Tom Verbeeck - 3D Environments/Lighting Overview ~ 2022-2023

STYLIZED MICROCOSMIC GARDEN DIORAMA

- Made & Rendered in UE5 -

I wanted to start my Rookies post with this specific project because it led me to meet a lot of different people that are working in the games industry and I gained a lot of unforgettable experiences from it. This environment was my entry for the 'Search for a Star & Rising Star' competition by Grads in Games and I was the winner of the category: Environment Art - Rising Star

It was because of this project I got the chance to fly over to the UK and meet a lot of talented and very kind people working in the industry. I also got the chance to talk to them directly and ask them questions/advice on how to become a lighting artist for games. I gained a lot of valuable information from it and it was worth the trip.

My original entry for the competition was only the nighttime scene but I decided to give my nighttime lighting another pass and I also added 2 additional lighting moods to the project.

All of the assets were made from scratch by myself and it took around a week to complete the original entry for the competition. All of the different lighting scenes are made using Lumen.

Breakdown

I will now break down the different software I used and for what purpose: Maya 2023 to make and unwrap the 3D models for the scene, ZBrush for sculpting the high-poly details, Marmoset Toolbag for baking the high-poly details onto a plane so I could unwrap my low-poly meshes onto it, Photoshop for making the lookup table (LUT) for my post-processing in the scene, Premiere Pro for making the short video and finally Miro/PureRef for reference gathering and planning.

Below you will see in order: the diffuse, the detail lighting, the lighting only, the progress of my scene, the different assets, my custom AO and normals maps for the wooden trim sheet & a couple of unique bricks/flower pots that I then copied around the scene. Finally, as last, you will find a picture that was my main inspiration for the scene and my lighting reference.

Early Camera Setup

I wanted to share one of the slides of the documentation I had to make for the Grads in Games competition and this slide talks explicitly about setting up the camera for the main shot very early on in the production phase. I talk about doing my research/trying out different cameras and looking at which would give me the best results.

For me, it is vital to define your main shot early on and to define your lighting/composition around it to enhance that shot to its full potential.

SCI-FI CORRIDOR ENVIRONMENT

- Made & Rendered in UE5 -

The second project that I'm going to showcase in this Rookies post is going to be the most recent project that I finished. The goal was to make a sci-fi-themed corridor and light it in 3 different unique ways. It was my first time making a sci-fi scene and the research part was also very fun because I had now an excuse to watch the original alien movie and I took a lot of inspiration from that.

All of the meshes & materials are made by myself except for the foliage which came from Quixel Bridge. All of the different lighting scenes are made using Lumen.

Breakdown

I will now break down the different software I used and for what purpose: Maya 2023 to make and unwrap the 3D models for the scene, Subtance 3D Painter for making the textures,  Photoshop for making the lookup table (LUT) for my post-processing in the scene & tweaking the custom textures, and finally PureRef for reference gathering.

Below you will see in order: the diffuse, the detail lighting, the lighting only, the progress of my scene, the different assets, the different textures, and as last an overview of my lighting reference/inspiration.

The custom Trim sheet and Tileable textures are made in Substance 3D Painter and Photoshop. I got the Trim Sheet originally from my teacher but I modified it to make it better fit my scene. Models that don't use the custom textures are being textured with a basic Unreal Engine material with base color and roughness variation.

Making LUTs in Photoshop

I wanted to quickly talk about my process of making the LookUp Table (LUT) for my scenes. The whole point of using a LUT in your environment in Unreal Engine is that you can use the color-grading tools of a program like for example Photoshop and apply those color-correction adjustments to a default LUT file (the right image) and you apply that file in your PostProcessVolume in your unreal engine scene so that it applies those same color-correction adjustments you made to your environment.

PERSONAL COZY BEDROOM

- Made & Rendered in UE5 -

The third project I'm going to talk about for this Rookies post is going to be this personal cozy bedroom scene. The goal of this project was to learn how to achieve realism using the GPU Lightmass baker of the Unreal Engine. It was my first time baking a scene in UE5 and it was a very informative experience. 

Baking light information into light maps that are applied to your textures is still as of today a common technique used for video games to gain more performance since lighting is one of the more expensive things to calculate every frame in real time. Of course, lumen is a solution to achieve good-looking real-time lighting that is still performant but this method is unique to the Unreal Engine and a lot of other game engines don't offer this method so it is still very important to get familiar with light baking nonetheless.

I composed the scene from scratch but all of the assets and materials came from Quixel Bridge and the Unreal Engine marketplace. Lighting is done using the GPU Lightmass baker of the Unreal Engine.

Breakdown

I will now break down the different software I used and for what purpose: Photoshop for making the lookup table (LUT) for my post-processing in the scene, and PureRef for reference gathering.

Below you will see in order: the diffuse, the detail lighting, the lighting only, the progress of my scene, and at last an overview of my reference/inspiration.

Lighting & Performance

The scene only has a Skylight and a Directional light for the lighting. In combination with using baked lighting the performance for this environment is quite performant as you can see in the screenshot below. The total amount of draw calls is 267.

OVERGROWN INTERIOR TEMPLE RUINS

- Made & Rendered in UE5 -

For my fourth and final project for this Rookies post, I wanted to talk about this environment I had to make in a short period with 'Ruins' as my theme for it. The goal was to get an interesting composition with a strict focus on foliage and lighting in a short amount of time. 

It was composed from scratch but all of the assets & materials came from Quixel Bridge. The lighting was done using Lumen in Unreal Engine.

Breakdown

I will now break down the different software I used and for what purpose: Photoshop for making the lookup table (LUT) for my post-processing in the scene, and PureRef for reference gathering.

Below you will see in order: the diffuse, the detail lighting, the lighting only, the progress of my scene, and at last an overview of my reference/inspiration.

Evaluating Your Work

In my personal experience, one of the most important things you can do is to look at your work and give yourself some critique on how to improve it. Something I would constantly do during production is taking a screenshot of my current progress and think about how I could further push this piece. 

Always being honest with yourself and seeing the small mistakes in your work is very valuable. Normally I would note down the things I would do to improve my environment but for this project, I also made some rough paint-overs that showcase what I needed to do. 

But it is also very important to ask for feedback from other people because at a certain moment, you won't see the mistakes anymore or you simply have no idea what else you could do to improve your scene and it is at this moment that you need to go to online communities and ask for their feedback. Be sure to always be respectful and thank them afterward since these people are spending their time to help you improve your work.

If you made it this far then I wanna thank you for taking the time to look through all my different projects and I wish you a wonderful day!

You can reach out/contact me through my Artstation & LinkedIn.