[UE5] Post Process Volume Basics: Tune Brightness and Color, and Change the Mood by Place

The same room, tinted slightly blue and drained of color, reads as a chilly basement. Add warm color and it reads as a place in a memory. You can change the impression at the finishing stage, without moving a single model.

Post Process Volume is what holds those adjustments together. Like tuning a photo's brightness and color, it finishes the game world the camera sees. This article works in the order brightness first, then color, then any effects you need , and builds a scene where the mood shifts as you approach one corner of the level.

What You'll Learn

• How override checkboxes and Unbound get your settings onto the screen
• Locking exposure so colors are easy to compare
• The difference between contrast, temperature, and saturation
• A hands-on blending two Volumes based on camera position

Post processing is the screen's finishing pass

Post processing adjusts brightness, color, blur, and more on the rendered game world. The color grading covered here changes the impression of what the camera sees without rebuilding model shapes or materials.

If you want light only on a door, place a light. If you want the whole visible scene pushed toward cold color, adjust the color with post processing. Separating what gets lit from how it looks makes it easier to pick where to work.

If the floor is too dark to see, first check whether the whole screen is dark or whether light is not reaching the floor. Light placement and bounce adjustments are covered in Lighting Basics.

A Post Process Volume also holds rendering settings such as Lumen, but this time we use the exposure and color properties. You do not need to memorize every setting.

First, confirm your settings actually apply

A Volume represents a region of space. A Post Process Volume is an Actor you place in the level, holding a box region and the screen settings used in that region. The box itself is not visible during play.

Start with a level where colored objects are visible. The Third Person template level is fine. Save the level under a new name as your working copy.

If a Post Process Volume already exists, use one of them as PPV_Base. If there are others, turn their Enabled off for the duration of this exercise.

1. In "Place Actors", search for Post Process Volume and add it to the level (no need to add one if you are reusing an existing Volume).
2. Name it PPV_Base and turn on "Infinite Extent (Unbound)" in the Details panel.
3. Turn "Enabled" on, set "Blend Weight" to 1.0, and "Priority" to 0.
4. Open "Color Grading" → "Global" → "Saturation" and tick the checkbox to its left.
5. In RGB display, set R, G, and B all to 0, and Y to 1.

R, G, and B are the adjustment fields for red, green, and blue. Y is the common adjustment across all of them, and we leave it at 1 here.

Saturation is how vivid the colors are. If color drains from the screen and it goes black and white, your settings are getting through. After confirming, set R, G, and B back to 1 and untick Saturation. Leave Y at 1 as well.

The checkbox to the left of each property means this Volume overrides that property . Unticking it does not force the effect to zero; it hands that property to other Volumes or to the default settings. If you want Bloom definitely off, for instance, tick Bloom's Intensity and set it to 0.

Unbound means the box bounds are not used

Turning on Infinite Extent (Unbound) applies the settings to the whole level regardless of the box's position or size. It is convenient for establishing a baseline.

With it off, the settings apply based on where the camera is . Once the camera enters the box, or the Blend Radius range you set later, that Volume's effect is added.

What gets tested is not the position of visible objects or characters. In third person, the character can enter the box first while the trailing camera is still outside.

Also, this box is not a region that "only turns objects inside it blue". Once the settings apply to a camera, the color of the entire scene that camera shows changes.

Stabilize exposure before building color

You walk into a dark place, and the initially dark screen gradually becomes easier to see. That may be Auto Exposure at work.

Exposure is how bright the camera makes the screen look. Auto exposure moves that adjustment while watching the brightness on screen. It is useful for portraying eyes adjusting to darkness, but it makes changes hard to explain while you are comparing colors.

Override the following under PPV_Base's "Lens" → "Exposure".

Property	Setting
Metering Mode	Tick the left checkbox, Auto Exposure Histogram
Min EV100 / Max EV100	Tick both, and use the same value
Exposure Compensation	Tick the left checkbox, 0

EV100 is a brightness scale that determines exposure. Here it is enough to note that making Min and Max the same value removes the range auto adjustment can move in .

Match the fixed value to your level's lighting. For daytime outdoors, start by setting both to 12.0 and check. If the screen blows out white, raise both; if it is too dark, lower both. If you are using the interior from Lighting Basics, carry over the value you settled on there.

This is not a universal brightness setting. Match it so floor outlines and wall colors are visible, then compare later color adjustments without moving the fixed value.

In projects that display "Min Brightness" and "Max Brightness", setting both to the same value also locks it. The numbers mean something different from EV100, though, so do not reuse the values above directly.

Once brightness settles, walk a little and stop. If the overall screen brightness does not shift much while you wait, you can move on. Enable "Exposure" → "Game Settings" in the editor viewport so you can compare with how it looks during Play.

For projects that want auto exposure, widen the gap between Min and Max after the color work and tune while moving between bright and dark places. "Speed Up" and "Speed Down" set how fast it adapts. Note that Local Exposure, which balances brightness per screen region, is a separate feature, so its adjustment can remain even with Min/Max matched.

Tune brightness, punch, and color in order

Color grading is arranging the screen's color. Change one property at a time in the order below. Deciding brightness first saves you from redoing color after a later exposure change.

Order	Property	What to look at
1	Exposure	Is it bright enough to see the floor and walls
2	Contrast	The gap between bright and dark. Have you lost what is inside the shadows
3	Temperature	Does a white wall read warm or cold
4	Saturation	Vividness. Have you washed out the colors that act as landmarks

Contrast and Saturation live under "Color Grading" → "Global". Global is the group that adjusts the whole screen, bright areas and dark areas alike. It is not a setting that changes the Volume's spatial bounds the way Unbound does.

To test without skewing the color, set R, G, and B to the same value in RGB display and keep Y at 1. Start with small changes: Contrast 1.0 → 1.05, Saturation 1.0 → 0.8. Tick the override checkbox for each property too.

Keep color temperature separate from a light's color temperature

Under "Color Grading" → "Temperature", override "Temperature Type" and choose White Balance . White balance is the adjustment for which light the camera treats as white.

In this mode, lowering Temp from 6500 → 4500 in the same scene shifts things blue, and raising it 6500 → 8500 shifts them warm. Tick the checkbox to Temp's left and compare against something like a white wall.

These numbers do not set a light's own color. With "Temperature Type" set to Color Temperature the direction reverses, so this hands-on standardizes on White Balance.

Finally, if needed, darken the screen edges slightly with Vignette or add glow to bright areas with Bloom . Stronger is not better; tune only as far as you can still spot an enemy at the edge or a door marker.

Hands-On: turning one corner cold

Everything stays in its normal color, but as you approach one place it gets slightly darker and takes on a blue cast. Let's build that cave-or-basement entrance effect with two Volumes.

Try it in an open corner of a level you can walk around in. You do not need a cave model — entering and leaving the Volume is enough to see the mechanism. Save your working level under a new name and use the PPV_Base from the previous section.

The diagram illustrates the color change. What you actually see depends on your level's lighting and materials.

1. Set the overall baseline on PPV_Base

Check PPV_Base's settings. Tick the override checkbox on the left for the exposure and color properties in the table.

Property	Setting
Infinite Extent (Unbound)	On
Enabled / Blend Weight / Priority	On / 1.0 / 0
Metering Mode	Auto Exposure Histogram
Min EV100 / Max EV100	Keep the matched value from before
Exposure Compensation	0
Temperature Type / Temp	White Balance / 6500
Global → Contrast	R, G, B all 1.05, Y at 1
Global → Saturation	R, G, B, Y all 1
Vignette Intensity	0

You can find Vignette Intensity by searching the Details panel. We zero it here so the later comparison is clean.

2. Enclose the area you want to change with PPV_Cave

Add a new Post Process Volume and name it PPV_Cave . Create it fresh rather than duplicating PPV_Base, since we only want to specify the properties we are changing.

Property	Setting
Infinite Extent (Unbound)	Off
Enabled	On
Priority	1
Blend Weight	1.0
Blend Radius	0 at first

With the move and scale tools, enclose a corner of floor you can walk into. Aim for roughly 8 m wide, 6 m deep, and 4 m tall to start, and put the box's bottom slightly below the floor. Size it to include the trailing camera's height and range of motion , not just the character.

Pick a spot you can walk into from outside the box. If you lose track of the boundary during Play, placing a small Cube beside the entrance as a marker makes comparison easier.

3. On the local Volume, override only what you want to change

On PPV_Cave, tick the checkbox to the left of the following.

Property	Setting	Intent
Exposure Compensation	-0.5	Slightly darker than base
Temperature Type / Temp	White Balance / 4500	Push toward cold color
Global → Saturation	R, G, B all 0.8, Y at 1	Lower vividness a little
Vignette Intensity	0.35	Darken the screen edges

Do not tick Metering Mode, Min/Max EV100, or Contrast. Those use what PPV_Base decided.

Priority is the order in which overlapping Volumes apply. A Volume with a higher value layers on afterwards, but it does not wipe out other Volumes' settings wholesale. The result depends on which properties are overridden and on Blend Weight.

In this example, Contrast stays at the base 1.05 even inside PPV_Cave. Ticked properties such as Temp and Saturation change to the local values. Give overlapping Volumes different Priority values so they apply in the order you intend.

Exposure Compensation is a correction that darkens with negative values and brightens with positive ones. Lowering the fixed EV100 to darken things actually brightens the image, so here we keep the fixed value and create the difference with Compensation.

4. Confirm the switch first, then smooth it out

Play and walk slowly from outside the box to inside. Blend Radius is zero at first, so the screen switches when the camera crosses the boundary. If nothing changes the instant your character enters, keep walking a little further.

Once you have seen the change, stop Play and set PPV_Cave's Blend Radius to 200 .

Blend Radius is the distance outside the box at which blending begins. In UE's default units that is 200 cm, or 2 m. The closer to the boundary, the stronger the local effect, and inside the box it reaches the strength set by Blend Weight.

Blend Weight is how strongly that Volume takes effect overall. 0 means no influence; 1 fully reflects the settings. Leave it at 1 here and compare by changing only Blend Radius.

Play again and confirm the following.

• Far from the box, you see the base colors.
• Approaching the boundary, the screen gradually darkens and cools.
• Standing still inside the box, that mood holds.
• Walking back out, it gradually returns to the base colors.

The blend is decided by distance, so running fast switches it in less time. Standing still at the entrance does not advance to the interior settings after some fixed number of seconds.

If the mood is too strong, weaken one property at a time, such as moving Compensation toward 0 . Toggling PPV_Cave's Enabled from the same camera position lets you compare what you added.

When it does not switch the way you expected

Symptom	Where to check
Changing a value does nothing	That property's override checkbox, Enabled, and whether Blend Weight is 0
Nothing changes when the character enters	Whether the camera is inside the box or the Blend Radius range. Check height too
Cold color appears outside the area	Whether PPV_Cave's Unbound is on. Whether Blend Radius is too wide
It snaps abruptly at the entrance	Whether Blend Radius is 0, and whether the distance is too short for your movement speed
I cannot change only the objects in the box	This grading applies to the scene the camera shows. Per-object color goes in the material
The brightness I locked keeps changing	Min/Max values and checkboxes, overrides on other Volumes or the camera, Local Exposure
Editor and Play differ	Whether the viewport's Exposure uses Game Settings, and the settings on the camera in use
The temperature change is reversed	Whether Temperature Type is White Balance

"Darken everything" and "make a specific object a dark material" use different settings. To change color or feel per object, move on to Material Basics.

Bonus: before you widen your adjustments

Unticking is not the same as turning an effect off

Even with no Volume, UE's default post process settings are active. A property you unticked can still show an effect if another Volume or the camera sets it.

Cameras also have "Post Process Settings" and a "Post Process Blend Weight" controlling their strength. To isolate a cause, temporarily set the active camera's Blend Weight to 0 , compare, then restore it.

Check appearance and cost per effect you use

The override checkbox is not an "add processing" button. Rendering cost does not simply scale with how many boxes you ticked; it depends on the effects, quality, and resolution actually in use.

If you add Depth of Field for out-of-focus blur or Motion Blur for movement smear, compare readability and cost together. The measurement article shows how to compare using the same scene.

If you want to extend this to hit flashes and the like

Changing settings or Blend Weight from Blueprint extends this to timed effects. For custom screen processing there is also Post Process Material.

That said, Set Scalar Parameter Value is for changing material parameters, not a node that directly changes a Volume's exposure or saturation. Being able to create a sense of place with placement and settings alone, as we did here, is enough for now.

Summary

A Post Process Volume is the tool for arranging the brightness and color of what the camera sees. Confirm the override checkboxes and the range of application, then work in the order stabilize brightness → arrange color → add the effects you need , and your changes stay easy to trace.

Put the overall baseline in an Unbound Volume and settings for special places in local Volumes. Camera position decides the switch. Walk back and forth across the boundary while adjusting Blend Radius, and find where the mood starts shifting naturally.

Reference: Post Process Effects, Color Grading, Auto Exposure