[UE4] Eye Of The Stars
polycounter lvl 9
Personal Lighting project on Unreal Engine 4 
High res picture: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/o8XkL
I will try to explain some steps for this work: it’s a lot of composition, so all my points are mostly talking about how I try to focus the viewers’ eyes on something specific, create a guideline and coherence.
My first idea was to have an architectural scene with concrete pillars, straight and symmetrical lines and try to play with them with lights. So after checking some references from real places, I just started to create pillars and the front wall with a simple circle at the center to use the sun. I didn’t want to have too much influence by the sun in my scene, to keep control on the light inside.
So after the basic shape, I put interior lights on pillars and ceiling to check how the shape of this corridor worked with lights and shadows. I focused on giving a scifi aspect for the front wall and added more volumes to it. I just added a small light on the ground to reduce the backlight on this wall.
At this moment I started thinking about what I could add close to the ground to break the symmetry without...breaking everything. And how to do it. After a few tries of different props and shapes, I added the character. But my principal problem came with him as well. The backlighting from the wall hid the shape of the character and I didn’t want to have an obvious spotlight on him. So I built all the warm space on the wall with new shapes and lights, keeping the geometrical and straight lines. I used the different shapes to surround the character and added a few lights to delimit his shape.
My last goal was to have a good mix for the gradient between the red/green color on the pillars and depth of field.
Also during each step I took a picture and went to Photoshop to continue to try new colors, contrasts, shapes or props and come back to try them. It was the best way to save time to find new ideas without baking lights.
High res picture: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/o8XkL
I will try to explain some steps for this work: it’s a lot of composition, so all my points are mostly talking about how I try to focus the viewers’ eyes on something specific, create a guideline and coherence.
My first idea was to have an architectural scene with concrete pillars, straight and symmetrical lines and try to play with them with lights. So after checking some references from real places, I just started to create pillars and the front wall with a simple circle at the center to use the sun. I didn’t want to have too much influence by the sun in my scene, to keep control on the light inside.
So after the basic shape, I put interior lights on pillars and ceiling to check how the shape of this corridor worked with lights and shadows. I focused on giving a scifi aspect for the front wall and added more volumes to it. I just added a small light on the ground to reduce the backlight on this wall.
At this moment I started thinking about what I could add close to the ground to break the symmetry without...breaking everything. And how to do it. After a few tries of different props and shapes, I added the character. But my principal problem came with him as well. The backlighting from the wall hid the shape of the character and I didn’t want to have an obvious spotlight on him. So I built all the warm space on the wall with new shapes and lights, keeping the geometrical and straight lines. I used the different shapes to surround the character and added a few lights to delimit his shape.
My last goal was to have a good mix for the gradient between the red/green color on the pillars and depth of field.
Also during each step I took a picture and went to Photoshop to continue to try new colors, contrasts, shapes or props and come back to try them. It was the best way to save time to find new ideas without baking lights.
Replies
And I just added on my post the art process. If you want more technical details, ask me
Yes of course, I don't have many change on it but if I just focus on what I change on my post process box, it's mostly the GI and AO. I choose to change the color of the indirect light on something more orange, with a strong intensity. With this, I change the GI for each point light I have it to have a better control on my scene.
And also I don't have have color grading on it, just a vignette intensity. I really try to do this without a big change in post process
Thanks ! We don't work with lightmaps, only with probes for reflections and GI if it's what you want to know