Need Lighting Advice for WIP Level

cbates540

Hello! I am working with a small team on a game project in UE4 for our class.  We are making a game based in a mad scientist's lab and I'm having a really difficult time getting the lighting to look good.  There are four rooms in the level.  My thought is that somewhat different lighting (or different light colors) will help to differentiate the rooms from one another.  Originally, it was lit very brightly, but it looked very flat and uninteresting.  I am in the process of trying to make the room look somewhat darker and more dramatic/interesting/colorful in order to achieve a more cartoony and fantastical "mad scientist" look.  Our modelers are working on more assets that will make the scene look more science-y and "mad", but any feedback on how I can improve the lighting would but much appreciated!


This is the lobby, I think it looks pretty decent as it is supposed to be a bright and happy area since it is the end of the game.
This is the testing chamber which I believe currently has the best lighting, but I'm sure it can still be better.
This is the main lab and right now it's a hot mess.  Almost all the lights ended up purple through a series of unthinking events, and while I like the purple indirect lighting because I feel things look more interesting, I'm struggling with finding a good color to contrast it that won't just make the room look like the testing chamber.
This is the research room, which is also kind of a hot mess.  I'm struggling with the same problem as the main lab where I like the idea of the purple light, but I'm having trouble finding a good way to contrast it and also make the room look interesting.

Any feedback/critique is greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance!

RustySpannerz

Reminds me of Day of the Tentacle, looks really cool! Is your environment colour in World Settings purple? I think that's what's giving everything the purple appearance. Desaturate it a bit and darken it and I think it should fix it. If you're still wanting the purple, because it does look nice in some places, supplement it with purple lights I would say. 

cbates540

The environment color isn't purple but I'll go play with that! Forgot it was there. The purple everywhere is from my skylight, but I agree I think it's too saturated.

AlecMoody

It seems like you already know this since you are sort of describing this in your post. Your lighting is really flat and I think you have way too many lights in the scene. I would suggest making the light more directional but that is going to be tricky with the way your scene is laid out. You have low ceilings + overhead light, which is very hard to make look good.

Here is what I would do:

To start, turn off every light in your scene. Decide where you want the dominate light direction to come from. If it is from above, that will look best with high ceilings. In this case I would suggest you add windows (could even be a cutout to another interior room with very bright light) or make a prop like that whiteboard into something emissive. Maybe rework it into a backlit light board for xrays.  Once you have established the dominant light direction make the light bright enough to create a full value range in your scene. Adjust bounce/indirect to control ambient level but don't worry if lots of props fall into shadow. At this point, you should have lighting that provides a really good sense of volume. The last step is adding additional lights for fill and accent reflections. At every stage in this process avoid the temptation to over light your scene and make everything illuminated.

Also, attempting to differentiate rooms with brightly colored lighting isn't going to read well. Stick to light output colors that match white balances of lighting we see in the real world and do your room color blocking with your materials. 

cbates540

@AlecMoody thank you so much for your reply! I'll take your advice to heart and get started!!