If you like color I need your eyes / Crit Please
hello guys,I'm working on a stage here and I admit I am a terrible lighter. But, I got to learn something some time. I was really happy with my results here but I want to know if I am going the right way.
I enjoy light and color blending, in anything so I tried to use that here a bit.
Here's an unreal 3 screen. I wanted to get some advice on the lighting. Heck even the environment. I'm still working on filling it with my props. But , the lighting sidetracked me a bit. I'd excited to hear any help on how to light something like this.
I enjoy light and color blending, in anything so I tried to use that here a bit.
Here's an unreal 3 screen. I wanted to get some advice on the lighting. Heck even the environment. I'm still working on filling it with my props. But , the lighting sidetracked me a bit. I'd excited to hear any help on how to light something like this.
Replies
if you take your screenshot and desaturate it, you get a bunch of midtone greys. no real contrast, no real lighting. adding color isng lighting.
i did a really quick paintover of your original screenshot. top one is untouched.
you need to really push the darks and lights more. then worry about color.
but im not a lighter or anything, just my 2 cents.
oh also, your water is throwing the whole scene off. try fiddling with the material or copy it and make your own, but either way, the cubemap is totally wrong for that environment. you need a darker one, not a cloudy day cubemap.
anyway, best of luck, i hope this helped. im teh nub
I'd maybe make all the lights an orangey colour and add in some light shafts or similar as a source for the contrasting blue light.
00Zero's suggestion will likely help, too. Getting a lot more contrast in the overall lighting rather than just colour.
First the water needs to look more filthy,as it is after all a sewer passage i believe.Right now its too bright and it kinda spoils the look of the level. I do like how the light is falling on the pillar section. But as some one said,the overall light treament lacks the source here.The only source is the cieling lights and the side wall lights,which means the level will not be as bright as it looks now.Try and work on the attenuation of the lights or the intensity. Also go ahead and polish the props as some of em seems to have some nasty seems,which are looking very obvious in this view. And also get rid of the ambient light which prevails in the level or some kinda of light which is spreading all over.
Keep it coming!
pretty basic, just lots of contrast
- Even lighting is flat and boring. Focus on an interesting light source that will create nice shadows and forms.
- Create pools of light so that your scene does not look flat (again, make sure the lighting isn't even across the scene). Play with the falloff of the lights and think about how far they would realistically travel. Some of this can be solved w/ a GI solution like Beast for Unreal.
- You're in need of some lightmaps to better showcase shadows.
- Use your lights to draw the viewer / players attention to whats important. Maybe its a door out of here to the next zone, an interact on the wall, or something else. Give it purpose.
- Don't forget about bounce light, again a GI or Global Illumination thing (and other basic lighting principles).
General feedback -
- your specular and normals need love. These two together can really make a good light setup look even better. Lights and quality surfaces / materials are copmlimentary.
- some of your geo has odd smoothing groups which will produce lighting artifacts. If its a hard surface give it hard edges or a proper high-res bake down. Look at your lighting in lighting only mode for these dark spots on your geo.
- Lastly, think about the atmosphere. Post FX will help tie things together (and make your light sources bloom look much nicer). Some subtle fog will help create scale and size of the space. And some DOF will help in the distance.
Keep at it!
-Tyler
try using more asymetric light , if you build for sp, draw attention, by adding a strong light in one of those shafts.
play valve games to see good lighting !
hope this paintover helps a bit, tried to stay near your initial thought (maybe its mp?)
Is their ANY way that the water can accept lighting as well? Couldn't for the life of me, get that to work along with surface reflection that isn't faked with a cube map.
if you're feeling really naughty I suppose a render to texture would do it but that's only for one off's really, dont go throwing them around (to be avoided like the plague!!)
Unlit translucencys can be lit. It's either on hourences, or UDN, but there is a way to bake lighting in to them iirc.
environment wise, I think it's very nice. Take on board what gamedev said, but it's pretty strong imo. Just watch your texel densitys (theres a large concrete support that looks very low res)
Shimmer's second paintover is lovely. May I suggest a bit of floating dust particles here and there, maybe some steam coming off the water? Maybe stronger caustics than shimmer painted?
Here's what I have so far to continue this scene. I still need help with lighting. Thank you buddies.
Composition on this one seems funny. That pipe is blocking the exit and it throws off the whole focal point I think.
on the latest update... PURE white lighting sources are hardly ever a good choice, definitly not for a sewer, it needs a theme color, I personally like desaturated color tones, anything close to white, but never pure white lighting.
I have to agree on the pipe, as true said, it throws some of the mood away, unless you'd like the place to purposely look more random and have a small bit of gameplay added... (altho it would make one's portfolio more interesting to have some mood in it)
Something to think about too, is that, lighting is a guide for the player. Where are you wanting them to go? You probably want to tailor you lighting to drive them a specific point or look at key things. For example if you want to lead them to the hallway in the far back left, you might want to tone down the lights on the right side as they get closer to the end of the hall. Same lights, technically they should have the same intensity but realistically you're guiding the player.
In a portfolio piece you can use it to spot light your beauty props without being overt about it. If a viewer/player doesn't know what to look at or where to go, you failed. If they know you're leading their eyes somewhere, you failed. Its a fine line, and you have to be sneaky about it, but you'll get it