Rundown Laundromat (Day + Night)

A Lumen-driven lighting and lookdev study built around believability and mood. The goal was a grounded, lived-in laundromat—dusty daylight diffusion, warm fluorescents, and composition that reads like a place that’s been running 24/7 for years.
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Technical Specifications

-Engine Version: Unreal Engine 5.7.1
-Rendering: Lumen Global Illumination & Reflections
-Hardware: Run on NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080
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Inspiration / Reference

My starting point was a mood chain:

ArtStation inspiration:
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/3E3R9D

Behance mood source:
https://www.behance.net/gallery/215948661/Silence-speak
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From there, I used Pinterest to build a focused reference board for:

• Laundromat layout + prop density
• Material breakup (paint, grime, metal wear, plastic aging)
• Lighting mood (day diffusion vs. night practical pools)
• Composition and camera framing
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Blockout / Layout Lock

• Whiteboxed the entire space with composition in mind first (camera locked early).
• Duplicated ProcGrid from Engine Content to validate scale, spacing, and sightlines.
• Once the layout read well, I deleted all default lighting to rebuild from a clean PBR baseline.
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Exposure Calibration (Before Light Actor Integration)

To keep lighting grounded, I focused heavily on exposure using Physically Based Lighting principles:

• Built a skysphere using the Chaos Skies pack (FAB)
• Calibrated luminance from the sky bitmap → camera → post process
• Tuned eye adaptation to hit stable, believable EV / lux behavior before placing any hero lights
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Lighting Breakdown (Day)

• Established the mood with a single Directional Light (hero read + motivation)
• Used handmade Lumen cards for controlled bounce and lift (avoiding unnecessary light actors)
• Added a small number of spotlights to support the overhead practicals and shape the interior read
• Layered subtle “cinematic cheats”:
• Gobo light functions to fake tree-branch breakup and window-blind shadowing
• Atmospheric shaping for depth without killing contrast (haze that reads, not fog that washes)
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Assets/Credits

Once the lighting held up, the scene shifted into believability and composition polish:

Materials & Decals:
• Quixel Megascans (materials + decals)
• Substance Source decals (aging, grime, signage, breakup)
• Rain material created by Will Arroyave https://www.artstation.com/willphase1
• Velarion - Matte Painting Skybox Pack: Chaotic Skies https://www.artstation.com/art_of_kemal

Environment / Prop Packs:

• Dekogon Studios — Laundromat Pack Vol. 1 & 2
• BigMediumSmall — Tokyo Back Alleys (exterior/background context)
• ScansMatter — Server Room (select dressing support)

Tools/Plugins:

• EasyToolbag
• EasyMapper (vertex painting aging pass—especially the back wall)
• EasyAtmos (final atmosphere shaping)
**Courtesy of William Faucher**
https://www.artstation.com/will_faucher

I spent a solid pass adding/removing assets to finalize composition and used decals strategically to push story: wear where it’s touched, grime where it collects, and clarity where the camera needs to read the space.
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Night Variant

The night scene reuses the same foundation but shifts the logic to:

• Emphasize practicals + signage glow
• Rebalance contrast to keep readable pools of light
• Preserve realism while letting the mood lean more cinematic
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Final Color / Presentation

• Color correction + compositing in DaVinci Resolve
• Final touch-up/polish in Photoshop