Challenge: Complete a cinematic lighting study

Exercise

Beginner

+300XP

180 mins

Unity Technologies

Challenge: Complete a cinematic lighting study

In this challenge, you’ll complete a cinematic lighting study using your own choice of inspiration.

By the end of this tutorial, you'll be able to:

Identify research topics and resources to develop your understanding of foundational lighting science and design principles.
Demonstrate your new skills in lighting.

1. Overview

In this challenge, you’ll take what you’ve learned throughout Creative Core: Lighting and apply it as you complete a cinematic lighting study based on your own choice of inspiration.

2. How can I develop my lighting skills further?

If you want to develop your lighting skills further, the expert creators have some advice to get you started.

Advice for a career in real-time lighting

Whose work is a lighting masterclass?

3. Complete a cinematic lighting study

In this challenge, you’ll complete your own cinematic lighting study, as our expert creators recommended.

Here is some high-level guidance for the process:

1. Choose the visuals with lighting that you want to recreate and identify some reference images or clips. You might want to consider iconic films where lighting has a considerable impact on mood and atmosphere, even if you’re not a fan of the film itself. A commonly referenced example is Blade Runner, but there are many options you can explore!

2. Take some time to plan and identify:

Your target lighting design.
The light sources required in the scene.
The approaches you will need to use to implement the design.

3. Create a new scene and use ProBuilder and Terrain to create a very basic approximation of the environment. This can be very basic and use a stand-in environment and props — the lighting is the most important thing.

If you haven’t used these tools before, there are two tutorials from the Creative Core: Prototyping that you can complete as standalones to get you started:

4. Implement and iterate lighting in your scene.

5. Remember to ask for feedback! Outside perspectives can help you identify your areas of strength and weakness. They can also help you work out what to focus on next.

You should expect to spend at least three hours on this challenge.

4. Challenge success criteria

Your cinematic lighting study should:

Take into account all the light sources in the scene, including ambient lighting.
Evoke the mood and aesthetic of the film shot or scene that you selected.
Utilize baked lighting.
Include Light Probes (and Reflection Probes, if appropriate).

Tip: When you’ve finished Creative Core: Post-processing, you can apply what you learn there to provide final polish for your lighting study.

5. Continue your lighting learning journey

You’ve now completed the Creative Core: Lighting learning experience! If you’re completing this as part of the Creative Core pathway, you’re ready to apply what you’ve learned to your guided project and proceed to the Mission checkpoint.

You’ll have the opportunity to apply what you’ve learned here again at the end of the pathway when you create your own prototype and then use that to complete your independent project.

Here are our expert creators with some final thoughts about the future of lighting in real-time experiences.

Finally, happy creating — we can’t wait to see what you make!

Optional Step

6. Submit your work

After you’ve fulfilled the requirements, please submit and share your project! Before you do though, make sure you’ve thoroughly tested it — or even better, ask a friend or family member to test it too.

Follow these instructions to submit your project:

1. Take a screenshot or screen recording of your project.

2. Add a submission title and description. Make sure to include the video recording. If you have additional details to share about your process or the project that you have created, you can share them in the description too.

3. Set who can view your submission:

Public: Anyone who views this tutorial.
Private: Just you.

4. Select Save and preview submission.

5. Check your submission preview and then complete the CAPTCHA test and select Submit and continue.

We highly recommend that you comment on at least one other creator's submission. Did they successfully complete the challenge? What do you like about the project? What would be a cool new feature they might consider adding?

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Complete this Tutorial

Submission Gallery

Creative Core: Lighting (Upgraded Livingroom Scene)

This scene is a reimagining of a simple living room from the Unity Essentials Pathway, transformed through lighting and material work to evoke a strong emotional atmosphere. I aimed to create a warm, nostalgic environment that feels like a memory. It is comforting, but with an underlying sense of absence. Lighting is the core of the scene. A rich sunset-orange palette fills the room, casting both soft and defined shadows depending on the light source. The ceiling light fixture, a single bulb enclosed in a patterned shade, projects detailed shadows across the ceiling and walls. Lamps add to the warmth and depth, while exterior light from the window suggests the end of the day and a fleeting moment in time. The scene uses a mix of real-time and mixed lighting. Directional, point, and spotlights are all used. The directional light represents the setting sun, point lights drive the ceiling light and lamps, and spotlights subtly highlight smaller details like the remote control car. Soft and hard shadows were carefully balanced to support the mood. Emissive materials were used for the candles and lampshades, allowing them to glow naturally without additional light sources. A global volume was added for post-processing, including bloom and color grading. Adjustments to contrast, post-exposure, lift, gamma, gain, and white balance were used to unify the scene. The goal was to capture the feeling of a once-happy home that no longer exists. The space feels familiar and warm, yet still and slightly melancholic. This project explores how lighting and post-processing can turn a simple environment into an emotional visual story.

Reggie