Which lighting method to use for cinematics

Development Cinematics & Media
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1

Hello guys,

I am using UE only for cinematics and 3D animation.
I can find many tutorials on how to light scenes, but I am having a very fundamental question that everyone seem to know the answer and they don’t bother mentioning it.

I don’t know which lighting method to use when creating 3D animations.

Should I use Lumen? Should I use GPU Lightmaps? Should I bake the lighting or not?

What is the correct way? I am interested in good quality lighting but I am ready to lower my expectations if this means waiting 2 hours to render 30 secs of footage.

Please enlighten me,
Thanks!

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Lumen would be the way.

Crank the engine up to cinematic level and start rendering.

This will still be faster than building light, IMHO.

3

Thanks for replying!

So, I understand that I can render cinematics both with lumen and with baking lights, right?

It’s just a matter of quality vs saving time?

4

You can.

The problem with light baking, is its only any good for things that don’t move. And the build can take forever.

If you want to move things, then just use Lumen. With the advent of Lumen, static lighting is taking much more of a back seat.

It really depends on what you’re making and what your priorities are. If you’re dedicated, then you probably would have an RTX card and use hardware ray tracing also.

5

If you want to move things, then just use Lumen.

Can you please clarify something on this?

Let’s say I created a living room with lights, and I want to make a character walk. He is the only thing that moves.

Can I bake the lights and then create the animation? Or him moving will create shadows that will interfere with the ones created by the baked lights?

6

Precisely… :slight_smile:

7

Thank you for taking the time to help me!

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