Demystifying the Skylight [Unreal Engine 4 & 5]

[@WilliamFaucher]

Just a bit of info since we have a lot of newcomers here, this approach is mainly targeted towards cinematics use (as that is what this channel is about), where you don’t have multiple environments/biomes to light at once. Obviously if you’re making a game, you will need to take a different approach here in regards to a low sky distance threshold. In my mind that was obvious but I realize now that I should have specified this more clearly in the video.

[@Vimtematar32]

All your info is so helpful, thank you so much once again!!

[@gokupiske5965]

Thank you for your video. It’s really helpful. Will you also make a video about skylight for game settings when you have time ? I really appreciate you.

[@movietrailer4188]

Hi sir I am facing problems unreal engine charecter contact shadow ,

[@maloxi1472]

@@gokupiske5965 I second that request

[@sbseltzer]

My biggest question here was what options there are for handling reflections with real time capture.

[@WilliamFaucher]

Hey folks! I'm aiming for a June 1st release/announcement for my Patreon page, stay tuned for more info coming soon!

[@shabaniddrisu]

Hey! My first encounter with your content. I think it’s great. Do you have a full course on Unreal Journey..?

[@ArtVandelayInc]

Man, your videos are just essential to the community. We are so lucky to have you

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thank you so much! I just want to give back :)

[@jakubjodlowski2768]

Amen Art! Amen

[@ZacDonald]

Small tip: If you do need realtime capture, that is the perfect time to use the lower hemisphere color feature. Most of the time, set it to the diffuse color of your landscape. You'll get that indirect lighting color from the grass, sand, or whatever ground your scene is using. If the environment is more varied, you might want to just use a medium or dark grey.

[@WilliamFaucher]

Yes! 100% agreed. Thanks for chiming in!

[@bestboy007]

uhm. i dont see any cases where your whole level has only one color lol. v

[@WilliamFaucher]

@@bestboy007 Only the bottom hemisphere. In many cases having a solid color is actually preferable in the grand scheme of things, gives you a bit more control over the look of the scene. There isn’t a right or wrong answer here, whatever looks best/works.

[@ZacDonald]

@@bestboy007 You could either hyper localize it, good enough for getting a specific shot or render. Generalize it, good enough for an open world game where the landscapes are pretty uniform. Or use a blueprint to update the lower hemisphere color depending on the location, which could work well for any game with dynamic lighting. Of course you're basically lighting an entire scene with one HDRI, but it works well enough most of the time. I just tried it on the Rural Australia map and it looks great. Much better than black or sky blue, which are the other 2 options. SSGI also helps in similar ways or in combination.

[@bestboy007]

@@ZacDonald and how do you make interiors darker in Australia demo for example?

[@MR3DDev]

Just for the tip of adding a chrome ball you deserve thousands of likes. It is amazing how something so little can make a big difference when lighting.

[@WilliamFaucher]

Haha thank you! Yeah I feel completely crippled when trying to light a scene without a chrome ball. It just feels like I'm walking in the dark with my eyes closed.

[@octaviosilva5808]

Whenever William posts it makes me happy... Because I know he is one of the only UE4 artist who can make hard topics easy to grasp 😀

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thank you! Makes me happy to hear that! I'm always a bit concerned that things get a bit too complicated!

[@bludbafMcgraf]

EVERY TIME.... Best channel by far

[@Ahmed_Orabi]

same ♥

[@kimlau5085]

Qz😢😢

[@GoldenLaneStudio]

This was extremely helpful. Thanks for sharing this. I just used random settings or recolored an hdr because it was so confusing.

[@WilliamFaucher]

Haha you're not alone! The skylight actor behaves unlike anything I've ever seen before. I love it, but it takes some getting used to. :)

[@boomshroomgoonmoon]

Probably the most clear and understandable tutorial I've seen on unreal lighting so far, thanks a lot !

[@bludbafMcgraf]

This has become my favorite learning resource... I started realizing I dont really like the linear grind of busting out tutorials for hours. But catching something new on your channel daily keeps me progressing and learning, and keeps it fresh and fun... Thanks for doing what you do bro

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thank you so much! I'm just glad it could be of service. I totally feel you, long 2-3 hour tutorials can be a real pain. VERY useful of course, but it takes a long time to get through those

[@GDi4K]

I learned a lot from your stream the other day about Skylight. Happy to see a standalone tutorial on this.

[@mattjohnson437]

Can’t thank u enough… have found new inspiration through ur videos

[@WilliamFaucher]

Goodness thank you so much for your generosity! really appreciate it!

[@derekheisler2058]

Omg... I was working on a project where we were having issues with distance falloff of objects in the rear view mirror of the car. We had to come up with an overly complex camera to material projection to get it to have enough detail, when this could have been the solution all along... wow. Pumped to try it out. Brilliant video man.

[@denismoxhet9879]

Once more, can we enjoy the fact that all of this was completely FREE ! Big respect !

[@AlvinLeeVesper]

I've just started learning Unreal for Video Production purposes, and boy all your videos had helped me tremendously, all quality content, from the virtual camera settings to understanding the skylight actor, Thank you!! Looking forward to learn more about reflections from you!

[@septic07]

Man, I don't know what it is, but your videos feel like they have so much value! Really appreciate your work style of teaching!

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thank you so much sir! I really appreciate that!

[@playproduction8853]

Woaaahhh maan, I've just discovered your channel and boom. Even the first video made a huge progress of my understanding of this particular light. I'll stay a while browsing. Thank you the effort!

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thanks for the kind words! I'm glad it could help you out! Welcome to the (small) community :)

[@adamplechaty]

Yes! Iam all for the interactivity livestreaming offers, but as a dad of a newborn and working full time, these short and info packed vids are just perfect. Thanks William, you rock!

[@WilliamFaucher]

Hahah I totally get you! Fortunately the livestreams are always available for viewing even after the live ends, so you don't miss anything :)

[@Mukhtar_SH]

The best quality of tutorials is here .... trust me.

[@Viscte]

Well done video sir. No paid for tutorials have I seen are quite as good as these.

[@extendedblundering]

"I'm an eternal student". You my friend get it. And I'm glad to find your videos as my own studies progress!

[@jahin_hossain]

Man, you're one of the most underrated KZbinrs out there. I learnt a lot from your videos.

[@WilliamFaucher]

Aw thanks! I appreciate that!

[@nikwalz3429]

This is an awsome explanation on how this is working. And it helped me finding a bug in my map where the sky light is not working.

[@stylezmorales]

man Will, you're the man, i was literally trying to figure out on my own how to add my own hdri, couldn't figure it out but now i know why hah. hope you and yours have a fantastic new years

[@johncorbitt4112]

As usual, your tutorials are extremely helpful William. Great service to those of us trying to improve our Unreal skills

[@bcgames92]

Hey William, Hope all is well. Just wanted to comment on the presentation. Everything was very nice. The annotations, the intro video, and the smooth transitions were subtle and great. And I know those little things take a lot of time so I appreciate your work man!

[@NazzarenoGiannelliCG]

It's been six years using Unreal Engine, but you save my life every week anyway :D Pure gold has always!

[@Fafmagic]

One of the most useful unreal engine lighting videos there is. Nice one.

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thank you so much!

[@AvatarNate]

I am an Eternal student too!! Soo happy to meet other like-minded people out there!!!! I reallyyyyy appreciate your authenticity & warm-heartedness ❤ keep it real brother! PS nice beard btw.

[@RunorDieyt]

brother i have an issue of noise or grains dancing on grass ,i think it is cause when fill the directional light darkness by skylight.please help me get rid of those noise ,it affect the render :(

[@uplife7024]

Hey William, I do not know any words to thank you. God Bless you.

[@RprtBak]

How am I just finding out about you now. All your videos are SO GOOD.

[@AhmedHasan91]

Man, i can not thank you enough, I've been away from unreal for a while because of work and deep in my mind i was thinking about my issues in lighting, was driving somewhere and noticed beautiful landscape and it was lit 90% by skylight so i immediately knew my problem because i was trying to make things look pretty under sunlight but when camera turns towards the other side it gets really ugly.. then i came home and saw your stream, that was great and this video too, please keep doing this and wish you best of luck and more success.

[@DatGuyGLK]

was waiting for this since the livestream, great as always!

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thank you! Hope it helps!

[@TJDOW]

This was a really great video and gave me exactly what I was looking for. Couldn't understand how the skylight was affecting my scene in relation to all the other light sources. Thank you.

[@Walpurgya]

Dude, thank you so much for this and other videos.. When I did a lot of lighting, I never really used SkyLight when I worked in production in UE4 (game had only artificially lit environments bar 1 case which I did not lit myself :) ) and did not really touch UE5 since I switched jobs to a company where we use an inhouse engine. So now that I started to do some personal work and also start wrapping my mind around UE5, this was SOOOOO helpful to make me understand wtf I was looking at and how to find a good balance in the indirect lit areas as well as how the SkyLight integrates and contributes to the overall picture! Thank you again for this video and for the many other you posted! Awesome and to the point info! Thank you, thank you, thank you! :)

[@EthanFilms]

This is the video that should come up first when looking for Skylight instructions. Thank you for this!!

[@rspbuild794]

You are the real unreal tutor

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thank you!

[@AvatarNate]

1 more because im still watching & you are A-MAZZING!!!! your content is amazing & how you explain things is next level! im so happy to be a student of a humble & wise teacher. Just what ive been lookin for. Thank you....

[@Maarten-Nauta]

THANK YOU, I tried getting into UE from Blender but the lighting looked so weird so I just gave up. Now I see what was causing it.

[@WilliamFaucher]

Cheers! I'm glad to hear that! Good luck!

[@tarekwayne9193]

That's exactly why I'm here now!!!!!

[@cadair5]

Thanks so much! Your videos are great as they are very current and well explained. After diving deeper into the skylight, I discovered that the HDRI Backdrop actor has the Skylight already set up with Sky Distance Threshold set to 1 and Lower Hemisphere Is Solid Color turned off. I also like how you don't have to 'Recapture' as you have to do with the standalone Sky Light Actor.

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thanks! Yeah the HDRI backdrop is just a blueprint that updates the skylight actor when you make changes. It recaptures for you. That said, i don't always like having the actual HDRI dome. Sometimes it's not necessary or even desireable. Totally depends on your usage!

[@RikiB]

Thank You William

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thanks so much!

[@VRDivision]

Another great video! the chrome ball is one of my favorite tips of all time! there are things I never understood until the chrome ball! :D thank you William!!

[@WilliamFaucher]

Yeah me too! I feel totally blind when lighting without a chrome ball!

[@polatkemalakyuz2021]

Billion thanks. This is most satisfied UE video ever for me

[@DanielLiljar]

There should be a follow-up to this with baked lighting. btw. sky-distanse threshold is great for excluding the interior of a building when you do Arch-viz.

[@WilliamFaucher]

Great point! I have a few tutorials on baked lighting on my channel already :) Some are livestreams, and I have a more specific tutorial on GPU Lightmass :)

[@ilyashka_levelart]

your videos are really helpful for me as a starting lighting artist. thamk you so much man for doing this, we really appreciate it

[@predictonmisson2772]

Hey William, brand new to Unreal Engine and all of the things you are showing and explaining are fantastic. I cant wait to get started on working on some ideas. Thanks!

[@you3d]

Thanks! Nice to have someone delve in with the details.

[@georgeneverland896]

Great content, I’m totally blown away from production quality and clarity, thanks.

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thank you so much Giorgio! I appreciate that!

[@RedzwanulHuq]

Although i watched your whole live stream, didnt want to miss out on another gem. Thanks

[@essamibrahiem2896]

William, you know you are the only person on youtube that I give him a (Like) before I watch the video? :D, great tutorial master !!!!. Thank you so much and congratulation on showing in the Epic launcher, you totally deserve it !!!!

[@marklavania3680]

This is gold! Thanks for sharing your learning with the community. Best wishes!

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thank you sir! Appreciate it!

[@RAM_industrial_death_metal]

Man, your tutorials are excellent. Thank you for posting them

[@monsterinsane2228]

Sir you're my savior for UE4 lighting setup

[@oliver_irl]

Thanks

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thanks so much!

[@glenn3646]

I'm glad I found your channel, I'm a newbie un Unreal and its helping me allot

[@faradaysinfinity]

William. Amazing content as always. rewatching this again and it is great

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thanks so much! I appreciate it :)

[@dingxianyang3055]

Thanks for the great video to demystify how the skylight works, it genuinely helps me a lot!!

[@WilliamFaucher]

The pleasure is mine! Thank you for watching!

[@ilakya]

Thank you. This is really helpful. I was use UE since UE3 and quite familiar with baked lighting and static mesh. Then I moved to Blender Cycles and EEVEE for really long time. Learned the concept of ray tracing, the use of HDRI and the concept of light probe where it was easy to understand in EEVEE and even Unity. But UE sky light really bugged me for a long time, The result is wayyy different from what I expected. This video enlighten me as well as my scene.

[@freenomon2466]

Very informative and concise content. Really appreciate your videos.

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thank you!

[@BackerSultan]

The way you explain things is just amazing! Thanks for the great content!

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thank you! That makes me happy to hear!

[@Si-Toecutter]

Psh, small simple video just totally changed my entire game! thanks soooo much brother

[@MrMeen]

WF you are a gift to us all. I wish you strength and growth with your magic!

[@MorganFuse]

It's never too late, to become a subscriber of an amazing channel. Thanks you so much!

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thank you! And welcome to the (small) community!

[@MorganFuse]

@@WilliamFaucher I'm sure it will be huge very soon, thanks again for what you're doing 🙌

[@jerichoyang243]

just wanna leave a comment to say thank you. really appreciate you share your experience and knowledge

[@RedBattalion9000]

Thanks for uploading this. It's a simple, but effective tutorial.

[@pawpotsRS]

we have not yet in this phase but this will be very useful so i'll keep in this tab and playlist :) thanks man!

[@DaNiElMmM93]

Using the skylight as an Hdri Is the most amazing thing youve could teach me, thanks 🥺😭❤️

[@WilliamFaucher]

Cheers! Happy to help!

[@xyz09999]

Great video! Any plan of making a video on SunSky system that could co-exist with the rest of the lighting setup? Applications for architecture real time visualisation where real sunlight angles through out the year are needed as reference, but then to benefit from fine tuning of the Env. Light Mixer? Thanks in advance!

[@ablevi5774]

¡Gracias!

[@WilliamFaucher]

muchas gracias!

[@ablevi5774]

@@WilliamFaucher a ti!!!!

[@infinitehush]

is there any chance you've messed with getting Unreal EXRs into Nuke and using the ZDefocus node to work for *animations*? There's a python script in the UE documentation that they claim can read the Manual Focus Distance embedded in every frame and update Nuke in real time (and you can see it working in one of their presentations), but I couldn't get it to work...

[@WilliamFaucher]

I have, actually! And I figured that one out. Great suggestion for a video, so thank you!

[@infinitehush]

@@WilliamFaucher awesome!!! can't wait!

[@jinmick9998]

Thank you William you are the best lecturer in software i never met

[@WilliamFaucher]

You're too kind! Thank you!

[@Di13F]

Obrigado!

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thank you!

[@MaxPuliero]

GREAT VIDEO! For some reason I get really dark shadows after switching back from lumen to SSGI via post process.

[@hannybassem4818]

Love ur videos and the way u explain every thing, as i am new in unreal but learning so much from you

[@WilliamFaucher]

You're very welcome sir! Thanks for watching!

[@Particle67]

You're a Great Teacher. I learnt a lot of interesting things/tips on your channel. Keep the good work.

[@leonardovallone]

Awesome video, thanks a lot for sharing your knowledge. I would say distance field ao gives more detail to the scene while atmospheric fog gives more depth.

[@WilliamFaucher]

The pleasure is mine! Yeah agreed, I tend to use those two terms interchangeably!

[@mohanpugaz]

Im from the Houdini community and I feel like this man is the entagma of Unreal community ❤️

[@WilliamFaucher]

Oh man you're way too kind, I'm nowhere near on the same level of Entagma, they are a beast!

[@miurasrpnt_v2]

Great video ! I'm quite a newbie to Unreal Engine so this kind of tutorials help me a lot ! You got a new subscriber. :)

[@VertexPolyFort]

Extremely helpful tutorial!! cant wait to apply this to my current scene!

[@Rune3D]

God that's so simple and effective! I needed this video ages ago, Thank you so much!!

[@MrDyzi0]

Thanks for your proffesional attitude towards us. Can learn a ton!

[@brendancarroll5036]

Thanks!

[@WilliamFaucher]

Oh my goodness, thank you so much!

[@brendancarroll5036]

@@WilliamFaucher Thank YOU!! Your tutorials are 2nd to none and the lessons you put together is a lot of work backstage, on top of your other busy schedules. You're a massive help and what you do is highly appreciated!

[@cepwin]

Excellent!! Your lighting videos have been extremely helpful!!!

[@johnterpack3940]

So frustrating trying to follow along when everything has changed with 5.4 apparently. I don't have a "recast lighting" button. Trying to figure out why the chrome ball reflects the skylight, but I can't see the skylight. Your videos are immensely helpful. Even though I'm new to UE, and 3D in general, I can't get into the more basic tutorials out there. I do best when people are talking a bit above my pay grade.

[@midimusicforever]

Interesting approach!

[@gocho1210]

What a game changer !! Thank you so much!! Like always, your tutorials and content are amazing, you are a wizard :)

[@samgielen]

Great video, as always! Thank you! Any chance that in a future video you might cover RVT (Runtime virtual Texturing)? I seem to not be able to understand all the things that go in to that workflow, Might be very useful!

[@WilliamFaucher]

RVT is one of those things I still need to wrap my dumb head around because it's so finicky. But I will get around to it!

[@rovinaroquerotomas6527]

First of all, thank you for your video tutorials. I’ve learnt quite a few things from them! I’d like to point out that it’d be better if you used spherical reflection captures in the level, this way you can keep the skylight distance at a far while still picking up nearby reflections to the character. This way you get both.

[@WilliamFaucher]

With raytracing, sphere reflection captures don't do this anymore. Epic changed the way they work. They only capture the last reflection bounce from raytraced reflections. I personally don't like reflection capture actors to begin with, even without raytracing, because they tend to look pretty wonky. But that being said, there is no right or wrong way to work, whatever works for you and whatever looks good!

[@rovinaroquerotomas6527]

@@WilliamFaucher Ah! I didn't know that. Good to know! I'm still stuck in the raster lighting workflow due to I don't own an RTX card hence I haven't had time to test raytracing, just watching loads of tutorials like yours, :)

[@Megasteakman]

You are an absolute hero!

[@michaelmonte3239]

Mate, this video is awesome! It help me a lot with my new project. Thank you very much. Best regards from Brazil.

[@Starlingstudio]

Another Great Useful Video. Every time i came here i know that i learn something good Thank You !

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thanks so much! Happy to help!

[@begin-playoficial]

Thank you William! Your content is always amazing!!

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thank YOU for watching! I Appreciate the comment :)

[@underblue-sc2zt]

Wow! that's very basic and useful to help the new like me to perfomance better, thanks!

[@thevectorworker]

Danke!

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thanks so much Sebastiano!

[@mjecki6644]

Wow it's soooo cool! Thank you! I love the content and please don't stop making your videos. It's super helpful!

[@marcelogonzalez9565]

Espectacular!! Everything is much clear now. Thanks!!

[@asjadahmed8224]

Awesome video, do you have any dedicated video for mobile lighting environment development?

[@andreacelia4599]

YOU ARE THE BEST!!! Thank you for you for your valuable tips!!!

[@WilliamFaucher]

The pleasure is 100% mine! Thanks for watching!

[@remus.stefan]

congrats, great content :)

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thank you!

[@sunn2000]

Great tutorials as usual. Cheers