unit72devblog

[unit72devblog]

Evaluation

Although this unit was not one that is meant to teach but instead to display the skills we have learned so far and show them in a rendered piece, throughout the research into the subject and the capabilities of UDK's lighting tools , I have learned just how important lighting can be to not only guide the player in terms of gameplay but for setting atmosphere for the scene. During this unit, I also went over colour schemes once more after going through them in an earlier unit and even dove further into the research by associating the colour with lighting and what kind of outcome it create and how it also affects how the player feels.

I also researched properly into UDK's lighting functions, although I was aware of the lighting functions from early on in my education, I was more than happy to remind myself of the lighting the features and just what the lighting was trying to emulate, and also how it affected the scene when placed.

If I were to do the unit over, I would probably work on a more complex scene, I enjoyed doing the bedroom as I wanted to create a warm and happy environment but I would like to go further into this project and create a horror scene as that was what I originally intended to do with this unit but I felt more confident doing a scene which fitted my kind of style.  I would also like to go into lighting blueprints and maybe try out some more different scenes and themes to further educate myself on the subject.

To summarise my experience with this unit, I am happy with the result I made and I learned a lot from not only the research but the execution of creating my scene in UDK, I also benefited from reading UDK's own website page about their lighting in the engine and what they were made to simulate and be used for. Given the opportunity, I would like to create a horror scene but I am happy with the theme I chose for this unit.

[unit72devblog]

Creation Process

To create my scene, I first analysed my choice of room, this was the bedroom, I researched bedroom renders and brought together things I wanted to include in my scene and things I would like to replicate.

I next chose my 3D models.

Since this is a lighting and rendering unit and not a 3D modelling unit, I download all of my assets from;

https://www.turbosquid.com/Search/3D-Models/free

This is a free to use website with hundreds of models, all user created and completely free to use.

I have downloaded a bed, desk and lamp to name a few.

The materials I use will all me my own or from Unreal's own content browser.

The reason I chose these models are because of their simplicity and subtlety, I do not want anything to stand out in my scene and want every item of furniture to blend in nicely. I also want to add some kind of light shining through a window or door, and I want to keep the scene fairly unlit in order to bring attention from that, I also plan to include some of Unreal's own particle effects for a dusty look as I feel that would make the whole scene look more realistic.

To start the creation in UE4, I first made a third person scene and simply brought some walls and floors together to make a very simple base for my room. I made sure to leave space for the window and later add beams to made it look like a real window.

I then added all the assets I had downloaded and with some tweaking, they were all positioned were I needed them to be.

Downloading assets turned out to be a bad move, most assets did not work or came with more than they had described, causing me to constantly have to go through the list and delete out unwanted files, this left me with very few models but the ones that worked I think did well enough. The colours I chose for the furniture and walls are the reflection of my ambition to make my scene a welcoming-looking environment and the colour pink, which I have chosen for my walls is always associated with happiness and I wanted this to come across very prominently in my scene. The floor I chose was a warm wood from the content browser, the wood on the furniture is a colour I made in Maya when testing all of my assets. Once all the assets were placed, it came time for the lighting.

First I used the directional lighting to simulate a sun. I altered the intensity and changed the colour to an orange pink, to give the appearance of a sunset; going from my research, moods are usually set with colour, neutral colours give a warm effect and simulate a safe, warm environment, whereas cool tones, like the ones I had explained were used in The Evil Within, are colder colours and are usually reference with unease and a sense of chilling surroundings. I kept this in mind while choosing my colours for my scene and wanted to give my scene a warm and safe feel and I feel this was accomplished in my choice of lighting and how they reflect with my choice of wall colours. Even though there was plenty of light in my level, it still felt too dark and as I stated earlier, I want bright and warm surroundings, so I added two more very basic spotlights on each side of the bed and dimmed them just enough for the attention not to be taken off of the evening sun but enough to light up the room.

Once all my lights were in, I started trying to create ambience. This I felt would be accomplished by added pattern to my light, so with the open window, I downloaded a set of venetian blinds and put them against my main source of light; my evening light to create a light pattern on the wood floor and lastly a added the dust particle effect from UDK's content browser and adjusted it only slightly to be more noticeable in my scene.

These are the pictures of my level after that process:

[unit72devblog]

Pre Production

The pre-production during this unit was fairly simple and easy, considering my main focus would be on the aesthetic of this project, I created a mooodboard of all the lighting and rendering pieces I found that I liked and wanted to draw inspiration from.

This is a mini moodboard I put together of some images that I liked:

As you can see, all of the images follow a similar theme.

The theme I want my own project was originally something darker, maybe a horror theme but I eventually came to the conclusion that I wanted something brighter and more my style.

I want something that is similar to Pixar and Disney, bright and soft with sharp shadows and soft lighting, this is what I will aim to achieve during this unit. The room I have chosen to emulate is a bedroom, this way I can put a lot of personality into it and I can follow the theme and colour scheme that I want without making it took out of place.

So what I aim to do in this project is to create a simple looking bedroom with a large sun light source and little lights around the room to create a cosy yet modern lighting scheme

[unit72devblog]

Researching Lighting from UnrealEngine.com

"Unreal Engine 4 has four light types: Directional, Point, Spot, and Sky. Directional lights are primarily used as your primary outdoor light or any light that needs to appear as if it is casting light from extreme or near infinite distances. Point lights are your classic "light bulb" like light, emitting light in all directions from a single point. Spot lights emit light from a single point, but have their light limited by a set of cones. Sky lights capture the background of your scene and apply it as lighting to your level's meshes." -Epic Games

https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/Rendering/LightingAndShadows/LightTypes/index.html

Everything I found on lighting in Unreal came from UnrealEngine.com.

In the tutorials in this website, it explains what all the lighting options are and what they do/ how they affect their surroundings.These are some of the articles I found most interesting and beneficial to this unit:

https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/Rendering/LightingAndShadows/Basics/#placinglights 

https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/Rendering/LightingAndShadows/Basics/#intensity

https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/Rendering/LightingAndShadows/Basics/#lightcolor

https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/Rendering/LightingAndShadows/LightFunctions/index.html

[unit72devblog]

Research into Lighting and Rendering

For my research, I will be looked at the games The Evil Within and Until Dawn, and how the lighting in those games affect the atmosphere of the game as well as what that kind of lighting tells the player as they enter.

I looked at horror or thriller games like The Evil Within and Until Dawn because of how impactful the light is. These games I feel are the most atmospheric horror games I have played, just because not every level is the same and just by looking at the lighting of a certain place, the player instantly knows what is to come. Not only do these games rely on lighting but also the lack thereof lighting within certain parts of their levels that creates a fear in the player and gives a sense of the unknown. This I feel is very strong in all the games I have mentioned but I will go through each of them and step through the unique aspects of their lighting.

All horror games focus on contrast to give a creepy vibe to the games, with shadows almost pitch black and the lighting sources bright and eye catching, it lures the player towards the path the game intends to follow, while keeping enough light for the player to see in and direct themselves in. Lighting is a great way of hiding areas along the way and guiding players discreetly to pathways that are just there for them to find loot or secrets. This is super handy in games, as an RPG player, it sometimes is hard to explore everywhere as the main path will usually cut the player off from exploring further and it can be annoying when it is hard to differentiate between the main pathway and a side area, discreet and not so discreet lighting is very useful in this regard.

Moving on to more aesthetic lighting; The Evil Within. When the game begins it already gives a very eerie feel with a blue tinted evening light that later turns into more of a brown undertone which gives the game a very vintage, old fashioned look to it, this is very prominent in most horror games, in especially open areas which usually are very uncommon in this genre, this kind of lighting gives a very unnerving feel to an almost safe feeling place. All the titles I mentioned earlier are guilty of having this same lighting used in the same way, usually outdoors is the escape in horror games and it is a small section of game where the player can relax but with this kind of lighting, it makes even open areas feel claustrophobic and unsafe, a very clever way of keeping that heavy atmosphere over the player while introducing a new section of area to explore, this kind of lighting is the base for Until Dawn, with barely any artificial lighting, the players rely on the illumination of the moon to light their paths which gives an almost foggy look to the game, with dark surroundings and only vibrant light peeking through cracks in the background, it automatically makes the player aware of everything that is happening on the screen, the character is always what players will be looking at but with such bright lighting in the background, it is hard not to get distracted by it, and Until Dawn uses this to create very scary moments when something rushes past in the background, giving hints towards enemies later on.

The Evil Within

Until Dawn

However, it is The Evil Within's lighting in particular that I feel stands out against other horror games is how they present their enemies with light, for example, the beginning of the game, the player is strung upside down from a meat hook and the first thing they see is a well-lit room and suddenly a huge silhouette appears, presenting the enemy, this kind of lighting is used a lot throughout the game, normally when introducing a new species of enemy. Since the game is based in a kind of hospital or mental asylum, there are a lot of bright beaming lights and darkened hallways which gives the player small reachable goals and always lets them know which way they should be heading in, with any horror game based deep within a building, the main goal is always to find your way out and into the open and organic light in small doses can give hope to the player that the safety of the end is nearby.

Because this is a lighting and rendering unit, I chose next to look at articles and portfolio pieces of other artists and further educate myself on lighting and rendering.I found this article on the basics of lighting and rendering

:http://buildnewgames.com/lighting/

This article basically explains the importance of lighting and rendering and how anyone can master it, it also offers a lot of tips and tricks for lighting and explains everything in an easy to understand way.

[unit72devblog]

Introduction

Unit 72 is a unit based on the lighting and rendering of levels in Unreal. This unit is all about how the level is lit and the aesthetic of the level. For this unit I will be looking at different ways I can light rooms, I.E with spotlights, directional lights ect...  The majority of this unit will be on research, more specifically the lighting and shadow casting of certain games and genres and how it affects the player and what kind of visual guide it offers the player. I will mostly be looking at horror games and RPG games as I feel those two genres have the most affective and obvious atmosphere around their choice of lighting. I will also be looking at my own past levels and explaining why I chose that lighting and what I feel it portrays to the player, as well as going through the creation of a new level for this unit and annotating along the way.