The Art of Lighting for Games

A 10-week course introducing students to the science and art of lighting

OVERVIEW

INSTRUCTORS

GALLERY

COURSE OVERVIEW

Understanding light for digital environments

This course will demonstrate a practical approach to in-game/real-time lighting within the context of a production pipeline. We will be working in Unreal Engine, as it is an easily accessible platform, but the workflow and techniques will be presented in as much of a software-agnostic format as possible. This is because many studios use either proprietary or heavily modified engines that are unique or exclusive to that studio’s pipeline. These techniques will apply to any contemporary pipeline. The course will guide students through weekly examinations of different lighting scenarios, environments, and gameplay styles. The instructor will demonstrate his own lighting approach, and the workflow that he uses to get them from a conceptual state to a working playable level. All necessary scene files for each week will be provided.

Course Format:

Standard

Duration:

10 weeks

Materials:

Maya (or equivalent), Unreal Engine

Lecture Type:

Pre-recorded

Assignment:

Deadlines each week

Skills Level:

Intermediate

Feedback:

Individual recordings

Q&A:

Once a week

Prerequisites:

Knowledge of Maya (or equivalent 3D software) and Unreal Engine

Course Format:

Standard

Duration:

10 weeks

Materials:

Maya (or equivalent), Unreal Engine

Lecture Type:

Pre-recorded

Assignment:

Deadlines each week

Skills Level:

Intermediate

Feedback:

Individual recordings

Q&A:

Once a week

Prerequisites:

Knowledge of Maya (or equivalent 3D software) and Unreal Engine

Course Format:

Standard

Duration:

10 weeks

Materials:

Maya (or equivalent), Unreal Engine

Lecture Type:

Pre-recorded

Assignment:

Deadlines each week

Skills Level:

Intermediate

Feedback:

Individual recordings

Q&A:

Once a week

Prerequisites:

Knowledge of Maya (or equivalent 3D software) and Unreal Engine

COURSE OVERVIEW

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN

EXPAND ALL COLLAPSE ALL

The more you know, the better.

Week 1 | Exterior Environment 1

Week 2 | Exterior Environment 2

Understanding HDR values | Understanding post processing | Working with fog and exposure | Learning to look for separation of foreground and background elements | Setting up a different time of day

Week 3 | Interior Environment 1

Week 4 | Interior Environment 2

Basic light budgeting | Visual language (cont.) | Emissives | IES profiles | Spherical harmonics

Week 5 | RTS

This class will examine a top-down real time strategy environment. (i.e. League of Legends). We will use tools and concepts learned in previous projects and apply them to the needs and requirements of this platform. | Player pathing | Visual language | Effect light contribution

Week 6 | MP vs. SP

Character visibility | Post processing: character rim lighting | Considering performance

Week 7 | Cut-Scenes: Environment Lighting

Working with an interior environment | Lighting the scene for a fixed or limited camera perspective | Considering special cases: dynamic conditions, moving platforms, scripted lights | Working with post-processing

Week 8 | Cut-Scenes: Character Lighting

Working with a 3-point light rig | Determining readability | Integrating the characters with the background lighting

Week 9 | Final Project

Putting together a final level with interior and exterior areas | Polish the level | Color grading | Post processing: volumetrics and auto exposure

Week 10 | Final Project (continued)

Discussing performance | Discussing PBR | Expectations of a professional work environment

The Art of Lighting for Games

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN

Instructor

Your journey starts here

Ana Belén Hernández

/Shapefarm

LECTURES BY Omar Gatica

As an architect, she was always intrigued by the relation between light and space. She decided to improve her 3d skills and learn about real-time rendering. Video games and Unreal Engine gave her the tools to develop her career and supplement her profile and skills. Once she started working on art for video games she, immediately, fell in love with lighting and the immense influence light has on a scene. Constantly on the lookout for new tools and techniques, she is eager to explore what the future holds for lighting art. Previously, she worked as a lighting artist at Ubisoft, being part of the production of AAA games working on titles such as :The Division 2" and "Assassin's Creed: Valhalla." Nowadays she is a Senior Lighting artist with Shapfarm.

INSTRUCTOR'S GALLERY:

REQUEST SYLLABUS

STUDENT GALLERY

Andrii Smyshliaievart

Eddie Pedro

Bruno Fontan

Brandon Booth

Andrii Smyshliaievart

Jon Perez

Adam Alexander

The Art of Lighting for Games

Student Gallery

STUDENT INTERVIEWS

Lighting for Video Games

Interview with Adam Alexander

Lighting for Video Games

Interview with Adam Alexander

The Art of Lighting & Self-Education

Interview with Artem Filippov

The Art of Lighting & Self-Education

Interview with Artem Filippov

A Look into Lighting for Games

Interview with Bruno Fontan

A Look into Lighting for Games

Interview with Bruno Fontan

UE4 Lighting Production Breakdown

Interview with John Griffiths

UE4 Lighting Production Breakdown

Interview with John Griffiths

SUMMER TERM REGISTRATION

Apr 29, 2021 - Jul 19, 2021

ONLY

$998

COURSE BEGINS

July 13th

PRICING SCHEDULE

Even though our courses are the most affordable for the quality of education.

These FINANCE OPTIONS allow you to focus on your goals instead of the barriers that keep you from reaching them.

EMPLOYER
REIMBURSEMENT

ANIMATION GUILD
CSATTF

PAYMENT
PLAN

”

John Griffiths

Omar is a superb artist and teacher. His lectures and feedback were easy to follow and helped to highlight areas of weakness in a submission. Omar showed us multiple ways to tackle lighting in different environments, the maths behind it, and tools to achieve results. It is a great course for anyone who wants to find their feet in the area but also pushes them to try new workflows and experiment.

”

Daniel Huddleston

The course completely changed how I approach lighting! Calibrating skies, exposure, and lights for physically accurate values was a game changer.. I feel like this class gave me a foundation of knowledge which I can use to light any scene.

”

Gina Levy

I knew the basics about the sun, point lights, spotlights, and CLUT. But to actually learn how to calibrate the sky, and go deeper into the post processing was really helpful in making my lighting pop. It really helped me think like a Lighting Artist and what steps I need to do and how to debug my lights.

”

Yaroslav Nykyforuk

For me, course helped to break down lighting porocess into steps (it is obvious, but i didn’t think about ‘blocking out’ in terms of lighting previously), showed me how to approach it and where to start. Also it made me aware of aspects to keep an eye on, while going through previously mentioned process. Things like phisycal correctness of a sky and sun, and more artistic like accenting on some areas, simply with for e.x. pockets of light and shadow.

COMPANIES THAT HIRE OUR STUDENTS