WIP - Portfolio piece - Feedback

George_Gabriel_29

Hello everyone!

I would like to share with you a portfolio piece I am currently working on. This environment is inspired by Elden Ring. Everything in the environment is made by me with the exception of few alpha designs from the internet.

Please share your thoughts on what could be improved.

George_Gabriel_29

George_Gabriel_29

Fabi_G

Hi! For me it's currently held back by the lighting. The light sources make for a lot of contrast and light the fog, it's hard to get a sense of the space. Perhaps albedo values are too low, swallowing the light? Any references you're using for the lighting?

George_Gabriel_29

Fabi_G said:

Hi! For me it's currently held back by the lighting. The light sources make for a lot of contrast and light the fog, it's hard to get a sense of the space. Perhaps albedo values are too low, swallowing the light? Any references you're using for the lighting?

Thank you for your feedback! I would like to mention that the light is not my strongest skill as of right now and the ss are taken with different cameras which have different settings  I would like to mention that I am using UE5 and Lumen is used for lighting. Below is a link with a video in play mode. If you would like please take a look at it and let me know if your thoughts are the same. Additionally, if you have any good learning materials that I could use to improve the light, please let me know. 

Video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sC7kjZcTWulVV8IAngc_AAOkQxMdPikr/view?usp=sharing

George_Gabriel_29

Moreover, here are some reference images for the overall feeling and lighting, with quite a lot of incline towards the first image which gives more of a magical/ethereal feeling

Fabi_G

Hi! Very helpful to have those references. I would say in both of those images the corridor leads towards a more open room, with light coming in from above. This gives some focal points and makes corridor detail silhouette against that lit area.

I don't know do this best in Unreal, from what I remember there are quite a few lighting-related levers. You could check Epic's project samples, if any of them feature a situation like you're going for. Then you could put in your environment and see how it behaves.

Other than that, I would prototype different lighting situations with very simple geometry to find what reads well. Also try out different, brighter albedo values to learn how this affects the indirect lighting. If you keep your set dressing as level instances/ prefabs, you should be able to quickly drop them back in.

Couldn't help to notice that the pattern on the carpets feels a bit large.

George_Gabriel_29

Fabi_G said:

Hi! Very helpful to have those references. I would say in both of those images the corridor leads towards a more open room, with light coming in from above. This gives some focal points and makes corridor detail silhouette against that lit area.

I don't know do this best in Unreal, from what I remember there are quite a few lighting-related levers. You could check Epic's project samples, if any of them feature a situation like you're going for. Then you could put in your environment and see how it behaves.

Other than that, I would prototype different lighting situations with very simple geometry to find what reads well. Also try out different, brighter albedo values to learn how this affects the indirect lighting. If you keep your set dressing as level instances/ prefabs, you should be able to quickly drop them back in.

Couldn't help to notice that the pattern on the carpets feels a bit large.

Thank you for your feedback! I will be looking into it