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Shaders in Unity with Amplify

4.3 Filled star Filled star Filled star Filled star Empty star
Based on 100 ratings
see reviews
Eric Davis

Learn how to create real time, high quality, custom materials for your game. This course teaches how to use Amplify Shader Editor in Unity without the need of shader code to create dynamic effects. Covers standard lighting examples, cell shading, vertex manipulation, and shader math to bring your materials to life.

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What's inside

Syllabus

Introduction

What we'll be covering in the course.

How to create your first shader.

Setting up the project and installing the necessary plug-ins.

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Creating our first material and navigating Amplify Shader Editor.

Explanation of lerp and how to use it.

Using emission for glowing effects.

Creating a dissolve effect with textures.

Manipulating UVs for added movement.

Foundation for creating a cell shaded style material.

Adding color and texture to our custom cell shaded lighting.

Custom outline for a more refined look.

Adding the look of fallen snow on the top of any model.

Manipulating vertex offsets to add thickness to the snow.

Using vertex offsets to create a wave like movement in the grass. Grass model included in resources.

Second layer of movement using texture masks for a more organic look.

Creating a method for the grass to move and interact with another object in the scene.

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Read about what's good
what should give you pause
and possible dealbreakers
Uses Amplify Shader Editor, which allows users to create shaders in Unity without writing code, making it accessible to artists and designers
Covers standard lighting examples, cell shading, vertex manipulation, and shader math, which are essential techniques for creating visually appealing games
Focuses on creating real-time, high-quality custom materials, which is crucial for optimizing game performance and visual fidelity in Unity projects
Explains lerp and how to use it, which is a fundamental concept in shader programming for blending between values and creating smooth transitions
Requires installing Amplify Shader Editor, which may involve a separate purchase or subscription, adding to the overall cost of learning
Teaches how to create a snow shader, which involves manipulating vertex offsets, a technique that may require some familiarity with 3D modeling concepts

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Reviews summary

Visual shader creation with amplify editor

According to students, this course is a highly effective introduction to creating shaders in Unity using the Amplify Shader Editor. Learners appreciate the clear explanations and the focus on building practical, real-world examples like dissolve, toon, snow, and grass shaders. The course is particularly lauded for making complex shader concepts accessible without needing to write code, making it ideal for beginners or those preferring visual scripting. Some more experienced users found it slightly basic, suggesting it could delve deeper into optimization or advanced techniques, but overall sentiment is overwhelmingly positive for its stated goals and methods.
Focuses on a specific editor tool.
"The course is heavily reliant on having the Amplify Shader Editor."
"If you plan to use ASE, this is the course for you."
"Understand that this teaches ASE, not manual shader coding."
"Learned the ins and outs of Amplify specifically."
Highly recommended for shader novices.
"This course is excellent for someone new to shaders or Amplify."
"As a beginner, I found this course easy to follow and incredibly helpful."
"Perfect first step into the world of Unity shaders."
"Highly accessible course for non-programmers wanting to learn shaders."
Focuses on practical shader effects.
"The examples like dissolve and grass shaders were fantastic and directly applicable."
"Building real-world effects made learning much more engaging and useful."
"I loved creating the specific shaders shown in the syllabus."
"Great practical application of shader concepts using Amplify."
Teaches shaders visually with ASE.
"Using Amplify Shader Editor without coding was a game-changer for me."
"Perfect for learning shaders visually through nodes."
"I finally understand shaders, thanks to the node-based approach."
"Great way to grasp shader logic without getting lost in code."
Concepts are explained clearly.
"Instructor makes complex concepts easy to understand and follow along."
"Everything is explained step-by-step, making it very clear."
"The way the concepts are broken down is super helpful for beginners."
"I appreciated the clarity of the lectures and demonstrations."
Some topics could use more depth.
"While great for basics, it didn't cover optimization or more advanced techniques."
"Would benefit from more in-depth exploration of certain nodes."
"Felt like it only scratched the surface on some complex effects."
"Intermediate users might find some sections a bit too basic."

Activities

Be better prepared before your course. Deepen your understanding during and after it. Supplement your coursework and achieve mastery of the topics covered in Shaders in Unity with Amplify with these activities:
Review Unity Material System
Solidify your understanding of Unity's material system to better grasp how shaders modify surface appearance.
Browse courses on Game Art
Show steps
  • Explore the Standard Shader and its properties in the Unity editor.
  • Experiment with different textures and colors on a simple object.
  • Read the Unity documentation on materials and shaders.
The Unity Shaders and Effects Cookbook
Expand your knowledge of shader creation with a cookbook full of shader examples.
View Unity Shaders and Effects Cookbook on Amazon
Show steps
  • Browse the table of contents to identify relevant shader effects.
  • Read through the recipes and try implementing them in Unity.
  • Adapt the recipes to create your own custom shader effects.
Follow Amplify Shader Editor Tutorials
Refine your Amplify Shader Editor skills by following online tutorials and examples.
Show steps
  • Search for Amplify Shader Editor tutorials on YouTube or the Amplify Creations website.
  • Follow along with the tutorials and try to recreate the shader effects.
  • Experiment with modifying the shaders to create your own variations.
Four other activities
Expand to see all activities and additional details
Show all seven activities
Document Your Shader Creation Process
Solidify your understanding by documenting the process of creating a shader.
Show steps
  • Choose a shader you created in the course.
  • Write a blog post or create a video tutorial explaining the shader's functionality.
  • Share your content with the community.
Create a Stylized Water Shader
Test your knowledge by creating a stylized water shader with refractions, reflections, and foam.
Show steps
  • Research different techniques for creating water shaders.
  • Implement the shader in Amplify Shader Editor.
  • Add refractions, reflections, and foam effects.
  • Optimize the shader for performance.
Real-Time Rendering
Gain a deeper understanding of the theory behind real-time rendering.
View Real-Time Rendering, Fourth Edition on Amazon
Show steps
  • Read the chapters on lighting, shading, and texturing.
  • Study the algorithms and techniques described in the book.
  • Apply the knowledge to your shader creation projects.
Contribute to an Open Source Shader Project
Deepen your understanding by contributing to an open-source shader project.
Show steps
  • Find an open-source shader project on GitHub or GitLab.
  • Identify a bug or feature request.
  • Contribute a fix or implement the feature.
  • Submit a pull request.

Career center

Learners who complete Shaders in Unity with Amplify will develop knowledge and skills that may be useful to these careers:
Material Artist
A material artist specializes in creating the textures and materials that define the surface properties of objects in a game. This course about creating real time, high quality, custom materials in Unity is directly relevant to a game. The course's coverage of Amplify Shader Editor allows for efficient creation of a variety of materials. The lessons on standard lighting examples, cell shading, vertex manipulation, and shader math for bringing your materials to life are very beneficial. By mastering these techniques, you can create materials that enhance the visual fidelity of your models and bring them to life within the game world.
See salaries and explore the career path for Material Artist
Visual Effects Artist
A visual effects artist is responsible for creating stunning visual effects that enhance the immersive experience of a game. This course helps because it teaches how to create real time, high quality, custom materials using Amplify Shader Editor in Unity. This is highly relevant, as it allows you to rapidly prototype and implement different visual effects without getting bogged down in complex shader code. This course covers standard lighting examples, cell shading, vertex manipulation, and shader math, all of which are essential for bringing materials to life and crafting those impressive visual effects. The course's practical examples, such as creating a dissolve effect, a toon shader, snow and grass shaders, provide a strong foundation for a visual effects artist toolkit.
See salaries and explore the career path for Visual Effects Artist
Technical Artist
As a technical artist, you serve as a bridge between the art and programming teams, ensuring that the artistic vision is realized within the technical constraints of the game engine. This course focusing on creating real time, high quality, custom materials for games directly helps. The course's coverage of Amplify Shader Editor in Unity, without requiring shader code, allows for creating dynamic effects which helps a technical artist make a game visually appealing while also being performant. Learning about standard lighting examples, cell shading, vertex manipulation, and shader math from this course helps bring materials to life, a crucial skill for a technical artist. By understanding how to use shaders, you can optimize the game's performance and create visually stunning effects.
See salaries and explore the career path for Technical Artist
Virtual Reality Developer
Virtual reality developers create immersive experiences, and shaders play a crucial role in achieving realistic and visually appealing environments. This course helps one learn how to create real time, high quality, custom materials for interactive virtual reality experiences. The course's coverage of Amplify Shader Editor in Unity allows for rapid prototyping and iteration of different visual styles and effects. The lessons on standard lighting examples, cell shading, vertex manipulation, and shader math help bring materials to life in a virtual environment. The ability to create optimized and visually compelling shaders is essential for delivering a high quality virtual reality experience, and this course provides a solid foundation in that area.
See salaries and explore the career path for Virtual Reality Developer
Augmented Reality Developer
An augmented reality developer blends digital content with the real world, and shaders are important for creating seamless integrations and visually appealing effects. This course teaches how to create real time, high quality, custom materials within the Unity engine, a common platform for AR development. The course's focus on using Amplify Shader Editor allows for rapid prototyping and iteration of AR visuals. By learning how to manipulate shaders, you can create effects that blend seamlessly with the real world and enhance the overall user experience. Understanding how to use shaders is crucial for creating engaging and believable augmented reality experiences, a skill that is bolstered by this course.
See salaries and explore the career path for Augmented Reality Developer
Lighting Artist
A lighting artist is responsible for creating the lighting schemes within a game. This course helps you learn how to create real time, high quality, custom materials for environments. The course allows you to learn about standard lighting examples. The course covers vertex manipulation and shader math to bring your materials to life. By mastering these techniques, you can create environments with lighting that brings out the best in them.
See salaries and explore the career path for Lighting Artist
Game Programmer
Game programmers implement the logic and systems that drive a game, and understanding shaders can be incredibly valuable for optimizing performance and creating custom effects. This course helps you learn how to create real time, high quality, custom materials within Unity. While the course focuses on using Amplify Shader Editor instead of writing code directly, understanding how shaders work at a high level helps you to integrate them into your game systems. The course's coverage of vertex manipulation and shader math can also help you optimize your code and create custom visual effects.
See salaries and explore the career path for Game Programmer
Shader Writer
A shader writer specializes in creating and optimizing shaders that define the visual appearance of objects and effects within a game. While this course focuses on using Amplify Shader Editor to create shaders without code, it helps you understand the underlying principles of shading, which is beneficial. The course covers standard lighting examples that build a foundation for shader creation. By learning how to use vertex manipulation and shader math to bring materials to life, you gain valuable insights into the intricacies of shader programming. Even though you might eventually delve into writing shaders from scratch, this Amplify Shader Editor course provides an accessible entry point to the world of shader development.
See salaries and explore the career path for Shader Writer
Mobile Game Developer
A mobile game developer requires knowledge about optimizing games to run on mobile devices. This course can help you create real time, high quality, custom materials for a game that are optimized for mobile hardware. This course teaches concepts such as cell shading. This shader can save processing power on mobile devices, which is useful, given their limited resources.
See salaries and explore the career path for Mobile Game Developer
Animator
Animators bring characters and objects to life through movement, and understanding shaders can enhance the visual impact of their animations. This course discusses how to create real time, high quality, custom materials in Unity, which helps boost animations. The course's focus on using Amplify Shader Editor allows for experimenting with different visual styles. You can learn how to use vertex manipulation to create animated effects directly within the shader. This skill allows you to augment your animations with unique visual flourishes.
See salaries and explore the career path for Animator
Software Engineer
Software engineers may find themselves working on rendering engines or tools that support shader development. The course on creating real time, high quality, custom materials in Unity may be useful for software engineers. It provides an overview of how shaders are created and used within a game engine. The course's focus on using Amplify Shader Editor without the need for shader code can help engineers understand the workflow and tools used by artists and designers. This allows them to better collaborate on projects and develop more effective tools for content creation.
See salaries and explore the career path for Software Engineer
Texture Artist
A texture artist creates the 2D images that are applied to 3D models to give them surface detail and visual interest. While a texture artist primarily focuses on creating the images themselves, understanding how shaders work is still helpful. This course focuses on creating real time, high quality, custom materials in Unity provides context for how their textures will be used within a game engine. The course's coverage of standard lighting examples and different shading techniques can help you create textures that look great under a variety of lighting conditions. This course may be helpful in helping you to adjust your textures to fit the needs of this course.
See salaries and explore the career path for Texture Artist
Game Designer
Game designers are involved in how a game looks and feels. While a game designer may not directly create shaders, understanding the possibilities and limitations of shader technology is invaluable. This course offers a practical introduction to creating real time, high quality, custom materials for a game. By learning how to use Amplify Shader Editor in Unity to create dynamic effects, you gain a better understanding of how shaders can enhance the visual appeal and gameplay experience. The course's examples, such as the dissolve, toon, snow, and grass shaders, provide tangible examples of how shaders can be used to create different visual effects, thus expanding your creative toolset as a game designer.
See salaries and explore the career path for Game Designer
3D Modeler
3D modelers create the assets that populate a game world, and while they primarily focus on the geometry of the models, understanding shaders can enhance their work. This course on creating real time, high quality, custom materials in Unity may be useful. The techniques in this course such as vertex manipulation and shader math, can help you understand how shaders can be used to deform and animate models. The course's examples, such as the snow and grass shaders, demonstrate how shaders can be used to add realistic effects to models. Having this knowledge can help create models that are fully compatible with the game's visual style.
See salaries and explore the career path for 3D Modeler
Level Designer
A level designer crafts the environments and layouts within a game, and having an understanding of shaders can add depth and realism to your creations. This course on creating real time, high quality, custom materials in Unity may be useful. By experimenting with the techniques taught, such as vertex manipulation and shader math, you can enhance the visual appeal of your levels and create more immersive environments. The course's examples, such as the snow and grass shaders, demonstrate how shaders can be used to create realistic environmental effects adding a layer of polish to your level designs.
See salaries and explore the career path for Level Designer

Reading list

We've selected two books that we think will supplement your learning. Use these to develop background knowledge, enrich your coursework, and gain a deeper understanding of the topics covered in Shaders in Unity with Amplify.
Cover image
Unity Shaders and Effects Cookbook
Save
Provides practical recipes for creating various shader effects in Unity. It covers a wide range of techniques, from basic lighting to advanced visual effects. It serves as a valuable reference for understanding and implementing custom shaders. This book is useful for those who want to go beyond the basics covered in the course and explore more advanced shader techniques.
Unity Shaders and Effects Cookbook
Paperback
Check
Unity Shaders and Effects Cookbook
Kindle Edition
Check
Cover image
Real-Time Rendering
Save
Comprehensive guide to real-time rendering techniques. It covers the underlying principles of computer graphics and provides detailed explanations of various rendering algorithms. While it doesn't focus specifically on Amplify Shader Editor, it provides a strong foundation for understanding the concepts behind shader creation. This book is more valuable as additional reading for those who want to delve deeper into the theory behind real-time rendering.
Real-Time Rendering, Fourth Edition
Hardcover
$$$
Real-Time Rendering
Hardcover
$$
Real-Time Rendering, Second Edition
Hardcover
$$
Real-Time Rendering, Fourth Edition
Kindle Edition
$$$

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Rating
4.3 Filled star Filled star Filled star Filled star Empty star
Effort
3.5 total hours
Via
Udemy
Instructor
Eric Davis
Language
English
Traffic lights
Read about what's good
what should give you pause
and possible dealbreakers
Uses Amplify Shader Editor, which allows users to create shaders in Unity without writing code, making it accessible to artists and designers
Covers standard lighting examples, cell shading, vertex manipulation, and shader math, which are essential techniques for creating visually appealing games
Focuses on creating real-time, high-quality custom materials, which is crucial for optimizing game performance and visual fidelity in Unity projects
Explains lerp and how to use it, which is a fundamental concept in shader programming for blending between values and creating smooth transitions
Requires installing Amplify Shader Editor, which may involve a separate purchase or subscription, adding to the overall cost of learning
Teaches how to create a snow shader, which involves manipulating vertex offsets, a technique that may require some familiarity with 3D modeling concepts
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