How can I achieve this look in Unreal?

[JJobson98]

I’ve been given the task to create something like this in unreal:

I’ve not created anything like it before, so I’m just wondering the best way to go about it, how do they achieve the lighting where the tables and chairs have shadows but the floors don’t give shadows? What other techniques have they used here that I would need to use to achieve this?

[jwatte]

how do they achieve the lighting where the tables and chairs have shadows but the floors don’t give shadows?

I can think of a few ways it could be done:

1. they could have painted the shadows on the floor
2. they could have put an “area light” just below each ceiling
3. they could have marked the floors as “don’t cast shadow” (which in Unreal is un-marking them from “cast shadow”)
4. they could have rendered the entire thing in parts, and then composited it

Generally, there seems to be very few “real” shadows – the people cutouts seem to have mostly a bit of reflections on the floor, not actual shadows.

My first approach would probably be to make nothing cast diffuse/specular (“directional”) shadows, and just use ambient occlusion and a skylight. Set the distance for ambient occlusion very low, like 100 centimeters, to avoid ceilings getting caught up. See where that takes you.

[JJobson98]

@jwatte

I can think of a few ways it could be done:

1. they could have painted the shadows on the floor
2. they could have put an “area light” just below each ceiling
3. they could have marked the floors as “don’t cast shadow” (which in Unreal is un-marking them from “cast shadow”)
4. they could have rendered the entire thing in parts, and then composited it

Generally, there seems to be very few “real” shadows – the people cutouts seem to have mostly a bit of reflections on the floor, not actual shadows.

My first approach would probably be to make nothing cast diffuse/specular (“directional”) shadows, and just use ambient occlusion and a skylight. Set the distance for ambient occlusion very low, like 100 centimeters, to avoid ceilings getting caught up. See where that takes you.

Thank you so much for the hints. I did have the idea of using decals for the shadows and setting everything as not casting shadows and have them when I need them.