Lighting Realistic Rainy Weather in Unreal Engine 5

Intermediate Workflow using UE5 & Ultra Dynamic Sky with Ted Mebratu

This 30-minute workshop offers a comprehensive breakdown of Ted Mebratu’s tried-and-tested workflow for quickly achieving an atmospheric rainy lighting scenario in Unreal Engine with Ultra Dynamic Sky. Ted guides artists through every step of the process, starting from scratch, to achieve the final look.

The workshop begins with the global setup, going over cloud coverage, fog density, and how to balance the Sky Light against the Directional Light to get a proper overcast read, before dialing in the exposure and color in a Post Process Volume so it sits right under Lumen. From there, Ted breaks down his thought process for setting up the character's lighting. Since the character is lit by an overcast sky, he explains how to add shape back in with a few Rect Light and Point Light fills that serve as ambient bounce without flattening the diffused look. 

Ted also showcases various tools and techniques he uses to enhance the weather, such as rain drip splines for runoff, puddle volumes for placing standing water, and material integration that handles wetness, darkening, and roughness across the assets. In his experience, it’s these little details that sell the rain more than the falling particles do. To complete the tutorial, he reveals the settings he uses to export a sharp 8k 16-bit EXR render from the Movie Render Queue. 

This short workshop is intended for intermediate to advanced artists who already have a general understanding of how lighting works in Unreal Engine 5. By completing this workshop, artists should have gained practical takeaways and techniques from Ted’s workflow to enhance their personal and professional work.