Dynamic Lighting
This week’s class exercise was about testing lighting in Unreal Engine. I built a simple scene and tried different light setups to see how they change reflection and mood. I tested several light types and moved them around to compare the direction, intensity, and shadow feeling. I also checked how reflective surfaces react to strong highlights, and how the sky and overall colour tone affect the atmosphere.
During the test, I used a Post Process Volume to control the final look. I adjusted exposure and bloom to make the light feel more cinematic. I noticed that stronger bloom can create a soft and dreamy mood, but it can also hide details, so I needed to balance it. This practice helped me understand how lighting, reflection, and post process work together to create a clear visual mood.
PCG Plant and Assets Layout
This week I focused on vegetation and set dressing for my Narcissus scene in Unreal Engine. I wanted the environment to feel more believable, but I also needed to keep the layout clear for the camera and the calm mood around the lake.
For the bigger elements, I used the Procedural Content Generation (PCG) Framework to place trees and rocks. I built a PCG Graph and used a Static Mesh Spawner to spawn these meshes across the landscape. This gave me fast coverage and helped me avoid placing assets one by one. I spent time testing the distribution, because if PCG is too even, it looks artificial. I adjusted the spacing and density so the scene had more natural gaps, and I kept the lake area more open to protect the “reflection space” in the composition.
For the flowers, I used Foliage Mode (Foliage Tool) instead of PCG. I painted them by hand, because flowers need more intentional placement and I wanted to control where the colour appears. While painting, I adjusted density and also changed Z Offset and scale, so the flowers sat better on the ground and looked less repetitive. These small settings helped reduce floating and clipping and made the surface feel cleaner.
After that, I manually placed some bushes and small plants. PCG and foliage painting gave me a strong base, but manual dressing helped me break patterns and add focus points. It also helped me guide the viewer’s eye and support the quiet, reflective feeling of the project.