Post-Process Fundamentals
Materials & RenderingPost-process pipeline effects: Post Process Volumes, color grading, LUTs, bloom, ambient occlusion, tone mapping, and auto-exposure.
/skill post-process-fundamentals What this skill does
Post-Process Fundamentals gives you expert guidance on UE5's post-process pipeline: the image-space effects applied after scene rendering and before final display. This skill covers how to use Post Process Volumes and per-camera settings to shape the visual look of your project, from photorealistic to heavily stylized. You will learn how to place and blend volumes, perform color grading with manual controls or LUTs, configure bloom and ambient occlusion, select the right tone mapping curve, and manage auto-exposure for consistent scene brightness.
Covers
- Post Process Volume placement, blending, and priority
- Color grading (temperature, tint, saturation, contrast, gain, gamma)
- LUT (Look-Up Table) application
- Bloom configuration
- Ambient occlusion (SSAO, GTAO, Lumen AO)
- Tone mapping (ACES, filmic, legacy)
- Vignette and chromatic aberration
- Motion blur
- Screen-space reflections
- Auto-exposure and eye adaptation
Does not cover
- Physical camera exposure → lens-optics
- Depth of field → lens-optics
- Lumen Global Illumination → lighting-fundamentals
- Custom post-process materials → material-basics
- Camera shake → camera-motion
How to use
Invoke directly in Claude Code:
/skill post-process-fundamentalsThis skill is also auto-detected when your prompt mentions post-process, bloom, color grading, vignette, ambient occlusion, tone mapping, LUT, or auto-exposure intent. AgentUX will automatically activate Post-Process Fundamentals when it recognizes you are working with image-space effects.
Key Unreal Engine concepts
| Concept | Description |
|---|---|
| FPostProcessSettings | The struct containing all post-process effect parameters, used by both Post Process Volumes and camera components to define the visual look. |
| Post Process Volume | A volume actor placed in the scene that applies post-process settings to cameras within its bounds, with priority and blend radius controls. |
| Color Grading | A set of controls for adjusting temperature, tint, saturation, contrast, gain, and gamma across shadows, midtones, and highlights. |
| LUT (Look-Up Table) | A texture-based color transform that remaps input colors to output colors, commonly used to apply film-grade color looks created in external tools. |
| Bloom | A post-process effect that simulates light bleeding from bright areas into surrounding pixels, creating a soft glow around highlights. |
| SSAO / GTAO | Screen-space ambient occlusion techniques that darken creases and corners where ambient light would be occluded, adding depth and contact shadows. |
| Tone Mapping | The process of mapping HDR scene values to displayable range, with ACES as the default cinematic curve in UE5. |
| Auto-Exposure | Automatic brightness adaptation that simulates the human eye or a camera's metering, adjusting exposure based on scene luminance. |
Related skills
lens-optics
Configure optical properties
lighting-fundamentals
Light scenes for cinematic and real-time rendering
camera-placement
Place cameras within scenes
sequencer-basics
Use Sequencer for cinematics
What you'll learn
- How to place and blend Post Process Volumes for scene-wide and localized effects
- Color grading your project with manual controls or imported LUTs
- Configuring bloom, ambient occlusion, and vignette for cinematic polish
- Choosing the right tone mapping curve for your visual style
- Managing auto-exposure for consistent brightness across varying lighting conditions