Most approaches to lighting in Unreal start with what looks good. This course starts with what is physically true, using Unreal Engine’s physically based actors and simulations to model how light actually behaves in the atmosphere, and builds cinematic intention on top of that foundation. I’m a filmmaker and an Unreal Authorized Instructor (Gold). I think about lighting the way a Director of Photography does. I read the sky. I read the atmosphere. I work from the largest source to the smallest. And before I touch a single parameter, I know what the image needs to feel like, and every decision is in service of that feeling.
In this course we build a complete sky and atmosphere system in Unreal Engine 5. Sky Atmosphere, Directional Light, Skylight, Exponential Height Fog, Local Fog Volumes, and Volumetric Clouds. You will understand not just what each actor does, but the physical phenomenon it is modeling, when to reach for it, and why. We then take everything into a full night scene, where the cinematic conventions are different, the physical rules bend deliberately, and the tools behave in ways that will surprise you if you are not prepared. We close with a fully rendered cinematic shot.
