Transforming First Love into 3D Environment with Japanese Aesthetics

Introduction

Maria Yue: Hello, everyone, this is Maria, I am currently working as a principal lighting artist at Sharkmob.

I have worked as a video game lighting artist for about 12 years. My profession has taken me from Shanghai to Frankfurt, then to Manchester and London in the UK. Last year, I moved back to my second hometown, London, from the beautiful Santa Monica Beach in LA. So far, I have lived in China, Germany, the UK, and the USA for work. It’s been a while, but getting more exciting every day. 

When I saw the question about my professional endeavors, I literally dived back to the 80 Level website and almost shocked myself, as my last interview with 80 Level happened in 2019, I can’t believe it’s been 5 years!

I have loved anime and manga since I was a kid, especially shōjo manga (manga for girls) with alternative history elements. After obtaining my BA in Photography and Filmmaking from Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Chongqing, China, I moved to London to study at Kingston University for my MA. The subject is curating contemporary design, but my research direction is focused on set design and exhibition design. 

As you can probably tell, I never formally trained for game development. Instead, I was a fine art student who loved musicals and fantasy movies, later training in traditional photography and studio/ stage lighting design. Before I started working as a regular-level lighting artist in Ubisoft Shanghai on Far Cry 4, I had been working as a freelance fashion photographer, theater runner, styling assistant for a few London fashion shows, and tailor apprentice. 

Above are some of my most inspiring manga:

• Riyoko Ikeda. The Rose of Versailles, also known as Lady Oscar and La Rose de Versailles
  
• Saito Chiho. Magnolia Waltz (白木蘭円舞曲) (1994)
  
• CLAMP. RG Vega 1989-1996

I watched my friend play Mirror’s Edge in 2008 and discovered from the long credit list that there’s a role called lighting artist.

I had loved video games for a long time, but back then, I thought there was no way for me to enter the games industry – my math skills were... beyond saving. 

Plus, as an art student, I had ZERO knowledge of coding... It was more or less like, ‘That’s fun, but not for me.’ So imagine my shock when I found out that video games actually need people who know lighting!

Of course, switching professions is never as easy as it sounds, even though I know most of the lighting design foundations and principles of lighting design via my previous practices. Transferring those skills from traditional photo studios into 3D wasn’t easy. I struggled a lot with computer graphics terms such as normal maps and vertex points. However, when I started learning Mental Ray rendering in Maya, I finally began to see the connection with my traditional lighting knowledge and felt that familiar spark.  

Since 2019, I have leveled up twice while working at Splash Damage in London. This has been the most noticeable progress in my career, advancing from a mid-level lighting artist to a senior lighting artist. After shipping Gears 5 with our amazing team, I was fortunate to be promoted to principal lighting artist.  

Compared to regular and senior roles, working as a principal lighting artist is far more challenging. However, I also have more freedom to apply my creative thinking to practice, which could greatly benefit our project. 

In addition, I’ve changed jobs twice and moved across half of the planet again. After Splash Damage, I had the amazing opportunity to relocate from London to Los Angeles, where I worked at Deviation Games for about a year. I enjoyed living right next to the beautiful Santa Monica Beach. 

Though the California sunshine is amazing, I still miss those Victorian tea rooms and museums in London. In 2023, I decided to move back and settle down in London, a city where I have lived for almost 12 years. 

Ana Iancu: Hey all! My name is Ana, and I’m a Technical Artist at Sharkmob London. I completed my Game Art degree in August 2022, though I began my professional journey with Sharkmob a bit earlier, in January 2022. I've been working in the games industry for almost 3 years. Time flies!

My passion for video games began quite early on. The first time I held a controller was when I was about 2 years old – my dad was playing Tomb Raider on the PS1 and let me move Lara around. That early experience sparked a lifelong love for gaming and storytelling. As I grew older, I became increasingly fascinated by the artistry and technology behind games. In my teenage years, I knew I wanted to pursue a career in this field, and achieving that goal feels like a dream come true.

My curiosity for game development deepened when I discovered behind-the-scenes videos showcasing the making of iconic games like Beyond: Two Souls and The Last of Us. Watching talented developers bring their visions to life inspired me to explore the creative and technical aspects of game art. This blend of creativity and technology is what ultimately led me to specialize in technical art, where I can contribute to creating immersive gaming experiences while satisfying my analytical side.

With a background in STEM, where I previously studied subjects like Math, Physics, and Chemistry, transitioning to an art degree left me longing for the more logical, analytical aspects I had grown used to. Going into university, I was convinced my fate was to be a concept artist. It wasn’t until the end of my first year that I was introduced to the concept of technical art. I had been experimenting with shaders, enjoying the process of manipulating visual elements to achieve specific effects, and when I shared this enthusiasm with my tutors and 3rd-year colleagues, they encouraged me to explore technical art as a potential career.

Once I started diving into this new, fascinating world, I quickly realized it was a perfect fit. I was hooked. Shaders gave me exactly what I was looking for – a more techy way to create art. I often joke that I thrive when things break because it engages that logical part of my brain in a way that is both challenging and rewarding. Becoming a technical artist has allowed me to carve out a niche where I can blend my love for art with my analytical mindset, making every project an exciting adventure.

The First Love Project

M: In 2021, I created a personal project using the NVIDIA RTX GI version of Unreal Engine 4.26. This project was dedicated to someone important to me as a heartfelt expression of gratitude for the support we shared while navigating the pandemic, which completely changed our lives.

In 2024, I decided to re-conceptualize this project again using Unreal Engine 5.3 and the NVIDIA DLSS plug-in. This new inspiration came from a tech artist friend’s message, which instantly got me out of bed on a Sunday! Her tech art magic made it possible to achieve an impressionism-like lighting design in real-time, something I had envisioned for ages! 

This is our story about how two good friends combined their skills for a fun and creative collaboration between tech art and lighting. 

The original First Love lighting design was completed in 2021. Here is the timeline of this project.

I grew up watching a lot of Japanese anime series. One of the key visual inspirations for this original piece is Slam Dunk, a Japanese anime series that launched in 1993. Another anime movie that heavily influenced my color palette for this piece is 5 Centimeters per Second by Makoto Shinkai.

「桜色舞うころ」by Mika Nakashima serves as a core emotional inspiration for me. Just as the lyrics capture the transient nature of love, the changing seasons, and the bittersweet moments shared by two hearts, I would like to dedicate this piece to the important people in my life. 

The current piece is actually a reconceptualized version of this First Love 2021 above. 

Since my mind is quite stubborn when it comes to creative thinking, I hardly find any joy in my work if it's merely about manufacturing a perfect remastered version of an existing visual style. Although all of my lighting works have to be based on the amazing models created by other environment artists, I believe that good lighting design should make those 3D assets feel ‘living and breathing.’ 

In most of my personal projects, my inspiration comes from my own life experience and my work – all about the people around me, as well as the places I've lived in and the joyful or sorrowful memories I’ve collected. 

It doesn't have to be anything super dramatic but it must be genuine. I view creative work as the best way to cherish my life and those around me. As an artist, I believe we must first inspire ourselves before our work can inspire others. 

To me, a fine artwork without genuine emotions behind it is no different from a character without a soul – merely a facade. 

For the 2024 version, my goal was to deliver an anime-style look without heavy shader adaption, pushing my limits in look development through lighting design using the latest real-time technology. 

Although the painted brush version features an alternative lighting design to maximize Ana’s innovative post-processing effects, the original idea adheres to a usual lighting workflow as much as possible. 

The focus is on enhancing the anime style through subtle light ratios and lightweight shadow color. 

Usually, I use two types of references: one for look development and another for color choices and contrast level control. 

In this case, I use a lot of screenshots from anime with similar art styles as reference for my color choices. 

Another type of reference I spend a lot of time gathering is location-related references. Since I have never been to Japan, but I hope to visit soon. Although the original layout, Tokyo Street by Art Equilibrium, is already very accurate, I did a significant amount of set dressing to ensure everything was designed to respond to the lighting effect and fit the scale of the lighting design. 

Composition

M: Taking the Idea of the cherry blossoms as an example, I deliberately chose them as part of the scene, not only for their Japanese aesthetic but also because they serve as a critical source of soft, indirect lighting from a lighting design perspective. 

Silhouette-wise, most street scenes consist of straight lines. The simulation of spatial relationships could become more interesting if I could add something different – elements that break away from the industrial style of direct lines and rectangular volumes created by the streets and buildings. 

Painterly Shader

A: I was on the hunt for a new personal project for quite a while, but to be honest, I woke up with the idea and immediately pitched it to Maria. She loved it, and we began gathering references right away. I hadn’t had much experience with post-process shaders before, so I saw this as a great opportunity to challenge myself and try something new. This was the first reference image Maria, and I resonated with very early on.

Paintings are about picking the right colours but also about texture, composition, and emotion. So, how does one take a 3D world and make it feel like a painting? The answer lies in layering various techniques to recreate that artistic essence. 

The first layer involves adding brush stroke-like details to the environment, which is crucial for achieving a painterly effect. To do this, I utilized normal maps to distort the screen UVs and the edges of the 3D assets. This manipulation creates the illusion of textured, painterly strokes across the surfaces, mimicking the tactile quality of paint on canvas. By carefully adjusting the normal maps, I can replicate the varied thicknesses and directional qualities of brush strokes that are characteristic of traditional painting techniques.

This effect alone doesn’t get the feel quite right; the result still feels very 3D. The second layer adds colour variation and canvas-like texture. Artists express themselves by introducing a range of hues and shades that can evoke different moods and depths in the painting. This variation not only adds vibrancy but also helps to create a more dynamic and engaging visual experience. 

In the context of a UE5 painterly post-process, this technique mimics traditional painting methods by applying subtle color shifts to enhance the overall aesthetic. This approach can bring a digital piece closer to the nuanced textures and rich color palettes of hand-painted art, although one can only go so far.

Finally, the third layer involves simplifying the overall detail of the scene to achieve a more cohesive painterly effect. This step is crucial, as excessive detail can distract from the artistic qualities we aim to evoke. To do so, I wrote a custom node that divides the screen into small regions, then calculates the average colour and variance of each section. The region with the least variation in color is chosen to represent the central pixel of the section. This process is repeated for each pixel, and it helps reduce fine details while maintaining overall color consistency. 

Once we combine all the layers, we get this result.

Lighting

M: Since I am using UE5's real-time lighting solution – Lumen – the atmosphere lighting design works no differently than that of a typical day-light scene.  

I am also using the SkyCreator plug-in developed by Dmitry Karpukhin because I need artist-friendly cloud mask control to achieve the style of Shinkai Makoto. 

Sky Creator Setup 

M: If Sky Creator is used instead of the vanilla UE5 atmosphere lighting workflow, most of the atmosphere lighting actors are inside the weather preset.

I found this type of data hierarchy takes me longer to adjust the overall lighting effect, but it is an essential design for switching different weather presets, which is understandable. 

Though the weather preset might sound less familiar from the vanilla UE5 lighting workflow, most of the in-house editors I’ve worked with have similar built-in presets. 

I think my user experience with CryEngine also helps me familiarize myself with this plug-in slightly faster. 

I believe each artist has their own unique approach to lighting. For me, the starting point is always about controlling the exposure range and light ratio, as this is the key factor in defining my contrast levels. 

As this project is all about sweet and nostalgic memories of first love, the time of day is set during the magical dawn hour in spring or early summer. I’ve noticed that there is very little dark color in most of the reference photos and screenshots. Additionally, I am aware of similar approaches in many dreamy, sweet-looking animations and games. 

Below is part of my mood board, along with an in-editor screenshot. While establishing the overall contrast level,  the main challenge in this project was finding a way to maintain rich contrast without relying heavily on gray or dark shadows in the scene.

Before I achieved the ideal result of a contrast lighting scene with fewer dark shadows, I tried different approaches, such as boosting my sky light to a higher intensity and increasing the indirect light intensity on my directional light. I also experimented with using bright fog colors to see how well they scatter under storing directional light. 

Contrast adjustment was the most time-consuming aspect of the lighting polish for this project. 

In the end, I decided to boost both the indirect light and sky light intensity while balancing soft scattering in the volumetric fog for the final result. 

Another key starting point is the choice of color, undoubtedly a decision guided by stylistic preferences. For this project, I meticulously gathered an array of reference images, drawing from both real-life photography and animated series that resonate with me. 

If you compare the avatars in my finished sequences with the reference screenshot above, along with the atmospheric lighting setup displayed below, it becomes evident that I drew significant inspiration from the blue and pink hues of the reference. 

While setting up the scene, I chose to adjust the color temperature of the directional light to achieve a more natural diffuse effect on the assets, opting not to introduce any additional color. Instead, I added a subtle touch of anime-inspired azure or cerulean hue to the skylight. 

By employing a natural ‘white light’ for the directional light source and a slightly more artificial cerulean hue for the skylight, I achieved a balanced interplay between my direct and indirect light source.  

Though I haven’t yet visited Japan myself (though I’m excited to say I will soon!) I tend to collect reference photos that retain a natural look, avoiding excessive retouching or overly stylized filters.
 
The environment I selected for this project is expertly crafted, yet for narrative purposes and to enhance the effect of lumen lighting bounces, I undertook extensive set design and dressing.

Camera

M: Since this piece is driven by nostalgia, my aim is to convince viewers that they’ve almost visited this very location. 

The decision to use point-of-view shots mimics a first-person perspective, as though the audience is walking through the space, glancing up and down, navigating around the pedestrian crossing. 

The camera movement is slow and subtle, which complements the wide-angle shots. By examining my camera focal length, it becomes clear that I’m utilizing a very wide field of view to further immerse the viewer and dissolve the presence of the camera frame.

Nothing particularly elaborate was done in post-processing for the V1 2024 version, aside from a tiny exposure compensation adjustment and color temperature control. However, this changed significantly when I began working with Ana’s paintbrush post-process, as detailed below.

This piece draws heavy inspiration from Makoto Shinkai’s anime films, where subtle softness and contrast are crucial to achieving the desired lighting design. In my experience, the anime style I’m referencing tends to use pale shades in shadowed areas. Rather than relying on deep shadows, the contrast is primarily built through rich, adjacent colors with smooth and affluent gradients. 

Conclusion

M: Although the original idea dates back to my 2021 version, the 2024 version still took me about 2-3 weeks for initial level asset selection, dressing, and defining the art direction, as well as planning the look development. I spent many hours imagining and rehearsing the lighting plan in my mind while commuting to work or cooking. I find joy in practicing creative thinking while doing everyday chores. 

As I have partially mentioned, the critical challenge was to capture the Makoto Shinkai anime aesthetic through 3D lighting technology. With the help of the NVIDIA DLSS plug-in, I was able to achieve a soft, natural look among the light sources and maximize the potential of scattering effects within the volumetric fog.

Additionally, using an easy fog plug-in developed by William Faucher made controlling the local fog more artist-friendly, allowing for greater creative freedom. 

Despite having those powerful tools, the most challenging aspect of my lighting process is finding the correct light ratio–maintaining rich contrast while avoiding overly dark shadows. 

Keep doing your personal work and always trying out the latest technology related to your rules, this industry is evolving at a rapid pace. As a lighting artist, we value the team mostly by knowing how to execute a certain aesthetic style with good performance in mind while knowing the most realistic workflow, whichever our project allows. 

Continuing personal projects and experimenting with the latest technologies is crucial as this industry evolves at a rapid pace. As lighting artists, our value lies in understanding how to execute a specific aesthetic style while optimizing performance and being well-versed in the most efficient workflows that our projects allow. 

A: While the journey to create a painterly post-process shader has been incredibly rewarding, it hasn’t come without its challenges. To put it very plainly, Maria’s was to get the mood right, and mine was to get the feeling right. Achieving a look that feels artistic while still grounded requires constant iteration and experimentation. I often found myself questioning whether I was leaning too heavily into one style at the expense of the other. 

Translating the subtle nuances of traditional painting into a digital format was the biggest challenge. Capturing the essence of brush strokes, texture variations, and color dynamics without overwhelming the scene demanded an understanding of both artistic principles and technical implementation.

And lastly, as with any complex shader, performance became a crucial factor. Ensuring that the shader could run smoothly in real time while delivering the desired visual impact was a constant balancing act. This required careful profiling and optimization to avoid frame rate drops. The final version of the shader, with all features enabled, achieved post-processing in under 1 millisecond. Additionally, I implemented switches to disable various features if they weren't required.

Ultimately, this project reflects our passion for pushing creative boundaries and showcases the potential of digital artistry to create immersive experiences.

Maria Yue, Principal Lighting Artist

Ana Iancu, Technical Artist

Interview conducted by Gloria Levine