Rainbow Roast Lighting Environment

alecchalmers

This project was a self-motivated project aimed at improving and pushing my lighting skills in Unreal. I saw how Clinton Crumpler has been pushing lighting in Unreal, and wanted to further my understanding of more advanced lighting techniques used in games.

*Update 18/03/17 - Major lighting adjustments as a result of peer feedback, Tighter bloom, More planar reflections visible, Extra faked bounced light, adjustments to the roughness of specific materials around the canopy, softer shadows, minimal building geo in the background, switched out LUT for one that emphasises a blue hue across the scene.

Any input from the Polycount community would be super appreciated. Thanks for looking!

Update 20/03/17: Major lighting adjustments as a result of feedback, Tighter bloom, More planar reflections visible, Extra faked bounced light, adjustments to the roughness of specific materials around the canopy, softer shadows, minimal building geo in the background, switched out LUT for one that emphasises a blue hue across the scene. Emphasised the streetlamp godrays as they were too faded. More adjustment are needed according to mospheric's feedback though.

mospheric

This is a good start, but there are a few areas in lighting that would really improve and push the scene.

• With as much atmospheric perspective that you have in the scene, those streetlights need a light shaft/god ray projecting downward. This can be done easily with a shader on a tapered cylinder.
• I can see that there is a light inside the building. From the upper view, I should be able to see the light spilling out of the window and onto the ground. Those type of lines created by this light would do well to direct the viewer's eyes. 
• The sky is the most lacking in the scene. It comes off as flat and empty. Either add some clouds or color variation. Photographers who capture dynamic night scenes almost never feature a flat sky. Check out the work of Gregory Crewdson for some examples.
• You may want to add a bit of subtle lighting under the awning (as if there were some dim lights to help people walking by the shop.

alecchalmers

Thanks mospheric! Some great advice there to work with, I wasn't expecting such a detailed response!

I actually have colored godrays on the streetlamps but hadn't noticed that they were invisible after adjusting the LUT, so thanks for pointing that out. I will also add the rays to the window to enhance the second perspective. The sky definitely needs adjusting too, and I'll have a go at adding some type of lamp lighting underneath the awning.