How can you use shaders and materials to create unique rendering styles?

1 What are shaders and materials?

Shaders are programs that run on the graphics processing unit (GPU) and determine how pixels are colored and shaded. They can manipulate the vertex positions, the surface normals, the texture coordinates, the lighting parameters, and the output colors of your 3D models. Materials are collections of properties and textures that define the appearance of your 3D models. They can include parameters such as color, roughness, metallicness, transparency, emission, and more. Materials use shaders to calculate how these properties affect the final pixel colors.

2 How to create shaders and materials?

Creating shaders and materials can be done in a variety of ways, depending on the software and platform you are using. For example, you can use a visual node-based editor, such as Shader Graph in Unity or Material Editor in Unreal Engine, to drag and drop nodes that represent different functions and operations to create complex shader logic. Alternatively, you can write shader code in a specific language like HLSL, GLSL, or Cg to define the input and output variables, the uniform parameters, and the main functions that execute the shader logic. Lastly, you can use a hybrid approach where you create the basic structure of your shader with a visual editor and edit the generated code to customize it.

3 How to create cel shading?

Cel shading is a rendering style that mimics the look of hand-drawn cartoons or comics. To achieve this effect, you must use a diffuse shader to calculate the color of your model based on the angle between the surface normal and the light direction, using a step function or color ramp for discrete bands of color. Additionally, an outline shader should be used to draw a thin black border around your model by duplicating it, scaling it up slightly, flipping its normals, and coloring it black. Finally, a post-processing effect should be applied to add noise, bloom, or other filters to enhance the cartoonish look.

4 How to create toon shading?

Toon shading is a rendering style that uses soft gradients and smooth edges to create a more realistic and subtle effect than cel shading, often used in anime or manga style graphics. To achieve this, you must use a diffuse shader that calculates the color of your model based on the angle between the surface normal and the light direction, utilizing a smoothstep function or a gradient texture to create smooth transitions between different shades of color. Additionally, you should use a specular shader that calculates the reflection of the light on your model based on the angle between the surface normal, the light direction, and the view direction. Again, you can use a smoothstep function or a gradient texture to create smooth transitions between different levels of brightness. Finally, you should employ a rim light shader that adds a bright highlight to the edges of your model facing away from the light; this can be determined by using a dot product or a fresnel effect based on the angle between the surface normal and the view direction.

5 How to create pixel art?

Pixel art is a rendering style that uses low-resolution graphics and limited colors to create a retro and nostalgic effect. It is often used in indie games or pixel art animations. To create pixel art, a pixelate shader should be used to reduce the resolution of the screen by dividing it into small squares and averaging the colors within each square. The palette shader should be used to limit the number of colors on the screen by mapping each color to the closest one in a predefined color palette. Additionally, a dithering shader should be used to add some noise or patterns to the screen to create the illusion of more colors or gradients. The coordinates and pixel colors can be calculated using a floor function, mod function, texture lookup, switch statement, random function, or texture lookup.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?