Explain your role as if I have zero knowledge about it?
Lighting Art is a range of multiple specialities, from cinematics to gameplay, skies, technical
lighting art, scripting etc… Lighting for games is not only placing lights in the environment but
also setting the mood, post process, fog, optimization… When Environment artists and Level
designers have a first layout of the map, Lighting artists kick in and make sure the level is lit
so it’s easier for everyone to test. Same for cinematics, when the animations and camera are
ready Lighting artists can start a first pass of Lighting to set the mood. Cinematics are more
complicated than it looks like, lights around characters are not “real”, fake lights are placed
at specific spots to amplify the drama but it must look natural: the transition between the
cinematic and game must be smooth. Lighting is used as gameplay too, for example during
a boss fight, the lighting can indicate the states of enemies or the Lighting scenario can
change if the boss is low hp. These are just examples of tasks Lighting artists do, there are
many more and it can be very specialized. Pipeline, engine, workflow are different
depending on companies so it’s difficult to describe how a Lighting Artist works in a day.
Lighting and VFX are the cherry on top of Environment Art. I personally specialized in
Gameplay Lighting
Breakdown your average day at work?
I start in the morning by just updating the project I am working on,checking messages,
e-mails… Then I work on my tasks and sometimes we have Daily meetings, Lighting
reviews, sync with other departments… And at the end of the day I write everything I need to
do the day after in case I forget something.
I used to work in an office and like many people this year I am working from home. It’s easy
to lose sense of time and overwork. It’s important to have breaks, have coffee, stretch up!
Daily meetings are good ways to have social interactions once a day, talk about everything
(not work only). The transition between working in an office and at home has been rough but
I really enjoy it now, it’s been around 2 years.
What was your educational and career journey into this role?
I have a pretty “normal” path: I started after middle school, I knew I wanted to do Art but had
little knowledge of Artistic jobs. I decided to go to High school (generalist) and during these
years I was thinking of what I really wanted to do. My first year of Uni was a Generalist Art
school where I learned 3D and Fine Art. I really enjoyed 3D so after this year I decided to
specialize in Real-time 3D for Games! I spent 5 years studying Game art and I’ve been
super lucky to have landed at a Video games studio right after. My first ever experience was
in 2017 as a 3D/2D Game Artist intern, in 2018 I got another internship as a 3D Artist and in
2019 was my first Lighting job. My first introduction to Lighting was at school, I did Lighting
because I had to, I didn’t understand what I was doing (and didn’t really like it to be honest)
but it all changed after my internship in 2018 when I met my mentor. I had to do the lighting
of a small environment and my mentor took time to explain everything. I realized I really liked
this task and started to do Lighting on my spare time. I started looking for a Lighting job at
this time and I found one in 2019!
How was your journey from a gender point of view or ethnical point of view?
I have seen a lot of debates around hiring more people from minorities. In my opinion, skills
are important but not only. It is also important to hire people who are great colleagues that
you can trust and are hardworking. Open-minded people are the best people to work with
from my experience because they have compassion for others. Nowadays there is a hugerange of people who play games, and I do believe that if a game is made for those people by
people from all around the world, it will bring something to the game. I would love to see
more people from minorities so they can bring knowledge and awareness to some subjects
that others might not know because of cultural differences.
I am lucky I never had any issues with being a woman and being part of API which doesn’t
mean sexism doesn’t exist, good and bad experiences happen and companies should make
efforts to support minorities. As individuals we can try to make the world a bit better too with
small actions such as calling out when someone shows disrespect, educating others or
giving a helpful hand to colleagues who seem to struggle. It might not seem impactful but
showing kindness can really change a person’s day.
What is your most favourite thing with your role?
Collaborating with Environment Artists, VFX Artists and Level Designers. It has always been
a pleasure to work with the other departments. I feel like when we work together I always
learn something which is not necessarily related to Lighting but just listening to other people
brings knowledge and you can understand their job better, which kinda makes you a better
Artist. I have learnt so much from Artists and Programmers, I have a better understanding of
what Designers and Producers do. I love listening and sharing, asking questions and taking
time to explain how Lighting works to others.
What is the hardest part with your role?
Finding compromises between Design and Art, obviously artists want the game to look good
but in games, gameplay is the most important so you have to find ways to please both sides.
We also experience a lot of bugs, performance limits and as Lighting is usually at the end of
the pipeline we have to do our best to optimize. Optimization takes a long time but is needed
so everyone can enjoy the game!
As an Artist it’s always difficult to find long-term motivation working on personal projects,
especially when you have a job. Personal projects don’t need to be Real-time Lighting in my
opinion but anything which can make you feel better and grow as an Artist.
What are the important skills to do your role?
Having a good understanding of Real-time engines is really important to me, especially when
doing Gameplay Lighting. Having a good eye to spot bugs and understand them, having a
creative mind to find ideas of interesting and dramatic lighting. It’s easy to run out of ideas,
Lighting artists always try to give an identity to each environment. Having a good film culture
and basic photography knowledge is a must when doing cinematics as composition is key.
If you could go back in time what would you do differently?
Learn more about Lighting when I was at school. At Uni I only learned 3D, 2D and
Animation, I didn’t know Lighting was a specialty. I got interested in Lighting very late, at the
end of Uni and during my internship. I wish I knew more about all the amazing jobs in Video
games before! I was focused on modeling on 3DS max/Zbrush. I should have spent more
time on Real-time engines, learn more about how to make a game. I wasn’t aware of how
difficult it is to break into the game industry, I didn’t really know what I wanted to be, didn’t
have any goals either, I guess I was just happy to make games. I think schools should teach
students how to look for a job, and all the different specialities.
What are your recommended articles or videos to help someone get started with this
role?
80 lvl articles https://80.lv/articles/lighting/
Youtube channels: https://www.youtube.com/user/51Daedalus/videos and
https://www.youtube.com/c/KemalG%C3%BCnel/videos
EXP tutorials: https://www.exp-points.com/exp-tutorials-learning
Portfolio tips for Lighting:
Quality > Quantity. If you want to be a Lighting Artist focus your portfolio on Lighting
(Relighting) and remove (or keep only the best best) everything else. Be creative, a lot of
other people do Relightings, try to find your style, do what you like!
Do you want to provide some breakdown or information that is practical for one of
your portfolio pieces?
When I do Real-time Lighting personal projects I like doing what I’m not used to at work. I
really take my time, working on weekends for a few hours, I prefer short projects as we
improve quickly. I experiment, try different lighting scenarios, spend more time on color
grading, cameras…
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