The Last of Us 2 inspired Unreal Engine 4 (UE4) Lighting Study - Abandoned Factory

[@Ryuji664]

Looks awesome, Tim! I'd love a tutorial on how you typically go about lighting scenes some time. Sort of like the one you did for the trim sheet. It really helps to see the general workflows and the steps you go through to get to your final result!

[@PolygonAcademy]

actually my first premium product is going to be a massive lighting masterclass where I re-light a bunch of scenes and go over various techniques. hoping to start production on that soon.

[@Ryuji664]

Sounds great!

[@grahamhayward5616]

@@PolygonAcademy Looking forward to the release of that lighting Massive masterclass

[@dimeolas777]

@@PolygonAcademy If you build it, we will buy.....

[@ProceduralWorldLab]

@@PolygonAcademy Please can you cover how to lighting large open city environment ( night and day time ) with a dynamic lighting system? like in GTA 5, I can give you a copy of my City pack if you need asset for that.

[@gursimransingh3513]

Please lighting from scratch in ue 4 please😫🙏🙏💓

[@TheCaptOnix]

have you used Prefabricator? if so could you do a series on designing a level using it?

[@PolygonAcademy]

nope, never used it unfortunatley

[@ahmadmasoud0]

Wow

[@PolygonAcademy]

Ahmad Masoud cheers!

[@eloimassana3002]

Looks very good

[@PolygonAcademy]

thanks, the last of us was a huge inspiration and that game looks great!

[@Arxontas10]

Woohoo!

[@PolygonAcademy]

cheers buddy :)

[@dimeolas777]

As a hobbyist I still want to make good scenes and environments even tho i dont have the same skills and knowledge. Lighting for me is the hardest part in unreal and seems to be the hardest thing to find tutorials on. What you are doing is greatly appreciated, thank you.

[@PolygonAcademy]

dimeolas777 cheers :) i will try to put out some more lighting content in the future as well

[@MatthewRumble]

Is this on the marketplace at all?

[@PolygonAcademy]

yup if you search for the abandoned paper mill or something like that you will find the original scene :)

[@MatthewRumble]

@@PolygonAcademy ok thank you, do you have the project files for the relit one you showed?

[@jasonyikai6443]

Very awesome scene! :D

[@PolygonAcademy]

thanks! it was fun to light :)

[@izaya65]

Tim you talked about a tutorial you were making in your trim sheet video, are you still in the process of making that?

[@PolygonAcademy]

yea ive been super busy but thats the next one that I should get out hopefully soon :)

[@izaya65]

@@PolygonAcademy I can imagine. I was just curious but please take your time no rush, you already work hard enough and the content you already provide is very appreciated.

[@grill_dad]

You should apply with this. They’re handing out temp contracts left and right. Would be a really cool experience.

[@PolygonAcademy]

It would be cool but I actually am starting a new gig on monday, more info soon ;) also having worked on vancouver orgininally, I hate temp contracts at this point in my career, I want those bonuses, benefits and extra paid time off haha.

[@AlexiosLair]

@@PolygonAcademy you've become mature :D

[@CentboyMidnight]

great! I would like to see a real time lightning version

[@PolygonAcademy]

i mean technically this is realtime lighting, the sun is a stationary light so all the shadows it cast are realtime, just the GI is baked. pretty much the exact same method naughty dog uses for their lighting setups in their games.

[@HumbleMcgregor]

Excellent work! but how would you do this in an open environment?

[@happybiton]

SUPERB!

[@PolygonAcademy]

thanks so much :)

[@fl260]

Damn, that is well done. You're setting the bar high, brother! Hey man, random question, if you feel like answering it. Been a 3ds max user since version 2.5... It's like an extension of myself at this point almost. But it's damn expansive, at least for a starting developer. It's almost painful for me to try to learn Blender, no joke. I use to hate the software like crazy, but I must admit version 2.8 is a fine upgrade. So here I am trying to learn it again, shaking my head at every turn... do you think it's realistic for me to switch at that point? I've tried learning Maya but damn, I hate it even more. Do you like Blender? Do you know it at all?

[@PolygonAcademy]

I have the same issue, I checked out blender years ago, but hated the interface. I heard it is a LOT better now and it has a huge userbase. I stick with max cause thats what I use in every studio I worked at pretty much. I know some ballers like tor frick who are insane at modeling switched to modo, which isn't that expensive. I would say maybe just start learning blender slowly over time and get used to it, but once you kinda know what your doing the switch would be a lot less painful. Just go deep with some tutorials.

[@fl260]

@@PolygonAcademy Pretty much what I'm doing now! But no joke: every time I model something in Blender tutorial, I HAVE to open Max afterwards and model the same thing in half the time. Like I have to prove a point or something, lol! Anyway thanks for the answer man, it's comforting to know I'm not alone!

[@toxicsludge77]

Expod I changed from Max to blender for the same reason. After following a few tutorials and putting in the practise, I can do everything in Blender that I could in Max. There are a few things Max is better at (UV tools and splines) but 2.8 is a game changer. Plus you can't beat the price :) Free your mind, you'll pick it up quicker than you think!

[@DjinK2]

This is awesome!

[@PolygonAcademy]

thanks!

[@NiteshKumar-qf2nt]

This is Awesome Man :)

[@PolygonAcademy]

Thanks Nitesh, appreciate the love!

[@MadpolygonDEV]

I wish i could get over geting rid of serious light seams i get between my modular pieces. Even having decent padding between doesnt help...

[@PolygonAcademy]

im gonna do a video on this exact subject soon :) I would say the quickest fix would be to in the lightmass settings change your world scale to something like 0.1 or 0.2, and bake on atleast medium. i dont get many light seams and i never really use a lightmap size above 64 for most objects. it also comes down to how you make your modular pieces, I don't recommend building a flat surface like a huge wall out of 20 2m pieces, and I usualy cover any seams between pieces with pillars/pipes etc. check my ue4 presets lighting tutorial for an overview of lighmass bake settings :)

[@sharoozasghar4956]

@@PolygonAcademy yea but unfortunately that increases bake times for me drastically and some shadows are wonky. I know you can cheat with pillars etc between them but what if you want to build a interior of an appartment or just a room in general. I try to build stuff modular as recommended but the problem is that then I get the ugly light seams and more drawcalls. If you could make a video on how to properly uv and tackle modular doorframes, walls windows whatever it would help a ton. I have tried to research it alot but I never find something satisfying solution wise. Have you heard about the merge static mesh actors?

[@sharoozasghar4956]

@@PolygonAcademy if there just was a way to tell unreal to render certain meshes on the same thread or just merge the actors (no idea how that would compromise the uvs) then the problem would be solved. I just cant see those different light shades on my rooms anymore :(

[@PolygonAcademy]

@@sharoozasghar4956 yea a good bake takes time, thats why its better to keep your lightmap resolution low, I NEVER use a 512 or 1024 lightmap res. I keep it 32-64 in almost all cases. With the modular kit stuff, sometimes it just comes down to building larger modular meshes, like an entire wall instead of sticking to square meshes or going micro modular. I try and keep my modular pieces to a minimum of 4m pieces but will tend to make 8-12m variations for larger walls and floors etc.

[@PolygonAcademy]

@@sharoozasghar4956 I heard that they might be implementing a GPU based baker soon which would solve that threaded problem. fingers crossed :)

[@Weeartbook]

This is lit! ;) Great job man!

[@PolygonAcademy]

thanks Raj :)

[@NocteStudios]

This is what i need to see these days. Great work! :)

[@PolygonAcademy]

Nocte thanks :)

[@VertexPolyFort]

beautiful job as always!!

[@wolf-marks9353]

I can't wait to play the game

[@PolygonAcademy]

me too, so hyped!

[@PropheticGamesProductions]

Very very good !

[@PolygonAcademy]

merci!

[@PropheticGamesProductions]

@@PolygonAcademy Oh ? really happy when i read your "merci" but I'm the one who says thank you for sharing your work.

[@PolygonAcademy]

@@PropheticGamesProductions hahah cheers, I love seeing people enjoying the work :) more to come soon!

[@PropheticGamesProductions]

@@PolygonAcademy Great, i'm waiting for look that :D

[@AlexiosLair]

I wonder if you will be able to talk about static lighting setup? Will be great to hear your input on this topic.

[@PolygonAcademy]

I talk about that in depth in this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/lZPUoaprqLSqqJY lots of tips for bake settings and lighting setup etc :)

[@ghillahill]

Hello sir, at whitch point is your course? :) Really curious to see other tutorials for environment ;)

[@PolygonAcademy]

still in the planning phases, probably will put something out in 2020

[@peklat6934]

How long did it take to finish this?

[@PolygonAcademy]

the environment was from the unreal marketplace, this was a re-lighting exercise, and re-doing all the lighting in the scene, cleaning up lightmaps and all the stuff that goes into a normal lighting artists workflow took about 6-7 hours probably, and then a bit more to setup the camera flythroughs and breakdown.

[@peklat6934]

@@PolygonAcademy Thanks tim! You are my inspiration in my game environment design journey :)

[@legiongamerworkbruhben6058]

Eerie

[@nextkaretus6518]

I've just discovered your channel, you are a great inspiration, keep the tutorials comming! Thanks!!

[@PolygonAcademy]

NextKaretus cheers! Glad you are enjoying the content :) more to come soon!

[@nextkaretus6518]

@@PolygonAcademy Hey many thanks for the reply! What concept artists you follow when creating environments on your own? Can you recommend me a few so that i can follow them?

[@PolygonAcademy]

NextKaretus too many to count haha. If you check out my personal artstation profile and go to the likes tab to see all the artwork i like, a ton of it is dope concept art ;)

[@lockenessmotorsports818]

[@PolygonAcademy]

that studio is a shining example of excellence in the industry :D

[@davidperyman]

You're the man, this is awesome

[@PolygonAcademy]

Thanks dude! Hope the breakdown helped you out :)

[@nerdgrenade4365]

Teach me how , I need this !!!!!

[@KUBE.archvis]

Fantastic! Cool to see you playing with different styles. This is something I intend to do with my own channel as well. 😊😊

[@PolygonAcademy]

nice!

[@petter9078]

Lighting looks great. The scene is a bit too messy for my taste. I think lighting would be better if there were less stuff going on. I don't think having this many details in a scene is necessary.

[@_ok8362]

awesome stuff Tim! really want to get better at lighting, you are a great inspiration

[@PolygonAcademy]

Thanks! Just practice and reference haha thats the most important part!

[@kidehoward93]

Skylit took my breath away for a second

[@PolygonAcademy]

cheers :) skylight is soooo important for nice lighting, never underestimate it haha.