Fresh off Unreal Fest, I’m diving into how to output UMG (Unreal Motion Graphics) over SDI using Unreal Engine 5.6 and a Blackmagic device. If you've ever tried using UMG with the Media Capture system, you've probably noticed that it doesn’t show up in the SDI output by default. That’s because UMG renders after tone mapping — which happens after the media output frame is captured.

In this video, I walk you through how to bring UMG forward in the render pipeline using a widget component, a custom render target, and a post-process material to composite it correctly into your SDI output. This works great for things like burn-in overlays, timecode displays, or real-time UI on broadcast graphics.

I also show you how to keep widgets ticking even when off-screen, and how to dynamically update content like a timecode in the UMG.

Tools Used:

• Unreal Engine 5.6
• Blackmagic UltraStudio HD Mini
• Desktop Video 14.2.1 (newer versions may break output!)

UMG Tutorials: https://youtu.be/6-H5tE_x7wQ https://youtu.be/W55KADlAu9s

Auto-generated summary

In this video, I walk you through how to embed Unreal Motion Graphics (UMG) into SDI outputs using Unreal Engine 5. Typically, UMG elements don’t appear in SDI captures due to Unreal’s rendering pipeline, which composites UMG after the media capture stage. To get around this, I show you how to render UMG as a texture in 3D space using a widget component and then composite it onto your scene via a custom post-process material applied through a post-process volume.

You’ll learn how to set up a simple UMG widget, create a blueprint actor with a widget component that outputs a render target, and then build a material to blend that render target with the scene in a post-process effect. I also cover important plugin setups for Blackmagic SDI hardware and common pitfalls like ensuring your material parameters are set correctly. By the end, you’ll be able to display interactive HUD elements like logos or clocks on your live SDI video feed, greatly expanding possibilities for live production and real-time graphics workflows.