UDK Lighting Feedback

[blazed]

Hey peeps,

I've come back to one of my scenes here, trying to redo the lighting as it was criticized last time. I'm quite a newb in lighting even more so doing it in UDK, so been playing around with the lighting for a few hours while refreshing my memory.

I think it's better already, would love to hear how someone could improve the lighting even more for this with some tips.

(top image is the updated version)

http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/5169/lighting001.jpg

UPDATE FOR EASIER COMPARISON
http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/6675/dormroom.jpg

[SINtuition]

Can't see the image.

[blazed]

Was working in Firefox, but not IE, anyway uploaded it on imageshack instead should be working now.

[Habboi]

Its a bit better but the first initial impression is the flatness of the scene. It seems to lack some nice thick shadows that a spotlight would cast. I have spent the last 10 years of my life in this computer room in the dark with just a spotlight and I can tell you the shadows it casts are very strong.

So my advice is to do two things. If the actual lighting "style" isn't important then darken it and make the little lamp at the back the main focus of light. It'll create some fantastic shadows and a nice focus piece to draw the eyes.

I'd also work on making some of the props a little more shiny. The table especially.

Finally a non lighting critique is the wallpaper. It's very blotchy and reminds me of a low res AO bake. As for fixing that...I'd probably apply a pattern or if that's not acceptable find out what is causing the weird noise. It's probably UDK's dynamic AO mixed with screen effect filters.

The best way to describe it is it's like looking at a default 3DS Max scanline render rather than UDK. You really need to experiment with shaders and get the scene looking more "oomph" and less flat.

Hope that weird description helps.

[blazed]

Hi,

I got back to this again, thanks Habboi for your lovely detailed crit! I have took a lot onboard.

I did try to make objects more shiny but that kind of became pointless as I darken the room a lot.

The blotchy stains are actually a detailed normal map of paint splatter/bumps that you would get normally on flat painted walls, it looks good upclose but does seem blotchy from distance as the detail gets noise, I have however left that alone.

Here is an update, I am loving it to be honset so thanks for the crits, I wonder if anyone else can share tips and tricks to push it even further???

I know the objects of the scene are basic we were aiming for a large amount of PC gamers with medium spec in mind so obviously we didn't go for a Next Gen AAA assets. I do NOT wish to redo the assets just turn the scene into a more acceptable portfolio piece. I am planning on adding a few more clutter objects into the room once lighting is done.

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/6675/dormroom.jpg

[ScottP]

I think that is alot better personally.

[Ark]

Scene looks way to bright, unless that desk lamp has a 1000 watt bulb in it. :D Use some negative lights to darken and add variation in the shading where the light isn't as dominant.
Id remove the curtain from the window and use that as a source to add some cool blue light coming in and get more colour variation.

[blazed]

Hi Ark,

I was playing with the bloom effects and I lighten the room up so objects were still visible.

The window is not really there, its an illusion but it is suppose to be just off screen to the left of the curtain, I put a pointlight there with dark blue/navy colour which you can see effecting the fridge side and the right side of the room.

Could you expand on the negative lighting to add variation, that idea sounds very interesting. Thanks for the tips.

[Ark]

Negative lights basically drain light as apposed adding light to a scene. You could place some in the darkest areas of the scene to get more shading gradation in the shadowed areas of the scene.
You basically just invert the brightness multiplier on the light.

Another way to light your scene would be the use of off-screen lighting, excuse the crappy paintover, this was just to get the general point across:

http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/6675/dormroom.jpg

You could even add a silhouette in the doorway to get some visual interest in the lighting.

[blazed]

Thanks mate, I will look into it and experiment when I get some time!

[blazed]

Ark, the Negative lighting is not working in UDK for some reason it is not affecting the BSP objects (Wall, ceiling and floor) it is also a very confusing as the colour slot effects the lighting rather then directly reducing the lighting, googling UDK negative lighting gives no information. Do you know how to fix this problem?

I may try to combine an off screen lighting with the lamp lighting and see if it looks any good, otherwise I'm just going to darken the whole scene by reducing lamp brightness.

[blazed]

So after more experimenting with the light and some technical issues I decided I quite like the original one I made so I just focused on darken up the lighting.

Which do you guys recon is possible the better looking?

Darkned+Photoshop Tweak:
http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/615/photoshopw.jpg
Darkned Only:
http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/8936/darker.jpg
Original:
http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/6675/dormroom.jpg

[CrackRockSteady]

I think the first one is a bit too dark for me, it's difficult to see a lot of the image. The other two both look very nice, one just has a warmer feel than the other. Personally I like the Original better, but I think you would be fine with either Original or Darkened Only.