Hello there! Today, I am explaining my cinematic lighting and techniques in Unreal
Engine for one of my projects. I am here to guide you through these
Unreal Engine lighting methods. I am Mohammad Solei, the
creative director, 3D artist, and founder of Solei Animation. I will share my
creative journey through this YouTube channel, offering tips and insights. Please
subscribe and like for more content. For one of my projects, I
needed a forest background. I used the 'Electric Dreams' environment from the Unreal Engine marketplace
to streamline the process. This project includes a level
called 'Electric Dreams, PCG Forest.' PCG stands for
Procedural Content Generation, allowing easy modifications to create a
unique forest setting by altering parameters. In this project, I wanted to utilize
sublevels for each lighting scenario. Although this feature was initially disabled, I enabled it by copying everything from
the outliner into a new, empty level. However, I noticed the landscape didn't transfer, so I generated a new landscape and
applied the material from the original. We'll start by cleaning up the outliner. Once set up, we'll find a
location, create a camera, and, if you like, animate
it using a level sequencer. I have already selected a
view and animated the camera. I've created various sublevels and
assigned them to the main level, using each for a different lighting scenario. We'll examine three levels of lighting:
L1 (Main Lighting), L2 (Cinematic Touch),
and L3 (Action and Characters). Initially, we'll remove all
existing lighting and start from scratch with Sublevel
Lighting Version 1 selected. We'll begin with basic lighting using the
Environment Light Mixer to create skylights, atmospheric lights, volumetric clouds, and more. This foundational system
in Unreal Engine is quite powerful. Before adjusting our lighting, addressing the
exposure settings across all setups is crucial. Unreal Engine defaults to
automatic exposure control, which adjusts brightness based on location
lighting. This means if you go somewhere brighter, it will reduce exposure; in a
darker place, it will increase exposure. However, we'll deactivate this feature using a
post-process volume for precise lighting control. Be sure to add the A Post Process Volume to
the main level so it affects all the sublevels. After putting the Post Process Volume, you notice
that it comes with boundaries; however, on its detail, type U.N.B, and we set it to 'Infinite
Extent Unbound' to affect the entire scene. On the exposure section, activate
metering mode and exposure compensation, then set minimum and maximum exposure levels to
zero for consistent exposure across the scene. Unreal Engine also includes built-in tone mapping, which we'll deactivate for more
control over lighting and color. This is done in the color grading
section of the Post Process Volume, under 'Miscellaneous.' We'll turn off a Blue
Correction, Expand Gamut, & Tone Curve Amount. This preparation allows for using external
color correction software or Look-Up Tables for final color grading. However, we can turn
it back on when we are happy with our lighting. Let's turn off all the lights
and then turn them back on one by one to explain the parameters of each. The first is the directional light, which
is crucial as it imitates the sun. To adjust its direction, press Control
+ L on your keyboard, click anywhere in the scene while holding the right-click
button, and position the light as you like. In the details section of the directional light, the most important parameters
are intensity and light color. After that, the source angle is significant
as it determines the size of the light source, such as the sun. Smaller sources
result in sharper shadows, while larger sources create softer shadows,
which is important for different scenarios. Another essential setting in directional
light is indirect light intensity, which controls the secondary bounce of
light. It indicates how many times light bounces between objects, brightening
darker areas with more bounces. Moving on to the sky atmosphere, in its details, you can adjust various
parameters to simulate a sky. Skylight is also crucial, combining all
elements in the scene and projecting them back, unifying the lighting.
The key parameter in Skylight is the intensity scale, which determines
the brightness of the projected image. Increasing it brightens the scene.
Real-time capture ensures that changes in location or direction
work seamlessly together. However, you can also use another image source, like
an HDR, by deactivating real-time capture. The next item is the exponential height fog.
Important parameters here include fog intensity, fog height falloff, and fog scattering
color, which affect the fog's appearance. Start distance determines how
far you start seeing the fog. Adjust these parameters based
on your artistic choices. Volumetric clouds are the final
element, offering cloud system options. Enable these elements to see how they interact. After setting up the lighting, you can activate
the tuning map to see the final image color. Let's go through the process
one more time, but this time, let's exclude the volumetric clouds to
have a clear view of the sun in the sky. I've found a great direction for the sun, and
I love seeing it behind those branches. So, I increased the source angle, which indicates the
size of the light source, in this case, our sun. I increased the intensity scale to two to
brighten up darker areas in the Skylight details. I'm now enabling volumetric fog in exponential
height fog, which is an exciting feature. It allows directional light and other
light sources to interact with the fog. You can adjust the intensity to
control the level of interaction. However, I prefer to set it
directly in our light source. If you increase it here, it affects every
light source in the scene, but adjusting it through the light source affects only that
specific light source, which is very useful. Now, let's move on to Level
Two lighting. In Level One, we established the main lighting. In Level
Two, we aim to enhance the cinematic touch by adding more light sources. We've already
discussed directional light and Skylight. We'll focus on additional light sources like
point lights, spotlights, and rectangles. Here, I've added spotlights
to increase the desired effect and make the scene more interesting.
One helpful feature is the Light Mixer, which allows you to manage active lights
efficiently. However, we already have a good setup in our outliner. But if you don't, you
can find all your lights in the Light Mixer. It's essential to note that every added light
affects the volumetric fog. We don't want any volumetric effects on these extra lights for
cinematic purposes. Please select all of them, go to the details section, and set the volumetric
scattering intensity to zero to deactivate them. Once you're satisfied with the lighting, you can use the post-process volume to bring
back the tone mapping and see the final look. Now, let's move on to the HDRI method. To use HDR, activate the HDRI
plugins from the plugins menu. It may appear black when
you place it in the scene, so you'll need to adjust its size and location. You can also change its intensity and rotation for different lighting effects. You can
even switch to another HDRI image. After adding HDR, you'll need to add more lights, such as a directional light,
to enhance highlights. Adjust the HDRI intensity and add
fog as needed for Level Two lighting. Consider downloading HDRs from sources
like Poly Haven to get the best results. Ensure you download them in HDR format. A 4K
resolution should be good for our purposes. Once you've added the HDRI, make necessary
adjustments, such as changing Mip Gen settings to No Mip Maps and adjusting maximum
texture size for optimal use of HDRI lighting. I applied the new HDRI to my scene and
changed the intensity of the lights. I see if I can decrease the intensity
of HDRI & I will have a better sky; however, I don't get enough lighting. HDRI backdrop detail shelf: There is a
built-in skylight to increase skylight intensity built into your HDRI,
so you get more of brighter sky Now, let's revisit the last method. In this method, as an art direct action for the
scene, I had an image I wanted to use as my sky and be able to control the size of the stars, and
I wanted to use an HDRI to lighten up the scene. I want to adjust its scale
and the size of the stars: I found an HDRI matching my first
image and applied it to a Skylight. This allows me to control the
brightness of the environment. I added a sky sphere from the content browser. After scaling it up, I changed its material to a simple material with the
two-sided option activated. I applied a texture, adjusted brightness
with a parameter, and assigned it to an emissive color. I also changed the tiling of
the sky and made other necessary adjustments. Here's the final result. You may wonder why we didn't
cover Level Three lighting. Level Three is dedicated to action scenes. Stay tuned for updates on my channel, where I'll post the final work with
the main character in the middle. Please like and subscribe if you like this video.
