Hi guys. I'm working on this small scene. I'm not happy with the night-lit version at the moment because it's a vacated slum, so I know there wouldn't be street lights and things like that. I was hoping you guys might be able to give me some suggestions for lighting this night shot?

I'm fairly new to UDK, but I'm still open to any suggestions.





Thanks,

Chris Bush.

For the night shot I would add burning barrels to be your main light sources. Maybe you could play with the idea of it being fought over by various gangs or something like that. Add lots more debris overall because the small details really create a sense of realism. You also want lots more contrast overall in the night scene. So really push the dark areas and play with shadow surrounding your focal points.

Thanks for the reply marq4. And the suggestions. I'm on to it!

Yes burning barrels is a good idea. You need to add some fog too man!

I really like the look of this. I think the streets are a little clean though, some debris would help. Also, the car scale seems a little off from this view, I could be wrong (it is hard to tell from this far away) but they seem a little small.

The resemblance is uncanny

Thanks for all your suggestions. I've tried to get a bit of everything suggested back into this. The debris and fog were definitely needed, I couldn't imagine it without them now. Also, the cars were off by quite a lot actually. It's not until I looked a my reference images in detail that I noticed how small they had become. What do you guys think of it now?

Looking good man! Much better.. especially liking the assets.

There's a strange line just past the second car, I think it may be the start of the fog? This is quite noticeable. Also, you've got rid of the emissive lighting on the SANYO sign?

Really like this man! Can't wait to see it finished.

Very strange seeing this when I see it all the time with living in London!

Maybe you could add the tube sign snapped off and on the floor? That would look pretty badass! Like this:

Yeah I forgot to mention the fog issue. The height fog looks fine in-game, but when I render benchmark X2 size, it creates this horrible divide... Any ideas?

I made the decision to remove the emissive light because the environment is a slum/post-revolution theme. I doubt a place like that would have proper running electricity.

are you taking screenshots with tiledshot? also you really should do something about the sky in both shots, the day is too bright and the night is a little bright and the city doesnt have enough contrast like a city at night. Both night and day could be more focused on the main building front with a few tweaks. Hope you dont mind I did a bit of a rough paintover to show you what I mean.

what I did.
1. added new skies to both.
2. dayscene - added a little more fog to buildings in background of scene.
3. dayscene - added more contrast to revolt building to create more of a focus.
4. nightscene - darkened the background buildings a little and tinted them to match the sky. eg a dark fog. also focused the composition more by having the lighting and contrast on the main building and everything else more subdued in colour and saturation.

just some ideas. you could also slap on a little post processing to add extra colour and if you really want to add more life to the night scene then have a few lights on in the windows in the background.

Dat paintover... do it!

Thanks Ged for the paint-over, much appreciated. I'll definitely tweak the lighting, fog and sky some more.

I'm actually saving out the shots as a movie dump. A few pans for my showreel. It seems like the height falloff doesn't seem to be taking any effect on the fog.

I'll post back soon with updates.

Thanks for the comments and critique everyone.

Here's an updated version of the night shot.

Thanks for the help, all your advice, it has been really helpful.

looks nice.

definitely improved, you could have a little more lighting spreading onto the scaffolding area just to show off your work.

Nice update, looking great. You could add another burning barrel somewhere in the background and get some nice silhouette shapes from the scaffolding and get a little light in the background. Also, the light looks slightly blown out around the burning barrel in the foreground. The area where the light is hitting the scaffolding looks awesome.

I like the changes but I still want to see some more red in the lower atmosphere. It made it feel like the city was burning.

I agree with all the recent crits, but in general I definitely love the changes you made to your night scene. Now it is finally looking like a night scene! Before it was a little too bright all around, kinda still day-looking. Awesome! :]