library and the things that we do is, how many times do you as an artist need to remake that brick wall?
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There are a lot of ways to get pretty good 3D stuff.
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Part of what's exciting about all this technology is
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that pretty much anyone can make a high quality 3D scan and get assets using stuff as simple as their phone.
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You can use professional stuff like reality capture or honestly your own phone might get you 70% of the way there.
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Do I look cool right now?
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I feel so cool.
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But for a rich environment, it's easier to just download something.
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Polyhaven provides a lot of textures and models that work across many programs for free.
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Quixel offers high-quality assets free to use in Unreal and for a fee in other programs.
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And while I'm able to scan a local rock,
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developers can't always go to Utah or another one of Quixel's biomes which range from rainforests to tundras.
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Suddenly, everyone can make their game an alien planet without having to draw it.
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Even though I'm not in the desert, it is super hot right now, and sometimes developers just want to sit at their desk.
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Or make guys like Galen be the ones who have to trek out and eat lunch in the desert.
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Quick Sam, you know what I mean?
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Double cheese.
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For Epic, these scans and textures were collected in part for that technology demo of the company's graphics supercharged Unreal Engine 5.
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It's a flywheel for Epic Games and Quixel, where scans make Unreal Engine better, and better Unreal Engine means more Unreal Engine games,
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which means more people want to add scans that work with Unreal Engine.
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That also means it is eminently practical to send a crew of non-geologists deep into the desert to photograph rocks.
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Thank you.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “How video game rocks get made”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: scan, rock, Unreal, engine, Quixel. This video has 60 sentences and 870 words to shadow. The speech runs for 6:03. The speaker talks at a steady 144 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. Only 80% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| scan verb | /skæn/ | To examine sequentially, carefully, or critically; to scrutinize; to behold closely. |
| texture noun | /ˈtɛkst͡ʃə(ɹ)/ | The feel or shape of a surface or substance; the smoothness, roughness, softness, etc. of something. |
| demo noun | /ˈdɛm.oʊ/ | A demonstration or visual explanation. |
| developer noun | /dɪˈvɛləpɚ/ | A person or entity engaged in the creation or improvement of certain classes of products. |
| geologist noun | /d͡ʒiˈɑːlədʒɪst/ | A person whose occupation specializes in the science of geology, especially at a professional or academic level. |
| pixel noun | /ˈpɪk.səl/ | One of the tiny dots that make up the representation of an image in a computer's memory. |
| canyon noun | /ˈkænjən/ | A valley, especially a long, narrow, steep valley, cut in rock by a river. |
| constraint noun | /kənˈstɹeɪnt/ | Something that constrains; a restriction. |
| customize verb | /ˈkʌs.tə.maɪ̯z/ | To build or alter according to personal preferences or specifications. |
| eminently adverb | /ˈɛmɪnəntli/ | In an eminent or prominent manner. |
| evangelist noun | /ɪˈvænd͡ʒəlɪst/ | An itinerant or special preacher, especially a revivalist, who conducts services in different cities or locations, now often televised. |
| excite verb | /ɪkˈsaɪt/ | To stir the emotions of; to cause to feel excitement. |
| flywheel noun | A rotating mass used to maintain the speed of a machine within certain limits while the machine receives or releases energy at a varying rate, or as a form of… | |
| insertion noun | /ɪnˈsɝʃən/ | The act of inserting, or something inserted. |
| rainforest noun | /ˈɹeɪn.fɔɹ.ɪst/ | A forest in a climate with high annual rainfall and no dry season. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| figure out verb | To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce. | |
| make up verb | /ˌmeɪk ˈʌp/ | To constitute, to compose. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Where actually were you when you were doing these scans?
- I guess it's a face?
- Do I look cool right now?
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 10 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, they're, aren't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: insertion /ɪnˈsɝʃən/, sheer /ʃɪɚ/, dimensional /daɪˈmɛn.ʃə.nəl/
- Long words — get the stress right: developer /dɪˈvɛləpɚ/, geologist /d͡ʒiˈɑːlədʒɪst/, eminently /ˈɛmɪnəntli/, evangelist /ɪˈvænd͡ʒəlɪst/, manually /ˈmænj(u)əliː/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like scan, texture, demo.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.