Personal project

Lighting Study 02

A horror corridor lit in real time in Unreal Engine 5.6 — complementary colour tension between red (threat) and green (exit) that guides the player without a single sign.

Lighting Colour Horror UE5

Role

Lighting Artist

Focus

Colour language & mood

Engine

Unreal Engine 5.6

// Overview

Fear has two colours

Red owns the corridor: fluorescent tubes press down from the ceiling, staining the walls and the wet floor — proximity, pressure, threat. At the vanishing point, a single green light anchors the way out. 72% red and black, 12% green: just enough contrast to pull the eye — and the player — through the dark.

Horror corridor — red threat tubes overhead, green exit light at the far end

// Colour palette

Palette as level design

Eight values, five roles. The reds climb from shadow (#1A0202) to tube core (#FF3020); the greens hold the exit (#004D30 → #00A86B); near-black #080808 keeps corners as negative space. Two complementary hues — 0° and 150° — create a tension the player reads instantly: warm hurts, cool saves.

Colour palette card — reds for threat, greens for exit, with hex values, roles and distribution

// References

Two photographs set the colour brief before a single light was placed: red climbing a stairwell as pure pressure, and a green service corridor where the only red is what bleeds in from outside.

Reference photo — abandoned staircase washed in red against green-lit walls

Reference photo — green neon service corridor with red brick walls

External references — colour & mood study (not my work).

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