At Saltyverse, I was tasked with re-doing the existing lighting solution for the Island environment and it’s multiple times of day.

The biggest change was creating proper GI bakes using Unity’s Realtime GI system to give the scene an overall more cohesive look. I optimized the UV charts and cluster resolution for static objects. Light probes were placed where needed so the actors in the scene received GI information, making them visually match more closely with the environment’s color scheme.

I also adjusted the primary light angle to be appealing for each time of day and made sure our characters weren’t receiving any harsh shadows. Lastly, I authored Post-Processing profiles for each lighting setup to push the lighting and colors even further for dramatic effect and to give each time of day a distinct mood.

The ‘OLD’ & ‘NEW’ comparisons show what the scenes looked like before and after my changes.