Post-Processing Images

In the traditional CGI pipeline, post-production holds the utmost importance as it significantly impacts the visual appeal of an image. While it has become somewhat simpler lately, it still contributes to at least 50% of the image’s power. This phase occurs after the rendering part and involves using external software such as Photoshop or Nuke, as well as dedicated controls within the rendered frame buffer to adjust lighting, exposure, color grading, and effects such as bloom and glare. However, traditional post-processing takes place after the render computation is complete.

Similarly, in Unreal Engine, we have the post-processing phase, which is not so different from the post-production phase that’s done in other software. It is used to control exposure, lens effects, color grading, depth of field (DOF), vignetting, and many other controls. The key difference is that Unreal Engine performs all of these post-processing operations in real time...