NOVA - Cinematic Lighting

I am thrill to share the in-game cinematic lighting work I did for the student game NOVA developed over 8 months using Unreal Engine 5 during my final year at ESMA Montpellier.
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| Project Context |
Play as Nova and save the lunar creature that has fallen from the sky to restore the world’s harmony.
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On this project, I directed all the cinematics and I was responsible for the lighting artistic direction of the and technical aspect (sequencer and performance).
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| Artistic Direction |
The lighting design is inspired by Romanticism, an artistic movement that explores human fragility and tragic beauty. This influence is reflected in the use of soft, diffused, and desaturated light, creating a mystical, melancholic atmosphere that supports the game’s emotional tone.
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| Player's emotional progression |
Lighting evolves throughout the player's journey:
During the disaster, dark, flickering, cloudy, and desaturated lighting already evokes tension and instability.
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After the fall of the moon, we are in the diffuse, desaturated light of the creator star, which blends different cool and warm hues. The clouds are dense but soft. And to reinforce the living aspect of the light source, we made it pulsate slowly. This setup creates a strong contrast with the magical elements such as the receptacles or the celestial animal, which are more saturated and luminous.
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As the end approaches, the sky darkens further, the atmosphere becomes warmer, and the light of the star begins to disappear behind the clouds. This reinforces a sense of tragedy and urgency.
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During Nova's transcendence scene, we are transported to a spiritual world, flooded with soft lighting and pastel skies, where the creative star illuminates Nova with power yet softness.
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When the moon returns to the sky, there is a final explosion of color. Sky blue fills the sky, plants come back to life, and the clouds disappear, revealing all the stars and waves of moving colors that had been partially hidden until then.
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| Technical Approach |
The entire game is lit using Unreal Engine 5's Lumen system, carefully optimized to maintain strong visual quality while ensuring good performance. But the main challenge with these cinematics is that they are running in real time with Lumen, so we had to manage different scripts and sequences to ensure they worked properly during gameplay.
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Feedback is always welcome, thank you for reading!
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Credits :
BLAYA Thomas :
Lighting artist, GD, ND, Producer, Cinematic director, Tech artist, VFX
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CHMIELEWSKI Lea :
3D artist, 2D artist, Character designer : Nova
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DIONET Anthony
3D Animator : Nova, 2D artist
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DROGUE Alan :
LD, ND
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GARCIA Solène :
3D artist, 2D artist, Character designer : astronomers
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GONGORA Ethan :
GPP : 3C, Tool programmer, Tech artist, Rigger : Nova
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HERREMAN Valentin :
3D artist, 2D artist, Character designer : ermine
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HIRSCH Sacha :
3D Animator : ermine, GPP, menus, Rigger : ermine
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PICOT Samuel :
Tool programmer, Tech artist, VFX
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SERROEN Livy :
3D artist, 2D artist
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GLINEVICIUTE Evelina :
Compositor, SFX