If you are looking to grow and learn lighting for Unreal the new course teaches you how to analyse material, edit the materials in photoshop, make needed adjustment in this free asset we use and follow PBR Lighting using Exposure workflow. Further more it elevates your technical skills and improves your artistic skills to a higher level. Since people can afford different things we have different packages, pricing and bundles according to your needs.

The offer and packages varies regularly so it is a good idea to check by monthly. 

https://courses.lightingbot.com/

And a reminder. It cost you nothing to join the community and discord. Obviously you do not get the same level of help, feedback, structure, support or exclusive mentorship. Everyone is busy so the quality and intensity varies when doing things for free.

Hello,

Last year I started Lighting Bot a community for Lighting Oriented things such as vfx, compositing, lighting, and look development. It also includes other topics such as cinematography, photography, painting and so on. We provide interviews, insight, tutorials, reviews and feedback for free. We also have advance services for mentorship, coaching and tutorials that are for more serious people. Below are some random interviews done so far starting mid year last year, as in 2021. Stop by youtube channel for more. It is arguable one of the largest Lighting Artist community with regular content for free and paid mentorship to fast track your career. Hopefully you get something out of the time, energy and commitment that is going into these videos. There are some recruitment agency related video to help with finding work etc.

Due to increase focus on Lighting Bot community https://discord.gg/cadDwWEDTn I don't have much time to light for myself. So I figured I need to schedule in some, before bed time. It is not perfect or great enough to be in the portfolio obviously. But, it might be a good base and foundation for something in the long run. Lighting Sketches are good way to practice something quickly be it color combination, value or something technical.

It uses key light in the tube, secondary key light behind to create contrast color, third focus light on the robot and some tiny lights near the sparks just to give it some shape quickly. Leave a like and comment if you like it.

Lighting Challenge done in Unreal Engine where environment is sponsored by Dekogen Studios for the Lighting Bot Community.

Judges

Clinton Crumpler, CEO from Dekogen Studio who is also a talented artist.
Maria Yue, Principal Lighting Artist at Splash Damage who is also amazing educator at Vertex School and run her own Discord at Maria & Lightbulbs.
Michael Tanzillo at Substance by Adobe who is also amazing Lighting Artist earlier from Blue Sky Studios and also teaches at Academy of Animated Art whom have their own Discord. (Watch his Lighting Bot interview)
Ana Belén Hernández, Senior Lighting Artist at Shapefarm, Amazing Instructor at CG Master Academy aka CGMA and runs her own Discord Red Pandas (Watch her Lighting Bot interview)
María Valle, Lead Lighting and Compositing Artist at Axis Studios, earlier as Lighting TD at DNEG and Lighting Artist at CNEG. (Watch her Lighting Bot interview)
Sourabh Hamigi, Technical Lighting Artist at Turn 10 Studios, earlier at Dead Thread Games and Warner Bros Games. (Watch his Lighting Bot interview)

Join here and let us know if you want to try and join https://discord.gg/hzyCMYpVbg

Original Interview Article here

Yury Vorobyev a Lighting Artist at Sperasoft

Explain your role as if I have zero knowledge about it?

Basically my job it to setup the lights for the game cutscenes and levels. So that player does not get lost at the level and has an idea of what is important in the environment. With the help of lighting I also set the mood of the scene, atmosphere, post process, color grading, etc. I usually start a lighting level when there are only greymeshes from the level designers. And continue my work on improving and optimizing the lighting through all environment art stages.

Breakdown your average day at work?

My average work day starts around 9-10 AM with e-mail checking, engine and content update. Checking new bugs/tasks and assigning them to the right person. After that I work on my usual lighting tasks and check to see if everything is in order and nothing is broken, which requires immediate action. Several days a week we hold team meetings for synchronization between departments; also lighting feedback sessions and once a month 1:1 with lighting team members

What was your educational and career journey into this role?

 I started to learn 3d back in high school. I had a tutorial on CD disk on how to model Ford Mustang in 3Ds Max. I loved it so much that I kept practicing and modeling other things.

At first I didn’t think that I would become a 3d artist or lighting artist. I wanted to be a programmer so i studied at the university as a programmer. In my third year at university I was lucky enough to get a job as a 3D Artist. It was more like technical modeling of ship equipment from blueprints rather than game models. From that moment on, I started making game props for the experience and adding them to my portfolio.

In 2016 I finished internship for 3D Artists at Sperasoft and got my first game dev job as a Junior 3d Artist. After a while I switched to another job and worked on Escape from Tarkov as a 3D Artist. After another year I returned to Sperasoft as a Level Artist and worked on Overkill’s The Walking Dead.

After that I realized that I love lighting art and want to light levels. Fortunately, there was an opportunity to become a lighting artist on Saint's Row The Third Remastered. So I’m started to ramp up to a lighting artist, watch and read a lot of videos on this topic. My art director helped me a lot in my growth and still helps.

So after a few courses in lighting, a lot of personal re-lights, big amount of professional work, I’ve recently been promoted to Senior Lighting Artist.

What is your most favourite thing with your role?

The best thing about lighting art for me is that the player will see my work. I have the ability to influence mood, feeling of level and how it plays. I have a certain amount of creative freedom and a great team.

What is the hardest part with your role?

 The Hardest part for me is when I start lighting new level. It can be a bit tough to get started on such a voluminous work. For me the solution in this situation is just to start no matter what.

Since I’m introvert and my role sometimes requires a lot of communication it can be exhausting but I’m learning to deal with it.

 Also, the technical limitations of the engine can sometimes be very difficult. But this is the life of a lighting artist

What are the important skills to do your role?

Ability to know how to make environment looks great with minimum cost. If you know how to do it in general you can mimic it any engine you working in.   

Understand how light works in real life with all bounces, material response, etc. Real-time engines have a lot of limitations. But as a lighting artist you can get around them and fake a lot if you know how light works.

Know the difference between lighting for single player and multiplayer. For example in multiplayer you need to light the level so that enemies are clearly visible and there are no super dark areas.

Trained eye to detect lighting bugs. Also it’s the biggest curse when you play games. You see lighting bugs everywhere and can’t unsee them

Communication. It’s crucial to clearly understand what art directors want from you, and deliver clear feedback to your team.

What is the difference between Junior Lighting Artist, Mid Level Lighting Artist and Senior Lighting Artist according to you?

As you move from Junior to Senior artist role you gain more creative freedom. But with freedom there is also more responsibility. Senior/Lead lighting artist responsible for overall level look from lighting point of view, communication with art directors, discipline leads and clients. Also as a senior artist it’s important to interact with your team. Keep them motivated, know their strengths and weaknesses, help them grow.

With Junior artists you need to invest more time in them. They have less experience and you need to show them how to make their part of the level beautiful as well as optimized. Juniors require more feedbacks and control over their work. Even on the junior lighting artist stage it’s important to communicate with other disciplines such as level designers, fx artists, environment artists, tech artists, etc. to deliver great work

Middle lighting artists usually ready to deliver their work with lesser or even without feedbacks. They are also capable to transfer their knowledge and experience to younger artists.

What can someone do to improve their lighting without sitting in-front of the PC?

Go for a walk. Especially in the morning or evening. See how light works in real life and get inspiration from it. Take some photos of beautiful lighting, even mobile phone will do.

If you were doing an interview to recruit a lighting artist, what are the things you would look for in your colleague?

Before interviewing potential candidate I usually check his/her portfolio and choose one of the latest works and one of the earliest works to talk in the interview.

While talking about recent portfolio piece I just ask to tell how it was done from lighting art point of view, what was the main idea, what difficulties arose and extra 1-2 questions about specific details in scene or how to change them. It helps me to understand knowledge level, creativity and how good this person can handle difficulties.

And for the older work I ask to tell what would he/she made differently. Since a lot of time has passed these shows me how much this person has learned during this period and how critical looks at earlier works.

 Also very important point is soft skills. How comfortable it is to communicate with a person, how well perceives feedback, how motivated

If you could go back in time, what would you do differently or tell yourself in this context?

Learn more about art (color theory, composition etc.) back in school and university. Practice in drawing and photography. Learn English better.  And don’t be afraid to risk and change something in your life/career.

What are your recommended articles or videos to help someone get started with this role?

First of all it’s unreal lighting academy https://www.youtube.com/user/51Daedalus and polygon academy https://www.youtube.com/c/PolygonAcademy because there is not only artistic knowledge but also some technical tips and tricks that will help you better understand the engine and what you can achieve with it

CGMA lighting course are great. You can have a valuable feedback from professional artist regarding your works and do couple relights https://www.cgmasteracademy.com/courses/50-the-art-of-lighting-for-games/

Beyond that I would suggest checking lighting artists interviews, to have knowledge about industry. Read something about color theory, composition and practice practice practice.

Original Interview Article here

Lighting Bot Discord Community

Lighting Bot Youtube Channel

Full interview with pictures etc here

Explain your role as if I have zero knowledge about it?

Lighting Art is a range of multiple specialities, from cinematics to gameplay, skies, technical
lighting art, scripting etc… Lighting for games is not only placing lights in the environment but
also setting the mood, post process, fog, optimization… When Environment artists and Level
designers have a first layout of the map, Lighting artists kick in and make sure the level is lit
so it’s easier for everyone to test. Same for cinematics, when the animations and camera are
ready Lighting artists can start a first pass of Lighting to set the mood. Cinematics are more
complicated than it looks like, lights around characters are not “real”, fake lights are placed
at specific spots to amplify the drama but it must look natural: the transition between the
cinematic and game must be smooth. Lighting is used as gameplay too, for example during
a boss fight, the lighting can indicate the states of enemies or the Lighting scenario can
change if the boss is low hp. These are just examples of tasks Lighting artists do, there are
many more and it can be very specialized. Pipeline, engine, workflow are different
depending on companies so it’s difficult to describe how a Lighting Artist works in a day.
Lighting and VFX are the cherry on top of Environment Art. I personally specialized in
Gameplay Lighting

Breakdown your average day at work?

I start in the morning by just updating the project I am working on,checking messages,
e-mails… Then I work on my tasks and sometimes we have Daily meetings, Lighting
reviews, sync with other departments… And at the end of the day I write everything I need to
do the day after in case I forget something.
I used to work in an office and like many people this year I am working from home. It’s easy
to lose sense of time and overwork. It’s important to have breaks, have coffee, stretch up!
Daily meetings are good ways to have social interactions once a day, talk about everything
(not work only). The transition between working in an office and at home has been rough but
I really enjoy it now, it’s been around 2 years.

What was your educational and career journey into this role?

I have a pretty “normal” path: I started after middle school, I knew I wanted to do Art but had
little knowledge of Artistic jobs. I decided to go to High school (generalist) and during these
years I was thinking of what I really wanted to do. My first year of Uni was a Generalist Art
school where I learned 3D and Fine Art. I really enjoyed 3D so after this year I decided to
specialize in Real-time 3D for Games! I spent 5 years studying Game art and I’ve been
super lucky to have landed at a Video games studio right after. My first ever experience was
in 2017 as a 3D/2D Game Artist intern, in 2018 I got another internship as a 3D Artist and in
2019 was my first Lighting job. My first introduction to Lighting was at school, I did Lighting
because I had to, I didn't understand what I was doing (and didn’t really like it to be honest)
but it all changed after my internship in 2018 when I met my mentor. I had to do the lighting
of a small environment and my mentor took time to explain everything. I realized I really liked
this task and started to do Lighting on my spare time. I started looking for a Lighting job at
this time and I found one in 2019!

How was your journey from a gender point of view or ethnical point of view?

I have seen a lot of debates around hiring more people from minorities. In my opinion, skills
are important but not only. It is also important to hire people who are great colleagues that
you can trust and are hardworking. Open-minded people are the best people to work with
from my experience because they have compassion for others. Nowadays there is a hugerange of people who play games, and I do believe that if a game is made for those people by
people from all around the world, it will bring something to the game. I would love to see
more people from minorities so they can bring knowledge and awareness to some subjects
that others might not know because of cultural differences.
I am lucky I never had any issues with being a woman and being part of API which doesn’t
mean sexism doesn’t exist, good and bad experiences happen and companies should make
efforts to support minorities. As individuals we can try to make the world a bit better too with
small actions such as calling out when someone shows disrespect, educating others or
giving a helpful hand to colleagues who seem to struggle. It might not seem impactful but
showing kindness can really change a person’s day.

What is your most favourite thing with your role?

Collaborating with Environment Artists, VFX Artists and Level Designers. It has always been
a pleasure to work with the other departments. I feel like when we work together I always
learn something which is not necessarily related to Lighting but just listening to other people
brings knowledge and you can understand their job better, which kinda makes you a better
Artist. I have learnt so much from Artists and Programmers, I have a better understanding of
what Designers and Producers do. I love listening and sharing, asking questions and taking
time to explain how Lighting works to others.

What is the hardest part with your role?

Finding compromises between Design and Art, obviously artists want the game to look good
but in games, gameplay is the most important so you have to find ways to please both sides.
We also experience a lot of bugs, performance limits and as Lighting is usually at the end of
the pipeline we have to do our best to optimize. Optimization takes a long time but is needed
so everyone can enjoy the game!
As an Artist it’s always difficult to find long-term motivation working on personal projects,
especially when you have a job. Personal projects don’t need to be Real-time Lighting in my
opinion but anything which can make you feel better and grow as an Artist.

What are the important skills to do your role?

Having a good understanding of Real-time engines is really important to me, especially when
doing Gameplay Lighting. Having a good eye to spot bugs and understand them, having a
creative mind to find ideas of interesting and dramatic lighting. It’s easy to run out of ideas,
Lighting artists always try to give an identity to each environment. Having a good film culture
and basic photography knowledge is a must when doing cinematics as composition is key.

If you could go back in time what would you do differently?

Learn more about Lighting when I was at school. At Uni I only learned 3D, 2D and
Animation, I didn’t know Lighting was a specialty. I got interested in Lighting very late, at the
end of Uni and during my internship. I wish I knew more about all the amazing jobs in Video
games before! I was focused on modeling on 3DS max/Zbrush. I should have spent more
time on Real-time engines, learn more about how to make a game. I wasn’t aware of how
difficult it is to break into the game industry, I didn’t really know what I wanted to be, didn’t
have any goals either, I guess I was just happy to make games. I think schools should teach
students how to look for a job, and all the different specialities.

What are your recommended articles or videos to help someone get started with this
role?

80 lvl articles https://80.lv/articles/lighting/
Youtube channels: https://www.youtube.com/user/51Daedalus/videos and
https://www.youtube.com/c/KemalG%C3%BCnel/videos
EXP tutorials: https://www.exp-points.com/exp-tutorials-learning
Portfolio tips for Lighting:
Quality > Quantity. If you want to be a Lighting Artist focus your portfolio on Lighting
(Relighting) and remove (or keep only the best best) everything else. Be creative, a lot of
other people do Relightings, try to find your style, do what you like!

Do you want to provide some breakdown or information that is practical for one of
your portfolio pieces?

When I do Real-time Lighting personal projects I like doing what I’m not used to at work. I
really take my time, working on weekends for a few hours, I prefer short projects as we
improve quickly. I experiment, try different lighting scenarios, spend more time on color
grading, cameras...

Full Interview with pictures here

Her Artstation her

Discord Lighting Bot Community here

*Original post link at bottom for pictures and videos

Lighting Artist - Preet Chauhan at DNEG

Explain your role as if I have zero knowledge about it?

As I have joined a VFX industry, My role as a lighting TD is to enhance the mood of a scene technically as well as artistically. I have to create required lights in a 3D software to match the lighting of a raw footage. Lighting for a VFX shots need to be done not to make a scene look better but to mix a CG element with a raw footage in such a way so that no one can tell if it's a CG or real. I have to match each elements such as light direction, relections, shadows, colors, intensity of lights and almost everything. As a Lighting TD I also have to make sure that the materials on the CG objects are as accurate as possible and are reacting properly to the lights. Once I have done with the lighting I have to Precomp to check if the lighting matches with the raw footage and if it fits well.

Breakdown your average day at work?

I start my work at 11:00 am and set the priority of the shots which is more urgent. This helps me to work efficiently and smoothly. Once I recieve the shot I have to check if everything is proper and in place as in the reference. Once everything is fine I start wiht the actual lighting. If there is something missing or something is not right I try to fix it but if there is anything major I usually ask my lead for help, I don't take too much time to fix it myself as it may affect the deadline. The lead may already have the solution so it's better to ask for help rather than fixing it myself so the workflow runs smoother. I have just recently joined DNEG so I can say that I don't get many shots to work with. Once I am done with the lighting I have to check all the render passes, layer, render settings, output paths then I render it on render farm. Then I have to precomp it to make sure itmatches with the raw footage and then I send my shots for approval. Once approved, I can pass my shots to compositing department.

What was your educational and career journey into this role?

I did commerce after my 10th standard from Thakur college, Mumbai and I was unsure of what I am going to  do. Then I decided that I'll do Architecture studies, I also did some online courses and also did the Autocad training but then I realised that this is too technical. So finally I heard about the VFX industry then I took advice about the carrer opportunities in this industry from many people then I finally decided that I'll do this. After my decision I did Bsc. in animation and VFX from Thakur toonskool advanced animation academy, Mumbai. In the first year we were thaught all the basics and fundamentals of a CG industry. It was a really important year. That year helped me boost my Learning skill. No one can stop you from learning if you know the fundamentals. On the very first day of our lighting training, I decided that the lighting is the best skill for me. Many people thinks we must have a degree to get a job in this industry but it's not the 100% truth. I think technical skills and good ethics are enough to survive almost any industry. But I think if the artist plans to work abroad They may need to have a degree not that's not a primary necessity. I got the job after almost 6-7 months after graduation due to the lockdown. There were very less opportunities. I then started working as a Junior lighting artist in KARCO animation studios. I worked there for 2 and half months then I got the opportunity to work with one of the largest VFX studios in the world 'Double Negative'. I was really excited to work here. Now its almost a month after I joined 'DNEG'.

What is your most favourite thing with your role?

think the ability to decide the final look of a shot is the best thing I like about my role. The overall look of a scene depends on a lighting artist. Lighting artists have a great responsibility to give justice to the models created by modellers.

What is the hardest part with your role?

The hardest part of my role is working hours as lighting stage almost falls under Post production so we have a tight deadline and also Rendering takes a lot of time and if we got any changes then again we have to tweak accordingly and render it again. But it's fine if I enjoy the work.

What are the important skills to do your role?

Lighting is more complex than everyone thinks it is. I think the most important skill as a Lighting artist in VFX industry is to achieve realism and match lighting to a reference or mixing it to a raw footage. A good understanding of colors, PBR workflow, Principles of lighting and compositing are also very important skills to have.

If you could go back in time what would you do differently?

If I could go back in time I would again choose lighting and look development as an option because I am very much attracted to my role.

What are your recommended articles or videos to help someone get started with this role?

To get started as a lighting artist one of the most important thing is to understand the scientific and artistic theory of Lighting, There are thousands of videos on youtube which talks about these. I think youtube is one of the best platform to learn. There is a channel named 'Ross Baxter', This guy has many podcasts with junior to lead artists not only for lighting but also about environment artist, and many more. I always listen to these podcasts while I am working. This is highly recommended by me as it will improve the understanding of art, current situation of our industry, experiences of various artist from all over the world. I usually take inspirations from art station, cg society and also rookies is a very good plaatform for inspirations and uploading artworks. They have many weekly contests mostly from students. It is really a great place to improve the skills.

The original post with picture and videos here

His Linkedin here

Lighting Bot Discord Community here

(Scroll down for full interview with images/videos and all)

Explain your role as if I have zero knowledge about it?

I always find it difficult to answer this question because there’s so many different facets to lighting, depending on what project you are working on but to me, a Lighting Artist is someone who is essentially in charge of setting the tone. Using a variety of tools including lighting, colour grading and post-processing – it’s their job to guide the player through a level, leave some narrative clues, evoke a certain mood, just make the environment look prettier or any mix of those.

The hard part is when all of those aspects come to together and cross-over. It’s about balancing the artistic side of lighting but staying within a pesky memory budget!

Breakdown your average day at work?

Without getting into too much detail, my day consists of cinematic and environment lighting.

My preferred workflow is flip from scene to scene where possible – I don’t like to stagnate as I find it easier to be creative when I have variety in the tasks I’m currently working on.

What was your educational and career journey into this role?

So, I studied Game (Art) Design at Sheffield Hallam University – focusing on Environment Art (lighting artists weren’t really a thing then). I learnt a lot about the fundamentals of game art, but most importantly I learnt how to manage my time effectively. I also came to the realisation that I’m not a fan of 3D modelling. I always found myself working on environments as fast as I could just to get to the lighting, so after I left university I decided to put all of my focus into studying it.

From there, I re-worked my portfolio and honed my skills with personal projects (with the advice of people in the industry – putting yourself out there online is incredibly useful) for around 2 years until I was lucky enough to land a Junior role at Supermassive Games and I’ve been here since!

Having spent time re-structuring my portfolio and developing my lighting skills independent of education, I found that portfolio is everything. In interviews I’ve had, their focus has always been on the quality of the work I could produce and how I would apply that in a professional setting as opposed to the labels attached to my qualifications.

However, there are still benefits to guided learning such as university or online courses as they can provide structure for those who find independent learning difficult, such as myself.

Explain your role as if I have zero knowledge about it?

I always find it difficult to answer this question because there’s so many different facets to lighting, depending on what project you are working on but to me, a Lighting Artist is someone who is essentially in charge of setting the tone. Using a variety of tools including lighting, colour grading and post-processing – it’s their job to guide the player through a level, leave some narrative clues, evoke a certain mood, just make the environment look prettier or any mix of those.

The hard part is when all of those aspects come to together and cross-over. It’s about balancing the artistic side of lighting but staying within a pesky memory budget!

Breakdown your average day at work?

Without getting into too much detail, my day consists of cinematic and environment lighting.

My preferred workflow is flip from scene to scene where possible – I don’t like to stagnate as I find it easier to be creative when I have variety in the tasks I’m currently working on.

What was your educational and career journey into this role?

So, I studied Game (Art) Design at Sheffield Hallam University – focusing on Environment Art (lighting artists weren’t really a thing then). I learnt a lot about the fundamentals of game art, but most importantly I learnt how to manage my time effectively. I also came to the realisation that I’m not a fan of 3D modelling. I always found myself working on environments as fast as I could just to get to the lighting, so after I left university I decided to put all of my focus into studying it.

From there, I re-worked my portfolio and honed my skills with personal projects (with the advice of people in the industry – putting yourself out there online is incredibly useful) for around 2 years until I was lucky enough to land a Junior role at Supermassive Games and I’ve been here since!

Having spent time re-structuring my portfolio and developing my lighting skills independent of education, I found that portfolio is everything. In interviews I’ve had, their focus has always been on the quality of the work I could produce and how I would apply that in a professional setting as opposed to the labels attached to my qualifications.

However, there are still benefits to guided learning such as university or online courses as they can provide structure for those who find independent learning difficult, such as myself.

How was your journey from a gender point of view or ethnical point of view?

For my personal journey I don’t feel I have much to say on diversity because I am a cis, straight white male – so I’m well aware I’m in a position of privilege in terms of opportunities in any industry. All I can say from my own view, is that the industry in general has a lot of work to do in terms of diversity and offering equal opportunities to people of all backgrounds and identities.

What is your most favourite thing with your role?

Since getting my role in the industry I’ve been more creatively fulfilled than ever before. It’s surreal to wake up every day and do something I’m passionate about. I’m aware not everyone has that privilege, and I am very grateful. Not to mention the amazing team that I work with every day, who are incredibly supportive and inspire me to deliver my best work.

What is the hardest part with your role?

It’s been a difficult experience adjusting to a new career during a global pandemic. I wasn’t in the studio long before lockdown, so the majority of my interactions with co-workers has been remote.

And of course, imposter syndrome. But such is the life of an artist, right?

What are the important skills to do your role?

I think the big one is just a general understanding of how light works. How much light is absorbed on certain surfaces/materials vs how much is bounced, how to balance exposure and contrast, colour theory etc. After a while, it becomes subconscious and you can tell at a glance what is/isn’t working in your scene.

While not essential, understanding cameras and photography is also a HUGE help (especially with the way they are set up in UE). Knowing how and when to use certain focal lengths, shutter speeds, aperture etc is incredibly useful.

If you could go back in time what would you do differently?

I don’t think I would change anything. It’s a cliché and generic answer but I literally wouldn’t be in the position I am today, if it wasn’t for everything that led me to this point.

If I had to change something it would be to try and find confidence in myself sooner. While I’m still not super confident in my own work, there were times during my two years of studying lighting where I was ready to call it a day and I don’t know where I would be now if I had taken that path. Probably still stuck in IT!

What are your recommended articles or videos to help someone get started with this role?

Tim Simpson’s Polygon Academy (Polygon Academy – YouTube) and William Faucher (William Faucher – YouTube) are the two main YouTube channels I keep up to date with. Beyond that I’d say sites like 80 Level and Experience Pointsare perfect for an insight into the creative side of the industry (especially with interviews etc, they really give you a look into the thought process of many talented artists).

Other than that, I think it’s worth mentioning the plethora of game dev Discord servers that are out there. Maria&LightBulbs, ExperiencePoints and The Club in particular. It’s an easy way to surround yourself with like-minded people to be inspired by, get feedback from and just make friends! I should practice what I preach really, as I’m not as active on discord as I should be. Thanks anxiety!

Do you want to provide some breakdown or information that is practical for one of your portfolio pieces?

Go to website for full interview for details

What is your most favourite thing with your role?

Since getting my role in the industry I’ve been more creatively fulfilled than ever before. It’s surreal to wake up every day and do something I’m passionate about. I’m aware not everyone has that privilege, and I am very grateful. Not to mention the amazing team that I work with every day, who are incredibly supportive and inspire me to deliver my best work.

What is the hardest part with your role?

It’s been a difficult experience adjusting to a new career during a global pandemic. I wasn’t in the studio long before lockdown, so the majority of my interactions with co-workers has been remote.

And of course, imposter syndrome. But such is the life of an artist, right?

What are the important skills to do your role?

I think the big one is just a general understanding of how light works. How much light is absorbed on certain surfaces/materials vs how much is bounced, how to balance exposure and contrast, colour theory etc. After a while, it becomes subconscious and you can tell at a glance what is/isn’t working in your scene.

While not essential, understanding cameras and photography is also a HUGE help (especially with the way they are set up in UE). Knowing how and when to use certain focal lengths, shutter speeds, aperture etc is incredibly useful.

If you could go back in time what would you do differently?

I don’t think I would change anything. It’s a cliché and generic answer but I literally wouldn’t be in the position I am today, if it wasn’t for everything that led me to this point.

If I had to change something it would be to try and find confidence in myself sooner. While I’m still not super confident in my own work, there were times during my two years of studying lighting where I was ready to call it a day and I don’t know where I would be now if I had taken that path. Probably still stuck in IT!

What are your recommended articles or videos to help someone get started with this role?

Tim Simpson’s Polygon Academy (Polygon Academy – YouTube) and William Faucher (William Faucher – YouTube) are the two main YouTube channels I keep up to date with. Beyond that I’d say sites like 80 Level and Experience Pointsare perfect for an insight into the creative side of the industry (especially with interviews etc, they really give you a look into the thought process of many talented artists).

Other than that, I think it’s worth mentioning the plethora of game dev Discord servers that are out there. Maria&LightBulbs, ExperiencePoints and The Club in particular. It’s an easy way to surround yourself with like-minded people to be inspired by, get feedback from and just make friends! I should practice what I preach really, as I’m not as active on discord as I should be. Thanks anxiety!

Do you want to provide some breakdown or information that is practical for one of your portfolio pieces?

Go to website for full interview for details

That’s me done! Thanks to Amit for the interview and if anyone has any questions, feel free to message me on Twitter or Discord.

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His Artstation

(Original website and link at the bottom with pictures etc)
Introduction

Zach Hewett has a Bachelor of Arts degree from University of the Arts London and Masters of Arts from University for the Creative Arts. He is a talented Lighting Artist currently working at Cloud Imperium Games as Junior Lighting Artist at the time of this interview.

Explain your role as if I have zero knowledge about it?

My job title is Junior Lighting Artist. The role involves taking game levels from
the environment team that are already fully modelled and textured, then
adding lighting to them. There are a lot of things to consider, but the most
important place to start is with the tone of the environment. Is this place
supposed to be eerie or inviting; cold, warm, clinical or natural?

Next we have to think of story and gameplay; is there a direction the player needs to move
through this space, storytelling details they should notice or objects they need
to pick up. Lighting can have a huge impact on this experience for the player,
very complex and unfocused lighting can make navigating spaces confusing
and mean that the player misses something crucial. On the other hand, it’s
easy to over light crucial objects, making a game feel too designed or
navigation too obvious.

There’s a lot of technical skills and knowledge required too, but that stuff
comes over time. Being a lighting artist is about balancing all the aspects I’ve
mentioned above with the aim of translating the vision you’re given by your
lead or art director into an experience for the player.

Breakdown your average day at work?

To start off, our lighting team has a quick meeting where we discuss what
we’re each going to spend our time on that day. It’s a chance to figure out any
potential problems in advance, compare notes and more often than not, chat
about movies we’ve watched or new trailers for games. This more casual
meeting has made a big difference whilst we’re all working from home; it’s
helped me to feel a little less isolated.

The rest of the day is spent doing most of the things I mentioned in the last
question, along with the less glamorous side of the job, organising, optimising
and dealing with bugs and issues. I’ll often talk with the environment artist who
worked on the area I’m lighting and we’ll work together to make adjustments
where they’re needed.

There are various other meetings spread throughout the week, including one
with our Producer(s) to make sure everything is on schedule and resolve any
issues that might be causing us to work slowly (such as bugs within our game
editor). There’s also a meeting with our Art Director, which is a great chance to
get feedback and make sure the work we’re doing is in line with the wider
vision for the game. We also, more often than not, chat about movies we’ve
watched or new trailers for games.

What was your educational & career journey into this role?

I studied film from the age of 14, at GSCE level until I graduated my degree at
21, specialising as a cinematographer. When I graduated I was very
pessimistic about finding work in the film industry, it seemed like I’d be lucky to
end up cleaning lenses and organising gaffer tape for five years if I wanted to
someday become a cinematographer. Part of this is true, but I also think a
large factor in my outlook came from disillusionment at doing the same thing
for seven years, and general stress and anxiety at transitioning from
education into a job.

I bought my first desktop PC in my second year of uni, and started to get into
games seriously for the first time since I was a teenager. I’d spent a couple of
years around the age of 15 learning Cinema 4D and character sculpting in
Mudbox (on an old hand-me-down macbook) and felt the urge to try my hand
at digital art again. On a whim I applied for a masters degree in games design
at a university in my hometown, since living at home with my parents would be
the only way I could afford to do it.

I loved the course and was introduced to the idea of Lighting Artist as a job by
a friend, when we were a few months in. I learnt Unity first since that was what
was taught at the uni. Then in my own time I learnt Blender, then I learnt
Unreal. Picking up lighting felt so natural given my experience in film and I felt
much more optimistic about finding a career in this industry.

We were already in the lockdown when I graduated that course, so I was
living off furlough money from my job at a used DVD and game shop, and
spent time building up my portfolio as much as I could. I was then offered a
chance to work at Nexus, an animation studio, on a real-time short film they
were developing in Unreal. Once I finished the short I joined Cloud Imperium
Games and that’s where I’ve been for the last four months!

What is your most favourite thing with your role?

The god-like power of creation! One of the most incredible things about
transitioning from film to game development is the freedom to be able to build
without the restriction of budget. I can't draw well at all, so this is my first taste
of being able to create worlds, characters and stories that would cost millions
to construct for film. I can build digital light rigs that only huge productions
would have the resources to put together and manipulate the position of the
sun and moon. Look upon me and cower!

What is the hardest part with your role?

Mental health and motivation is definitely the hardest part. I've always
struggled to keep myself motivated over long periods of time. I love what I do
but my brain loves procrastination and whilst working at home alone, it's very
difficult to not get distracted by little things. These distractions in the
echo-chamber of the home office amount to days that feel extremely
unproductive, then these days stretch into an entire week, or two.
This has a lot more to do with the Covid-19 lockdown than my role specifically,
but since most of my masters degree and my entire career since graduating
has taken place in lockdown, I think it counts.

This fever-dream of a year has brought with it some of the lowest lows I’ve
experienced in recent years and I know I’m not alone in that. Thankfully I’ve
been able to keep on top of it by talking to my family, and my incredible fiancé,
who has herself struggled with mental health in the past and continues to deal
with it in a way that I’m constantly inspired by. If you’ve been struggling too,
please talk to somebody, it can feel pretty humiliating and unnecessary
especially when your life is going “well”, but you’re not alone in feeling the way
you do, and talking about it will help.

What are the important skills to do your role?

There are a lot of technical skills that are necessary and understanding
concepts like value structure, colour theory and cinematic lighting principles is
pretty handy too. There are lots of other little skills though, that can amount to
making a huge difference, how to properly understand and implement
feedback for example, or how to successfully make suggestions to
environment artists several years your senior. I don’t claim to be an expert at
any of these skills, technical, conceptual or social!

If you could go back in time what would you do differently?

Probably purchase some sort of sporting almanac containing all the outcomes
of horse races that had taken place up until that point. Then I could use it to
bet on the winning horse every time, since I’d already know the outcome. Or if
it’s one of those Terminator time machines that sends you back naked and
buff, I guess I’d just have to memorise the outcomes.

Breakdown or Information of one of your pieces

I think the information that’s most useful is how long it takes me to do them
and why. Many of my portfolio pieces are done in an evening or over a
weekend, about 4-12 hours of work. There are a few that take longer but not
many. I’ve always found that whilst quality over quantity is a mantra that holds
true for many things, it couldn’t be more wrong when it comes to learning or
developing skills. Quantity over quality is the way to go! Move quickly, try
things, learn to finish your projects! You learn so much more creating five
unique but unpolished pieces of work than you will noodling over the final
details of one great piece for the same amount of time. This approach also
helps to shield you from the pain of failure, which is a natural part of the
process. Trust me, it hurts a lot less to decide something is shit and change
tactics 5 hours in than 50 hours in.

In order to make this approach work, most of the lighting setups on my
Artstation are very simple. I always try to find a strong single source, or at
least as few as possible and work from those. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a
time and a place for details and the lighting setups I do in my day job are
much more complex, but the work I do for myself is so I can improve, and
simplicity and consistency is the most effective way I know how to do that.

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Check out his Arstation here

Learning to be a better Lighting Artist can be a daunting task. What seems to be an easy task to many quickly becomes a very complicated process. A lot of people think it is about placing out lights and then you are done. If you are a lighting artist you might sometimes get frustrated over how people simplify your speciality. That sounds like a good blog post for another time. Today, we are pointing out one or some of many things that helped me as a learned of Lighting for Lighting Artist.

Learning Style

First one must understand one self. I learn in a very different way than others, and in a different order of events. That is not to say I do not listen or take the advice seriously, I just know I need to learn in a certain pattern or method to truly make sense of things. This has frustrated people trying to help me in the past. They have a hard time understanding my process, thinking and why I am doing something. You might be told to learn photography, watch movies, do painting and learn the software to name a few things. It all depends on how you process information and apply it. Since I knew nothing it made it very hard to get started since my basic knowledge was below average, as I did not focus a lot on 3D Art to begin with. Not to mention I am a snowball learner. Snowball learner means I am super slow compare to others but eventually I catch up. And that is okay. You do you!

Mentors

I always look for mentors and I do not pay attention to persons age or title. You could be a Junior Lighting Artist or a Student. If I think you possess superior skills I will learn from you openly and gladly. Having this mindset has helped me a lot in learning and improving as lighting artist. I have also paid to check my knowledge up against experienced lighting artist through Game School Online where I had a mentor named Thomas Wright. This was very affordable and worth the investment. I have also paid a lot more to learn from CGMA and the tutor was Omar Gatica. I have also paid very little to explore from younger Lighting Artist but talented artist such as Florent Tunno who create courses and has a beginner tutorial at EXP Points. In the same community I also tried Maria Yue who is Senior Lighting Artist and talks about Lighting Theory. I sometimes go back to my own course for refreshment which combines most of the content anyone teaches online the way I understood it. It is 10 hours of Unreal Lighting going through Lighting Theory, Practical Lighting and more for a small price.  By learning from others you will understand that lighting has many approaches, people know things you do not know and you will gain confidence because often these are known as talented, skilled or senior lighting artist. Arguably I might be doing this also due to my very high Imposter Syndrome.

Photography

It is useful to learn Photography as it will help both your eye, understanding of light, composition, framing and also technical understanding in the engine. Exposure anyone?

Movie Production

It can be useful to learn or do a short movie too. It will also teach you many relevant skills related to Photography but also you get a chance to learn lighting in a practical sense, colour grading, story telling with light and thought process that goes into creating a short movie.

Drawing

Learning to draw a little bit helped me also in terms of understanding framing, composition and traditional skills relevant to Lighting. Obviously, I did not become a master sketch artist but it trains your eyes which is very important. You need to understand shape and form which is relevant in Lighting.

Painting (Digital in my case)

Painting was probably the most useful boost in terms of improving my lighting due to the skills it improved for me. It improved my eyes, understanding of light, shading, reflection, shadows, shape, form, colour theory and is a traditional form of lighting.

Editing

The first thing I started with was actually filming myself and learning to edit. To get an understanding of camera and storytelling using cuts. This aided my understanding of light placement, thinking ahead and planning for cinematic lighting later.

Storytelling Lighting for Games

I also specifically created a horror prototype in Unity to learn the thought process, design and technical skills to do lighting in more than one game engine. This improves your technical skills, limitations, strength and put emphasis on what you need to learn technical to achieve your creative vision.

Apply your knowledge for someone else

I will often apply the knowledge in other peoples project. As this teaches you the challenges and difference in having full control over your creative outlet versus other peoples limitations, pipeline and designs. In my case I redid lighting for the game Intruder for Superboss games.

Visual Effects

It is helpful to do some visual effects as it teaches you post production, how lighting works with green screen and related skills to lighting.

Create learning content

Sometimes I will try and pass on knowledge that I learn to see if I understand it. And have someone who actually knows the software tell me if I am right, wrong or close. This is a humbling experience and certainly efficient way of eliminating uncertainty. However, this method is not for the faint hearted.

Color Grading

It is a good idea to learn color grading specifically as it helps improve your understanding of color theory, post processing and reading graphs. I found Davinci Resolve very useful in that context.

This is just a handful of methods, techniques and approaches I go through to push myself and my understanding. What are yours? Please share.