Learn the complete workflow for creating a professional product commercial using Unreal Engine 5. This essential tutorial covers cinematic setup, advanced Lumen lighting, Path Tracing optimization, and final rendering via Movie Render Queue, perfect for achieving photorealistic visuals.
Product visualization sits at the intersection of architecture, design, and cinematic art, requiring a meticulous approach to lighting and environment setup. Achieving that coveted, production-ready look in real-time engines can feel daunting, but the power of Unreal Engine 5 (UE5) makes high-end rendering accessible to everyone.
In a comprehensive, start-to-finish tutorial, creator RenderRebels (Shahviral) demystifies the process of crafting a photorealistic product commercial. The guide leverages free assets and UE5’s native features, proving that stunning results don’t require an expensive investment in additional software or premium plugins.
Preparing Assets and Master Materials
Shahviral starts by emphasizing the importance of organization, setting up a clear folder structure before importing any assets. For this demonstration, he utilizes a free model of the Logitech MX Master 3S mouse, alongside free 3K resolution HDRI maps. Since the goal is the highest quality output, the workflow immediately dives into settings designed for Path Tracing.
Crucially, when importing the OBJ model, the creator notes that Nanite must be disabled if you plan to use Path Tracing for the final render, as it is incompatible with this rendering method. After importing the texture maps (diffuse, roughness, metallic, etc.), the next step involves building a robust material pipeline.
The tutorial outlines creating a master material and then deriving a material instance for efficiency and control. One essential troubleshooting tip shared by RenderRebels involves fixing common visual issues caused by inverted normals—easily solved by enabling “Recompute Normals” within the material attributes. Furthermore, the emission map is connected via a Multiply node controlled by a scalar parameter, providing dynamic intensity control over any glow effects, perfect for polished product shots.
Mastering Cinematic Lighting with Lumen and HDRI
Once the product material is finalized, attention shifts to lighting the scene. Leveraging the power of UE5, the environment lighting relies on the HDRI Backdrop feature. However, achieving high fidelity requires a key step: HDRI files (often in EXR format) must first be converted to the HDR format, using software like Photoshop, before they can be effectively utilized at full quality within Unreal Engine. This ensures the best possible reflections and global illumination, a critical step often overlooked by beginners.
Optimizing the Environment
After setting up the custom HDRI within both the Backdrop and the Sky Light, the artist fine-tunes the look using free detailed cliff assets imported from the marketplace. These Asset Packs are used strategically to frame the main product and add necessary visual depth and mood. The materials on these surrounding elements are adjusted by lowering saturation and brightness to ensure the focus remains squarely on the highly reflective product.
The final refinement involves heavily customizing the Post Process Volume, specifically setting a manual exposure (like 8) and configuring advanced Lumen settings for maximum quality reflection and global illumination.
Camera Animation and Professional Rendering
A product commercial demands smooth, deliberate motion. RenderRebels configures a cinematic camera actor, setting the focal length to 50mm—a preferred choice for product photography—and ensuring the camera’s focus tracking is locked onto the product for consistent depth of field (DOF). The camera’s subtle, linear movement across 69 frames is animated using the Level Sequence tool, resulting in a Cinematic slow pan that showcases the product’s details.
The final high-quality output is generated through the Movie Render Queue. To ensure the render quality is top-tier, several console variables are used to force maximum quality settings, including setting the screen percentage to 150 and increasing the depth of field quality. Anti-aliasing is also configured with a higher sample count to eliminate any noise and ensure a flawless final PNG sequence output, ready for external color grading and final presentation.
Conclusion
RenderRebels delivers an exceptional breakdown of the professional product visualization workflow in UE5. By focusing on clean asset management, smart material parametrization, and disciplined lighting, the tutorial provides a clear path to generating visuals suitable for commercial use, all without needing expensive external rendering subscriptions. If you found this workflow insightful, you can explore the full list of Unreal Engine topics here on CGEcho.net. For more focused deep dives into cinematic illumination, check out our Lighting & Rendering section, or learn more about building out your presentation scenes in our Environment & World Building category.
Source:
I Made a Product Commercial in Unreal Engine 5 — Start to Finish Tutorial
