The night time lighting for the scene is done. Was tricky in some spots, but I'm happy with the quality. This is the first time I've done a lighting setup that isn't just one directional light representing the sun in an outdoor scene. Which is strange when I think about it. But alas, Here she be.
It seems that getting night time exterior lighting in UDK is a bit tricky unless you know how to tweak the right settings in the world properties. Just making your dominant directional light (the sun) be extremely dim isn't enough. But once I had it down and tweaked the distance fog settings to be just right, the initial setup was good. Then it was a matter of adding in the spotlights and point lights, tweaking material settings, and adding in some subtle glow cards around the lights themselves. There were some times where I would actually need to use two light actors to get just the right look for a given light. An example would be the spotlights on the side of the dorm building. Obviously, the spotlights are shining light onto the snow below. But I couldn't get them to light up the actual sides of the buildings. So I had to add in an additional light for each that would be tilted at a steeper angle to radiate light onto the bricks. Lighting in UDK isn't 100% perfect yet, so this is what lighting artists have to do sometimes. Of course, I added in a new skydome and the actual models for the lights. I was teetering back and forth about how subtle the skydome should be. It has a borealis northern lights feel to it, which feels right for an arctic scene. I was concerned that it might be too distracting, but decided that it added a nice touch. So I kept it in. Maybe one of you thinks it's too distracting? Let me know if you do. I'd be interested to hear.
Anyway, short but sweet post. As it stands now:
1) Effects
2) Camera and kismet setup
3) Scene recording, screenshot taking
4) Post production: editing video, screen grabs
Stay safe.
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