Custom lighting scenarios are not limited to lights. You can place additional actors in your lighting level for various use cases, including:
PostProcessVolume actors with specific post-process settings, such as film grain or post-process domain materials
Static meshes or environment geometry
A skydome with a high dynamic range imaging (HDRI) map, paired with a SkyLight
Calibration assets such as color checkers, grey balls, and chrome balls
Camera-facing unlit planes for displaying reference images
Best Practices
Using a Level Instance to transform existing levels
MetaHuman Creator places the character at the world origin. If you need to adjust where the MetaHuman is placed in an existing level loaded as a custom lighting scenario, the easiest way to achieve this would be to load it via a Level Instance actor and apply a transform. For example, if you create a lighting level template from an existing lighting scenario, you could strip out all the actors that aren’t required and place a Level Instance with the desired transformation offset instead.
Rotating Lights with Existing Levels
If you are directly linking an existing level as a custom lighting scenario, the light rotation tool will not work by default. In order for the light rotation tool in Metahuman Creator to work with a custom lighting scenario, lights must be parented to a LightMouseRotator blueprint actor in the level. This can be found in the default lighting scenarios or the Metahuman Creator plugin folder under MetaHumanCharacter/LightingEnvironments/Dependencies.
The MetaHuman Character Viewport rotates the parent of the LightMouseRotator actor with the camera in order to keep the lighting consistent so any siblings of the LightMouseRotator will rotate automatically with the camera. The Light Rig Rotation control rotates only the LightMouseRotator.
Spawning a Transient MetaHuman for Lighting Adjustment
If you need to adjust lighting directly in an existing level, you can spawn a transient MetaHuman actor into the level without running the assembly process.
To spawn a transient MetaHuman, follow these steps:
In the Content Browser, right-click your MetaHuman Character asset.
Select Spawn Preview Actor.
A transient actor now appears in the level. You can use it to adjust light placement, color, and intensity for a specific MetaHuman character.
This approach is also useful for bringing a work-in-progress MetaHuman character into a character lineup level without assembling it first.
You cannot delete the preview actor manually. To remove it, save the level and reload it or close the MetaHuman Character editor. You can also control this behavior using the Auto Spawn Preview Actor setting. For more information, see Create a Lighting Level Template.
