Skip to content
andy johnston

01 / 08

Project R3D

Military Briefing Interior, UE5 Lighting Study

UE5 · straight from engine · no photoshop

Lighting, composition · Unreal Engine 5 · Ongoing

A bolt-action rifle on a bipod silhouetted against an open doorway, bright sunlit ground beyond, three rounds standing on the table edge in the foreground.

real-time · lighting

04 plates

A real-time lighting and composition study built in Unreal Engine 5. One set, one dressing pass, and a camera moved through a full day of light. The brief I set myself was to light one room well enough that it reads as a place, not a set.

Blockout comes first, then lighting, then dressing. Most portfolios cut the greybox stage. I have kept it because that is where the scale and camera calls actually get made.

Scene assembly, lighting, camera, set dressing, composition and final grade are mine. Environment assets are licensed marketplace work from KitBash3D and Leartes Studios, with materials and textures from Quixel Megascans. No original modelling.

Task Force 5-1 is the operator that set belongs to, drawn by hand, with the unit insignia designed digitally beside him.

Three brass rounds standing upright and sharp on a trestle table, the rifle behind them thrown out of focus, daylight through the doorway beyond.

Range card · shallow focus

01 / 04

The rifle laid across a trestle table under blue practical lamps, camouflage tent lining behind, laptops glowing on the far tables.

Night pass wide · blue key

02 / 04

The full briefing tent interior under a single overhead fluorescent, folding chairs pulled up to two trestle tables, whiteboard at the far end.

Briefing tent · cool grade

03 / 04

The rifle and three rounds on a table lit warm from a low angle, the tent falling away into shadow behind.

Bench warm practicals · tungsten key

04 / 04

Greybox → lit

Unlit clay against the finished pass. The composition is locked before a single material goes on.

  • Wide interior, greybox: the scene with lighting only and no materials applied.

    Wide interior · Greybox

    Wide interior, lit: the same framing with materials, dressing and the final grade.

    Wide interior · Lit

  • Tables overhead, greybox: the scene with lighting only and no materials applied.

    Tables overhead · Greybox

    Tables overhead, lit: the same framing with materials, dressing and the final grade.

    Tables overhead · Lit

  • Briefing three quarter, greybox: the scene with lighting only and no materials applied.

    Briefing three quarter · Greybox

    Briefing three quarter, lit: the same framing with materials, dressing and the final grade.

    Briefing three quarter · Lit

What I’d change

It is a scene, not a level. The tent reads as a place but nobody lives in it. I would put MetaHumans in there and design the characters properly, so the chairs and the tables have a reason to be where they are. Then a base exterior, so the doorway opens onto something instead of a bright plane. The real change is making it walkable: GASP and Mover locomotion, so you move through the interior yourself rather than looking at four frames of it. That is a different piece of work, and it is the one worth doing next.