REAL-TIME LIGHTING

MICHAEL MCDONALD

Michael, Magic Matter’s Creative Director, is an expert and specialist in the field of real-time lighting, rendering, and optimisation across all game platforms. With a celebrated career journey that spans the AA to AAA gaming spectrum, he has thrived in Senior and Lead Lighting Artist roles at esteemed studios such as Liquid Swords, Avalanche Studios, Deep Silver FISHLABS, HOLOGATE and Massive Entertainment (Ubisoft), where he worked on the highly-anticipated game, ‘Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora’.


This portfolio is a collection of Michael 's vibrant personal work. exploring real-time lighting, look development, mood boards, composition and art direction.

LIGHTING SHOWREEL

Thsi video shows examples of Unreal Engine 4 and 5 environment lighting, which features a collection of both real-time raytracing and baked lightmap pipelines. The 3D models used are purchased assets, specifically selected to ensure the focus was on look development, mood boards, lighting, composition, and art direction.

UE5 – ENVIRONMENT LIGHTING

Below is a collection of real-time environment lighting screenshots, using Unreal Engine 5 and its powerful real-time raytracing. The 3D models used are purchased assets, specifically selected to ensure the focus was on look development, mood boards, lighting, composition, and art direction.

UE4 – ENVIRONMENT LIGHTING

Below is a collection of real-time environment lighting screenshots, using Unreal Engine 4 and optimised baked lighting pipelines. The 3D models used are purchased assets, specifically selected to ensure the focus was on look development, lighting, composition, and reference gathering for art direction and mood board exploration.

OFFLINE RENDERS

A collection of work using various rendering applications, compositing, and hand edited refinements, including Unreal Engine, Photoshop, Modo, and Keyshot.