Unreal Shader Basics for Artists

Lecture Update Notice on July 16, 2025 >>

Unreal Shaders for Artists: From Principles to Applications

We invite you to the deep world of the core principles of Unreal Engine shaders for artists. This course goes beyond simply following nodes and replicating examples, and delves into the fundamentals of how shaders work and what each node means. The goal is to systematically understand how shaders work by answering the question of 'why' and build a solid foundation that can be applied in any situation.

Section 2 - Unreal Materials

Learn the basics of using the Material Editor. Clarify the concepts of diffuse and specular reflection, which are the core theories of physically based rendering (PBR), and learn the difference between metal and non-metal materials. Learn the guide to creating proper PBR textures, and express various materials such as translucency and masking using various blend modes and shading models. You will also learn in depth the essential workflow for efficient shader management, such as master materials, material instances, material functions, and attributes, as well as know-how for organizing graphs.

Unreal Materials Basics

• Create and edit materials

• Material Basic Output Node

• Node data types and swizzling

Understanding PBR (Physically Based Rendering) Materials

• Introducing PBR Material Samples – Paragon: GRIM.exe

• Introducing Disney PBR

• Diffuse reflection and specular reflection

• Metals and nonmetals

Unreal Physically Based Materials

• PBR Texture Guide

• Emission

• Bump, Normal, Height, Displacement

Material Blend Modes and Shading Models

• Blend Mode – Masked, Translucent, Additive, Modulate

• Shading Model – Default Lit, Unlit

• Refracting a translucent material

• Translucent sort priority

• Shading Model – Default Lit, Unlit

Material instances and parameters

• Understanding Master Materials and Material Instances

Material Attributes

Material Function

Material Graph Cleanup

• Comments

• Reroute, Named Reroute

• Sorting shortcuts

Section 3 - Thinking of Colors as Numbers

In the most essential section 3, we will train you to 'think of color as numbers'. Through the process of the rendering pipeline where 3D polygons are drawn on the screen, you will clearly understand the definition of shaders and see for yourself how simple arithmetic about colors becomes a graph and develops into a variety of effects. Applying this principle, you will create a dissolve and explosion effect using Lerp. In addition, you will learn the core knowledge required for shader artists, such as HDR and gamma for realistic color expression, sRGB, UV for handling textures, and even shader debugging know-how.

Definition of shader

• What is a shader?

• The process of drawing 3D polygons on the screen

• Vertex Shader and Pixel Shader

• Graphics API

Thinking of colors as numbers 1, 2, 3, 4

• Thinking of colors as numbers

• Remap and Lerp, Graph Processing

• Application of arithmetic

• Introducing explosion effects using Lerp

Understanding HDR

UV and Texture Sampling 1

• The concept of UV

UV and Texture Sampling 2

• ScrollOut

Debug Node

• Quantization and Frac

Gamma and sRGB

Convert to gray

Section 4 - Vectors

Explore the world of vectors, the flower of shader graphics. Learn the basic concepts of vectors and the Dot Product operation, which is the basis of lighting, to implement Lambert lighting, and apply it to create stylish cartoon renderings. Furthermore, master the Fresnel effect, which emphasizes the outline of objects, the Refraction effect, which expresses realistic glass or water, and the creation of a panoramic skybox, which efficiently draws a vast background, by utilizing vector operations.

The Basics of Vectors

• Understanding Vectors

  
  

• Inner product and Lambert

• Half Lambert

• Unlit cartoon rendering

Utilization of vectors 1

• Fresnel

• Refraction

Vector Utilization 2 - Panoramic Sky

Section 5 - Other

The course concludes with learning about special effects using polar coordinates, parallax mapping to maximize three-dimensionality, and frosted glass effects for a sense of depth.

Introducing useful features

• Polar coordinate

• Bump Offset and Parallax Mapping

• Milky Glass Effect