Lighting in Unreal Engine 5 for Beginners

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This tutorial is for the beginners out there. Lighting is tricky. It's not always the most obvious thing to get right, and lighting in Unreal poses its own share of challenges on top of that. That's where this video comes in, where we'll learn all about the very fundamentals of light, what kind of lights are available to us, how they work, how to make of the most of them, followed by a deep explanation of how light behaves in the real world, and mimicking that in Unreal. Then we'll learn how to light an environment from total scratch, twice. Once for a daytime lighting, and a second time for an overcast, dark, moody day look.
Fasten your seatbelt because this is a long one!
- Visit CG Spectrum if you want to learn Unreal Engine with the guidance of a mentor:
hubs.ly/Q01bDPsw0
Or visit their KZbin channel here:
/ cgspectrum
- To learn more about baked lighting:
• Bake Lighting FASTER w...
- Deep dive on LUMEN:
• Lumen Explained - IMPO...
- Learn about NANITE:
• Nanite: Everything You...
- Dedicated video about the SKYLIGHT:
• Demystifying the Skyli...
- Megascans Abandoned Apartment Scene:
www.unrealengine.com/marketpl...
Article about why 18% grey is mid-grey:
www.diyphotography.net/what-i...
Join this channel to get access to perks:
/ @williamfaucher
---------------
Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
00:41 - CGSpectrum
01:35 - Project Settings
03:18 - Lighting Basics & Light Types
10:09 - Lighting Basics & The Magic Sauce
13:18 - VSM vs Raytraced Shadows
16:07 - Helpers & Guides
17:45 - Indirect Lighting
20:17 - Reflective Objects Quick Tip
23:13 - Emissive Materials
25:21 - Lighting your Scene & Daylight
33:49 - GODRAYS!
39:19 - Overcast Lighting
--------Cameras and Gear Used To Film This Video ------
DISCLAIMER: This video/description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This helps support the channel and allows us to continue to make videos like this. Thank you for the support!
My Streaming / Recording Setup (How this Video was Recorded)
Nikon Z6II : geni.us/OPxBG
Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art : geni.us/ByMa
Deity S-Mic 2 Shotgun Microphone: geni.us/ed6pyO
Aputure MC Pocket LED: geni.us/uVZNl
Godox LEDP 260c LED Panel: geni.us/OgidwX
Godox Parabolic Softbox : geni.us/oHZ2b9
Godox SL-60W Studio Light: geni.us/68wx

[@WilliamFaucher]

I'd like to issue a small corrective statement! @17:08 I state that exposure isn't linear. That's not... quite correct. Exposure in itself is linear, but our perception of light, values/brightness, and reflectance, is not linear. That technicality aside, an albedo of 0.18 *IS* still the middle-grey value you should be using as a guide to gauge the exposure of your scene, that remains unchanged.

[@starwarz8479]

Thanks William! I'd love to see more tutorials about lookdev, lighting and rendering for production in UE5

[@RavetodaGrave]

When I turn on Hardware ray tracing and go to open my project file....it gets to 45% and says "compiling shaders (8,102)" so naturally I think "Ah this just needs to be done once" but every time I try to open or save the project it goes back to compiling 8,000 shaders again....is this normal? How am I meant to work on projects if it takes an 45 mins to open and save a project. (and yes I have a RTX card) I think Il just go back and turn off ray tracing.

[@daniel4647]

@@RavetodaGrave You're not supposed to have settings such as raytracing on during development. You turn that on to see how it looks and tweak it, then turn it off again until you finish making the game. This goes for everything, don't try to animate high poly characters, don't use 4K textures, don't spam volumetrics or particle systems or physics, non of that. Keep it as simple as possible, then turn all the fancy things on when you're ready to compile a test version.

[@RavetodaGrave]

@@daniel4647 yeah I figured that out haha but thanks for the reply

[@inksplosiongames]

@@RavetodaGrave I also recently figured this out and was like "oh this is way easy now" xD

[@DominikMorse]

Make a coffee, pause all work, start William's video. Life is good.

[@WilliamFaucher]

Hahhaha enjoy!

[@S1lentIntensity]

About to do just that!

[@jt-el8540]

I'm in Pennsylvania and 30% of all my entertainment / study comes from this guy lol. Probably going to be the first channel I ever join. Truly Great work. 👍

[@Manas-co8wl]

You just scarily described me

[@retrophyx]

No repeating, no rambling, no losing interest, no ambigious knowledge of how lighting works. Great teacher.

[@Toetech0]

It's amazing how you can turn a very confusing set of parameters into a VERY clean, understandable, and straightforward workflow. These are probably THE most quality tutorials I've ever come across.

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thank you so much!

[@dinarichards7064]

Very very well said 😊

[@edwardhoare7617]

I just want to say a MASSIVE thank you for these tutorials. You explain with such depth and clarity. Legend.

[@pwnisher]

The KING! Thank god for your existence Will.

[@WilliamFaucher]

You’re too kind my dude!

[@JacksonHayes]

Oh, Will! This is going to be such a lovely resource for so many people, and I can't wait to sit down and go through this in its entirety tomorrow morning! Your videos are ~truly~ the gold standard for UE education on the internet, thank you for putting so much time and effort into it. It's made my explorations into UE5 so much easier.

[@WilliamFaucher]

Cheers! Thank you so much, appreciate that!

[@user-zc8iw8wx3v]

@@WilliamFaucher I also like your videos very much, you have a lot of fans in China

[@syno3608]

Yess.. this is super helpful . Thanks will

[@the_pointpusher]

What a wonderful and in-depth tutorial. Thanks for taking the time to organize and present this material so thoughtfully.

[@summerliu7823]

This is literally so far the best Unreal Engine beginner lighting tutorial I've found over the internet! Thanks so much Will!

[@Dan-ej1dx]

I've been a 3d Artist for around 8 years now (3DsMax + Corona), I've now started to learn Unreal...and this video alone taught me so much. Thanks for the content and the clarity of your lessons. Just another person letting you know how much your videos help

[@WilliamFaucher]

Ah thanks so much man! Glad to hear it could help out even someone who isn't a total beginner to the world of 3D! Best of luck with learning Unreal, it's a fun ride!

[@bradmyers1431]

I was gonna say pretty much the same thing with 15 years of professional experience now. I love how Unreal is taking all these super sophisticated effects now and making it so easy to use. It used to be that you would setup lights everywhere and light probes and crap all in a very non-intuitive way to "fake" realism. We all dreamed of a time when we would drop a sunlight and few lights (actually where they should be coming from the light mesh source) and things would just work. Seems like we are finally there now, its super exciting times!

[@bradmyers1431]

Oh and thanks so much for posting this. I was scouring the internet for days trying to gather bits and pieces of this information here and you have it all correct in one place. I can't tell you how many times I've read threads where people either didn't know the answers here, or literally gave the wrong advice. cheers!

[@alpinejonny]

I'm not a beginner, but I learned so much from this video it made me feel like a beginner. What a fantastic video. Thank you!

[@Edsdrafts]

Man I cannot thank you enough. Straight to the point, good info, good delivery. Well done, appreciate your patience, prep and video. Exactly what I was looking for.

[@extendedblundering]

This type of tutorial is exactly what I was looking for! Very glad to have stumbled on this and I'll certainly be checking out more. For me what worked best is how passionate and excited you often got in sharing this content; you clearly love working in this software and enjoy sharing that with others. Well received here my friend thank you 🙂

[@ericrogers3186]

This is awesome. I think a lot of the environment artists I know feel like they struggle with lighting. It's great to have a professional rundown like this, especially one that covers Lumen. Really appreciate the content.

[@BibiBubuish]

What an awesome tutorial, absolutely fantastic, clear and organized !

[@adethecoda8150]

Will, you opened my eyes with these lighting explanations! Best I have ever watched! Thank you so much! 😊

[@oakhousemedia]

I've been wanting to dip into Unreal for a very long time. You're tutorials are fantastic and have been crucial with helping me get past the learning curve. Thanks for all you do.

[@Martijnvanoers]

You are such an important part of my journey of learning UE. A massive thank you for putting in so much effort in teaching people

[@Silpheedx]

Oh hell yeah! I honestly can't say how thankful I am that you do these tutorials. I basically owe my career and livelihood to tutorials like this and that is not an exaggeration. So very truly Thank You so incredibly much!

[@rafaelblares]

This tutorial was so clean, straight to the point, no bullshit, just pure and easy to understand information, I loved it from start to finish, thank you so much for giving us your time and effort

[@lumatrace]

This is the best lighting tutorial for UE5 that I've seen yet. I can't thank you enough for spreading your knowledge in such a comprehensive way!

[@bradicalmusic]

Really appreciate these clear step-by-step tutorials mixed with juicy nuggets of wisdom. I would definitely pay for a course that goes deeper into core topics like lighting, cameras and rendering in UE5. Maybe even a series that attempts to recreate a wide variety of image styles from various movie

[@madeeasy7148]

Dude this video was absolutely incredible, lighting is something i struggle with and this video helped me a huge amount. So professional and quality. Thank you so much for sharing your expertise.

[@dustypixels501]

A fantastic resource for not only beginners but for both intermediate and advanced users. Everything starts at the foundations, learn them! Thank you William.

[@ZDouble07]

Brand new to unreal and your way of getting your points across is so intuitive and straightforward. Love this content

[@levliversidge4802]

I've been doing 3D for 4 years now, and this video has completely changed my perspective on lighting. Thank you so much! I can't wait to get working on new projects using the info from this video, easily the best tutorial I've ever watched. Your enthusiasm and explanations made it super enjoyable to watch. Earned a sub!

[@Dcgame]

I shared a comment yesterday expressing my frustration with some issue about the compiling shaders, and I have to say, I didn't properly expressed how much I am grateful to find such content available for beginners like me... Man you are truly a gem on the internet for proposing such complete and clear tutorials about this program. It can be so overwhelming when you first open up the UE5, even for someone who has some experience in blender, or C4D or other 3D softwares, and to be able to just find 45 minutes content taking you by the hand and explaining to you how it works is just unbelievable. All for free, damn it ! Again, thank you so much for that !

[@sohaibaljarih]

Absolutely one of the best beginners lighting tutorials, very balanced explanation, good tips, and great base for starting in UE5 lighting! Thank you very much!

[@catdavey7879]

love that you even explained how to get the UI to match yours, Its such a simple thing that can make navigating following tutorials so much more difficult for beginners. Thank you!!

[@RwanLink]

Thank you William! This was such a great video to watch and learned new things as well!

[@WilliamFaucher]

Cheers! Thanks for watching!

[@AngryPenguinStudio]

This was pretty good man. I always recommend your work to others as its very clear whats happening. Even myself, 8 years in UE, I used a few tips from this to make some corrections to my own lighting. I generally have overexposure in my scenes due to postprocess and directional lighting (turn my lux way up and my exposure way down). This also is a great way to resolve Niagara issues with PPV and washing out the emissive/exposure. Good work.

[@user-tz4xb5cn7r]

Amazing tutorial, everytime I come back here, learn a lot. Thx!

[@nathali2023]

I LOVEEEE this long format videos! Please keep it up! thank you sooo incredibly much for sharing the quality knowledge on this free platform. Thank you again!

[@felipepitoli]

Simplesmente os melhores tutorias sobre o assunto.

[@tommyg83333333]

18 years in the arch viz industry and I've gotta say your tutorials, method of explanation, articulation and approach to systematic learning is what the industry has been missing all these years. You're one of the only people out there actually taming the beast that is Unreal Engine and making it more approachable to anyone transitioning to it. Great work, thanks.

[@niilokin7280]

Thank you for these tutorials, these are so well made and structured that it’s a pleasure to come back for a refresher.

[@OlliHuttunen78]

This was very good. I'm glad that you do also this kind of tutorials for beginners and explain the basics of the new features like lumen that UE5 offers to us. Thank You William!

[@stuartwilson938]

I'm a professional 3D Artist and this video has demystified Lighting for Games and getting incredible results, thankyou so much for the content you're helping so many people!

[@joaquinotazu8808]

I've been teaching Unreal for almost 8 years at digital universities, and much of what you cover I explain in the same way, which makes me proud of it and a punch of positive reinforcement. You are a great teacher, William!

[@piersie1]

the best tutorials on UE5. So slick, so clear and so well articulated - as ever

[@sergehamel258]

This is a great tutorial. I come from the Unity engine world and I am a complete Unreal Newbie. I watched some of your other tutorials and I learned a lot every time. You turn me into an Unreal addict and a William Faucher subscriber. Thank you so much for sharing this.

[@elvismorellidigitalvisuala6211]

Pure gold.. your channel is pure gold

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thank you so much!

[@Cgspectrum]

🙌 😊 We're Will's biggest fans!

[@WilliamFaucher]

[@paymansalehishafa6884]

I get excited every time you drop a video. Thank you for sharing your knowledge; one of the most noble things one can do for others.

[@Perry-wy2fc]

Excellent tutorial ! all what I need to know for beginning is here! For me, you do the best tutorials about Unreal I've ever watched. Thanks a lot and congratulations !

[@Ferodra]

I love that we currently are in another golden age of computer grpahics~ Seeing this quality of lighting running in realtime and even working with it just blows my mind every time i open Unreal. Your note at 17:25 even just changed my approach to 2D painting, as i've never thought about that and simply used 50% gray until now

[@WilliamFaucher]

Glad to hear it! Yeah the 18% grey thing is super unintuitive but it's part of the secret sauce that comes with understanding how exposure works!

[@Alexander_S_K]

This is an amazingly well-made introduction to lighting Will!

[@kekuncias]

THIS is the video i've been searching for ages to teach me how to properly use lighting in UE5 in my scenes. Thank you so much!

[@AndreiPek]

I've been seeing lots of tutorials online and some different workflows regarding lighting and I'm seeing 2 things that always makes me wonder, 1. Using the default intensity of lights and make crazy tweaks with the camera and exposure compensation. 2. Use the physical value of the light source and the camera. I'm a using the physical measurements of the light and the right camera settings guy but I'm curious why some people use the default measurements of most lights.

[@WilliamFaucher]

It really doesn't matter which you use. You can get identical results using physical values of lights vs default values of lights. It's all about exposure, that's it. In real life, depending on how you expose your camera, you can make a candle look as bright as the sun. Using physical values can help you get in the rough ballpark, but the results won't look "better" or "more realistic" . I prefer working with default values because the physical lux of the sun is 100'000 or so, and it's annoying to work with such huge numbers across multiple lights.

[@sidjum]

Hi William! You are my go-to guy for UE5 issues as I am (at 56 years old) still a 'novice'. I have been working with Unreal now for a while now, but at my age I guess it just goes slower.. :-) Your tutorial do help a lot! --- I do have one question with regards to lightmap density. I import my blender model as FBX and auto generate UV lightmaps and enable nanite. However when I display the light map density (to correct them according to your tutorial) my static models are black. When I disable nanite, they are fine. I use Megascans materials. I have no idea what to do as I have exhausted the internet for this :-) A tutorial on this would be great! All the best from Wales, UK.

[@darthtiberiu5]

Curious how you got on with this issue. I notice a similar thing and that the black disappears if I move the objects away and then back to the same place... bizzare

[@sidjum]

Hi! I will try this as well. My project was on hold for a while but I will check this again in the latest version of UE.

[@bkscribe]

Thanks so much for this, Will! I've been in 3D for a 2.5 decades but am just diving into UE. And you have a nice balance of fundamentals and technical quality settings that have likely spared me hours of troubleshooting. Cheers!

[@mjesensky2760]

Another fantastic tutorial from the lighting and rendering master. As the previous comments say, it truly is full of gold.

[@comunidadecristadelondrina]

Hello William. My name is Marco. I am from Brazil. I want to thank you for your very good lessons! I am learning a lot! And I also would like to know if you can help me with a problem that I am facing. I can not render a png sequence with a pre keyed video from After Effects. I watched a lot of tutorials but I could not solve the problem. Coul you help me? If you can, how could I send some print screens to you? Thank you.

[@osgawtf]

Can you explain a bit more of the problem? I am doing just that with 8k footage imported into a plane in unreal. Maybe I can help. E podes falar portugês comigo ;)

[@comunidadecristadelondrina]

@@osgawtf Thank you! I import the vídeo to Unreal 5 using png files. Than, I follow all the steps: I create a material, use the media player, put It in to a plane and so on. I followed this tutorial: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jYjNnaKPeaiLmpI Before the rendering starts, in the camera view It appears ok, but when I press the buton "render local" to render, the plane gets black. All the rest of the video renders ok, but the plane where I put the video gets black.

[@osgawtf]

@@comunidadecristadelondrina Ok I watxched the video and it seems to be the same workflow I am using currently. From what you are saying it would seem the video just isn't playing. Make sure your media track in sequencer is well setup. Make sure it is sending to the same render target on the plane and that it is opening the same img sequence. Also make sure the sequenmce files arent altered. Make sure the is active is on. You can troubleshoot this in editor by pressing play. Also check your media player settings. You can also try to go to the project settings, search for alpha, And set it to linear color space only. I don't know if it might be that but try it. This is a simple yet hard problem to troubleshoot without knowing the project. Just make sure you have followed the tutorial and maybe ask around in that video comments. This one seems tottally unrealated to your problem.

[@littlearvin1641]

Thank you so much, this tutorial helped a lot. You explained various little shortcuts, all sorts of knowledge, very well!

[@gattomanzo]

My most sincere compliments, this is the best, clearer and most complete tutorial on illumination in Unreal i've ever seen. i will advice it in my classes. thank you very much!😀

[@jimix30]

Not only for beginners ;) This the most comprehensive video about lighting in UE5 I have ever watched! Definitely keeping it in my bookmarks bar until I learn every aspect of it ❤

[@chrisp8225]

Thanks William. Even though you said this was for beginners, having someone explain everything all over again was super helpful. Great video as usual! Really appreciate you taking your time to create these videos!

[@cmdelavega]

Best lighting tutorial I've seen in Unreal! Thank you amigo for the knowledge!

[@TonyCampbell]

Brilliant. Just brilliant. Thank you thank you thank you thank you, WIll. This is one of the best explanations of light I have found and it has made me go back and look at all the recent scenes I have created in a totally new way. The material values for one are a revelation to me. Never even looked at that before - I'm a real noob. Thank you.

[@olugbengamarcus4726]

Very well explained. Watched this video twice and feel like I got lighting in Unreal covered. Incredible job Will!!

[@darthtiberiu5]

Wow. What a well put together tutorial. Thanks so much for this. It has cleared up a lot of confusion and although long, I think you really balanced the content and it was worth every second of time spent watching. Excellent job!!

[@MichaelJordan23]

Man oh man I could watch your videos for days. I really appreciate all your efforts!

[@AmitGinniPatpatia]

It is always interesting to explore how other people do their work and lighting. Thanks for sharing.

[@7bear632]

Amazing tutorial. I cannot say how thankful I am, it's really helpful to understanding lighting.

[@cubrman]

This really opened my eyes, thank you!

[@williammccormick3787]

One of the best tutorials I've ever scene for anything on youtube, thank you

[@FOS4media]

Simple and clear, thanks William

[@occularmalice]

Thank you for this! I'm a developer and not a digital artist so this has *really* helped understanding the tools. I'm slowly building up my videos of cinematic tests and hopefully getting better with each one. Videos like these are vital to helping increase the quality of my content, bit by bit.

[@nanda54321]

Long doesn't feel long when it's helpful and engaging. Thanks Will!

[@williambrandon6575]

This was so good. Thank you so much! I'll be sharing this with my classmates.

[@krisburkegaming720]

Thank you so much for this tutorial. You helped elevate my game scenes on lighting so much. Seriously amazed on what I am able to accomplish now from what I learned in this video. Great job!!

[@user-rz5rh9ex1s]

The BEST lighting tutorial I've ever seen!!

[@currenluna]

This is an incredible tutorial. Thank you for making it!

[@qiushitian]

Thank you so much Will, I got a lot out of this video. It not only introduces the basic information about lighting, but more importantly, it tells us a lot about the problems that we will encounter in the real world and the proven solutions!

[@UsmanHaiderWahla]

Absolutely wonderful tutorial with great explaination of the tools at hand. This demistifies a lot of lighting principles for me and helps me get my head around the basic lighting foundaiton within the engine. I'll be using these lessons for my rendering works from now on and I'll have you to thank for that :)

[@edvinedenhage]

An awesome tutorial! I wish i had found this earlier, it answers so many questions i've had about both UE and Unity. I'll watch many more of your tutorials, after seeing the top quality of this one! ^^

[@TangleWireTube]

I'm so happy I found your channel. You teach exactly what I'm trying to learn in the precise method that I like learning it. As an example, I've taught many of my students about the same concept of middle grey (18%) and explained to them that coal is the least reflective real-world material and snow is the most. Knowing "why" 18% is the middle is so important to understanding. For you to cover those concepts in these tutorials is so appreciated. Thanks so much. Looking forward to watching more of your content.

[@wayne9954]

Insanely good tutorial perfect pace and explanation. Real thankful!

[@cepwin]

Exceptional tutorial....the idea of using colored spheres to help evaluate lighting is an idea that makes this worth watching even without everything else you provided.

[@peterwald9050]

You know iv been at this for quite a few years now. I must say your videos i always get to learn something new. Highly appreciate it.

[@alex630710]

Thanks a lot William, you re an amazing teacher, a natural on top of being a fantastic artist. Bless you for sharing your knowledge with the rest of us. Many thanks.

[@phader83022]

Even though I'm working with UE for a few years now, I learned a lot of new stuff in this video. Very clear and well explained. Thanks a lot for sharing!

[@lilsquirt9889]

Another awesome and well explained tutorial man! Keep it up! We need you!

[@pikachufan25]

Just Starting out Unreal Engine - Scrolling Trough the the Beginner side of Unreal 5. and this is the first video i watch... this is a Great introduction to not only Unreal Engine 5 but also Lighting in General. thanks for Sharing the info mate!

[@justpeachyrl]

Thank you so much for this video. This is my first video I have seen of yours, but it is clear you have some incredible experience and are an amazing teacher. Thank you for sharing your wisdom with us

[@AlqueMeteor]

Thank you Master!! your knowledge in Unreal Lighting in invaluable!

[@agliovestito8809]

Amazing tutorial! I think its the best tutorial i found so far on lighting. Bravissimo

[@yar3613]

the best tutorial about light i have ever seen. Thanks

[@MarioOrlando2000]

This is fantastic. Thank you so much. I’m learning Unreal and this was so helpful to understand lighting better.

[@MadeByVince]

Amazing explanations. When I start to work on lighting that is usually where everything falls appart and look terrible. A quick test on an older project converted to 5.1, deleting all lights and following along with your explanation and... boom... wow... oh my gosh... Soooooo much better in such a small amount of times and clicks. You are an absolute rock star! Thank you, thank you and thank you again!!!

[@im4999]

This is great. I am only few weeks away from submitting my project and I am struggling a bit with low light interior scene (only source is directional light, throught holes in the roof). These tips about material value affecting indirect lighting and many more helped a lot. I just wanted to say thank you Mr Faucher.

[@eliosaleh9492]

you sir deserve a medal! after years of trying to understand things in unreal engine , you come and ease it out for us! new subscriber right here ! and back on track in unreal engine ! love you're content man ! keep it up !

[@MatthewGDunlap]

Very comprehensive and useful for beginners. Thank you.

[@erdbeerbus]

your tipp at 15min is the best thing I ever get relating lights in UE. thumbs up!

[@sosangart]

thank for sharing! this tutorial i have looking for! it will bring me to the next level of my basic lighting knowledge.

[@spark1AE]

Bro, thank you for demystifying the secrets of lighting and the pro tips on how to use lumen. You are a fantastic resource, TY!

[@mahruf_kabir]

Thank you Will ! This is super helpful. Straight forward and to the point. Much appreciated.

[@adamplechaty]

This is your best piece yet William, thank you!

[@durrr123]

William I wonder if you have any idea how much you're advancing peoples' careers. Your work is SO helpful and SO impactful. You are an invaluable resource, thank you!

[@alexvlair9290]

Man, these videos are so slick. As if the quality of the content wasn't enough, the presentation is also beautiful. Impressive work