Firstly, as mentioned earlier, when starting a new Unity project I set the color space to linear and mark the main camera as HDR. This provides correct support when the color grading mode is set to High Definition Range. Secondly, the Academy Color Encoding System (ACES) tonemapper is selected, as this will be driving the film-like look of the final grade. Another benefit outside of the film industry standard tone-mapping, is its ability to produce a consistent and predictable display of the game on a wide range of display devices.

Unity’s post-processing systems, specifically its color grading effect, feel right at home when compared to a grade node in The Foundry’s Nuke. Obviously, the number of options pale in comparison to a full-functioned post-production suite for offline rendering, however, the same logic and core tools apply, such as color wheels, lift, gamma, gain, channel mixing, curves, etc.

Specifically for the subway exit piece, I wanted the grade to do the heavy lifting on color and tone. With this in mind, I rarely deviated from the default albedo color of materials and stayed as close to true light color for the emissive material and lights as I could. During the grade, I started with a color filter [Hex #9B9E62 / R:0.6 G:0.6 B:0.38] upped the contrast and went from there as my baseline adjustments. Since green was the predominant color applied by the filter, I used a lift to introduce yellow/orange into the shadows. I also increased the gamma a tiny bit to introduce some blue/violet and increased the gain slightly to have my brightest sources of light slightly lean towards green/cyan. Have a look at my grade settings below.