I’ve spent the past 6 months creating key art and renders exclusively in UEFN (Unreal Editor for Fortnite). The main reason is the unique access to developer maps and assets, allowing me to craft scenes within their creative vision. It’s been an incredibly fun and challenging journey, and I’m eager for more features that can streamline the creation of renders and key art.
These images are examples of work i’ve done exclusively in the UEFN engine.
As an artist working in UEFN, there have been a few roadblocks. Adding these features would significantly improve my ability to create and render artwork:
Render Queue:
UEFN often struggles with Lumen when capturing still images. Currently, we’re limited to in-engine screenshots (heavily affected by Lumen issues with shadows and volumetrics) or screen grabs (better but not ideal). A render queue capable of running passes and enhancing image quality is a top priority.
In this image you can see the low quality noise, jagged shadow lines and normal map inconsistencies.
Clean Plates:
There’s no way to get transparent PNGs or remove backgrounds without losing crucial lighting information. The workaround involves capturing various view modes (depth maps, base color, shading model) to create masks for post-editing. Selective transparency rendering should be an option, especially since it’s already available in UE.
This image demonstrates one of the view modes i’ve had to use as a workaround to create masks for post editing. This method is very inconsistent and is heavily dependent on the image.
Image Overlay Options:
Limited options exist for image overlay effects on transparent planes. Adding modes like color overlay, multiply, screen, overlay, soft light, hard light, difference, etc., would open up more possibilities for blending images and effects.
This image shows how diferent blending modes could effect a single transparent cloud in a scene. It opens up infinite possibilities for image blending.
Lastly,
Compositing Options:
The ability to add effects like color corrections, noise control and different render passes during compositing/saving in a render queue would be another excellent way to refine quality and offer more creative freedom.
I would really love to see some of these options added for those of us excited to create art in the UEFN engine. Let me know whaat you think!
