Introduction

Zach Hewett has a Bachelor of Arts degree from University of the Arts London and Masters of Arts from University for the Creative Arts. He is a talented Lighting Artist currently working at Cloud Imperium Games as Junior Lighting Artist at the time of this interview.

Explain your role as if I have zero knowledge about it?

My job title is Junior Lighting Artist. The role involves taking game levels from
the environment team that are already fully modelled and textured, then
adding lighting to them. There are a lot of things to consider, but the most
important place to start is with the tone of the environment. Is this place
supposed to be eerie or inviting; cold, warm, clinical or natural?

Next we have to think of story and gameplay; is there a direction the player needs to move
through this space, storytelling details they should notice or objects they need
to pick up. Lighting can have a huge impact on this experience for the player,
very complex and unfocused lighting can make navigating spaces confusing
and mean that the player misses something crucial. On the other hand, it’s
easy to over light crucial objects, making a game feel too designed or
navigation too obvious.

There’s a lot of technical skills and knowledge required too, but that stuff
comes over time. Being a lighting artist is about balancing all the aspects I’ve
mentioned above with the aim of translating the vision you’re given by your
lead or art director into an experience for the player.

Breakdown your average day at work?

To start off, our lighting team has a quick meeting where we discuss what
we’re each going to spend our time on that day. It’s a chance to figure out any
potential problems in advance, compare notes and more often than not, chat
about movies we’ve watched or new trailers for games. This more casual
meeting has made a big difference whilst we’re all working from home; it’s
helped me to feel a little less isolated.

The rest of the day is spent doing most of the things I mentioned in the last
question, along with the less glamorous side of the job, organising, optimising
and dealing with bugs and issues. I’ll often talk with the environment artist who
worked on the area I’m lighting and we’ll work together to make adjustments
where they’re needed.

There are various other meetings spread throughout the week, including one
with our Producer(s) to make sure everything is on schedule and resolve any
issues that might be causing us to work slowly (such as bugs within our game
editor). There’s also a meeting with our Art Director, which is a great chance to
get feedback and make sure the work we’re doing is in line with the wider
vision for the game. We also, more often than not, chat about movies we’ve
watched or new trailers for games.

What was your educational & career journey into this role?

I studied film from the age of 14, at GSCE level until I graduated my degree at
21, specialising as a cinematographer. When I graduated I was very
pessimistic about finding work in the film industry, it seemed like I’d be lucky to
end up cleaning lenses and organising gaffer tape for five years if I wanted to
someday become a cinematographer. Part of this is true, but I also think a
large factor in my outlook came from disillusionment at doing the same thing
for seven years, and general stress and anxiety at transitioning from
education into a job.

I bought my first desktop PC in my second year of uni, and started to get into
games seriously for the first time since I was a teenager. I’d spent a couple of
years around the age of 15 learning Cinema 4D and character sculpting in
Mudbox (on an old hand-me-down macbook) and felt the urge to try my hand
at digital art again. On a whim I applied for a masters degree in games design
at a university in my hometown, since living at home with my parents would be
the only way I could afford to do it.

I loved the course and was introduced to the idea of Lighting Artist as a job by
a friend, when we were a few months in. I learnt Unity first since that was what
was taught at the uni. Then in my own time I learnt Blender, then I learnt
Unreal. Picking up lighting felt so natural given my experience in film and I felt
much more optimistic about finding a career in this industry.

We were already in the lockdown when I graduated that course, so I was
living off furlough money from my job at a used DVD and game shop, and
spent time building up my portfolio as much as I could. I was then offered a
chance to work at Nexus, an animation studio, on a real-time short film they
were developing in Unreal. Once I finished the short I joined Cloud Imperium
Games and that’s where I’ve been for the last four months!

What is your most favourite thing with your role?

The god-like power of creation! One of the most incredible things about
transitioning from film to game development is the freedom to be able to build
without the restriction of budget. I can’t draw well at all, so this is my first taste
of being able to create worlds, characters and stories that would cost millions
to construct for film. I can build digital light rigs that only huge productions
would have the resources to put together and manipulate the position of the
sun and moon. Look upon me and cower!

What is the hardest part with your role?

Mental health and motivation is definitely the hardest part. I’ve always
struggled to keep myself motivated over long periods of time. I love what I do
but my brain loves procrastination and whilst working at home alone, it’s very
difficult to not get distracted by little things. These distractions in the
echo-chamber of the home office amount to days that feel extremely
unproductive, then these days stretch into an entire week, or two.
This has a lot more to do with the Covid-19 lockdown than my role specifically,
but since most of my masters degree and my entire career since graduating
has taken place in lockdown, I think it counts.

This fever-dream of a year has brought with it some of the lowest lows I’ve
experienced in recent years and I know I’m not alone in that. Thankfully I’ve
been able to keep on top of it by talking to my family, and my incredible fiancé,
who has herself struggled with mental health in the past and continues to deal
with it in a way that I’m constantly inspired by. If you’ve been struggling too,
please talk to somebody, it can feel pretty humiliating and unnecessary
especially when your life is going “well”, but you’re not alone in feeling the way
you do, and talking about it will help.

What are the important skills to do your role?

There are a lot of technical skills that are necessary and understanding
concepts like value structure, colour theory and cinematic lighting principles is
pretty handy too. There are lots of other little skills though, that can amount to
making a huge difference, how to properly understand and implement
feedback for example, or how to successfully make suggestions to
environment artists several years your senior. I don’t claim to be an expert at
any of these skills, technical, conceptual or social!

If you could go back in time what would you do differently?

Probably purchase some sort of sporting almanac containing all the outcomes
of horse races that had taken place up until that point. Then I could use it to
bet on the winning horse every time, since I’d already know the outcome. Or if
it’s one of those Terminator time machines that sends you back naked and
buff, I guess I’d just have to memorise the outcomes.

Breakdown or Information of one of your pieces

I think the information that’s most useful is how long it takes me to do them
and why. Many of my portfolio pieces are done in an evening or over a
weekend, about 4-12 hours of work. There are a few that take longer but not
many. I’ve always found that whilst quality over quantity is a mantra that holds
true for many things, it couldn’t be more wrong when it comes to learning or
developing skills. Quantity over quality is the way to go! Move quickly, try
things, learn to finish your projects! You learn so much more creating five
unique but unpolished pieces of work than you will noodling over the final
details of one great piece for the same amount of time. This approach also
helps to shield you from the pain of failure, which is a natural part of the
process. Trust me, it hurts a lot less to decide something is shit and change
tactics 5 hours in than 50 hours in.

In order to make this approach work, most of the lighting setups on my
Artstation are very simple. I always try to find a strong single source, or at
least as few as possible and work from those. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a
time and a place for details and the lighting setups I do in my day job are
much more complex, but the work I do for myself is so I can improve, and
simplicity and consistency is the most effective way I know how to do that.

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