Help with lighting in this night scene? (Unity)

xhi

Hello,

I'm new to lighting and have been fiddling with this for hours.  Maybe you can help with a couple things?


- In general, critique with maybe examples or links to help would be appreciated
- I had an issue where I kept trying to find ways to make blacks darker.  I'm sure a lot has to do with my textures not having enough bumpiness.  
- I really want to be able to see the stained glass window but have it be dark outside.  Should I make a dark night time sky box?  Or is there a way to make a moon that's super bright and hits the glass?  I tried having abloom effect on the camera but still need to learn more about it.  Anything related could be helpful.
- I was looking into making a cute flame particle for the candle since there is nothing there.  Are there any freebies for something that simple? 

Thank you so much! See you at GDC ~~~

skyline5gtr

You definitly need to increase the ambient lighting and bounce lighting. You can try creating a dark skybox which should set that setting but id work on the interior first since that is the main pov

xhi

Thanks @skyline5gtr ~

Panzerdraco

Moonlight shadows should be way softer than they are from that windowframe.

Ged

what are you making this in? you could add an ambient cubemap in ue4 to add some nice ambient highlights. The stained glass can be tricky, you could try making it slightly self illuminated as well as transparent and using a normal map to give it that glassy blobby shine

Meloncov

So compositionally, right now the desk and the window are fighting for dominance. Figure out which one you want as the focal point, and have the greatest area of lighting contrast there. Either make the candle brighter and the window darker, or the window lighter and get rid of the candle.

xhi

@Ged The normal map on the glass is a good idea.  It's made in Unity but I'm willing to move if there are better tools for a night scene.  @Meloncov I see what you're saying about the candle and the window.  I originally wanted the light source to only be from the window and add the colors of the stained glass on everything in the room.  I wasn't able to finish that part so I compensated and made the candle lit.  I should probably go back to my original idea since it was visually interesting.  The way it is now, there's no point in the fancy window model.