Get started with shaders and materials

Explore meshes and rendering

Explore shaders

Manage materials in a project

Simulate solid surfaces

Map materials with textures

Create translucent and transparent effects

Add physical texture with bump mapping

Refine surfaces with more texture maps

Get started with Shader Graph

Challenge: Create your still life composition

Creative Core: Shaders and materials quiz

Shaders and materials let you define how your 3D objects look: their colors, reflectivity, and physical texture. With shaders and materials, you can bring realism into your projects or express your own artistic style.  

In this mission, you will explore concepts of light and reflection, including common terms that many 3D artists use every day. You’ll apply these concepts to create your own materials and shaders that simulate real-world objects — and even some other-worldly objects. You’ll complete this mission by creating a still life composition in which you can demonstrate a variety of shaders and materials.  

By the time you complete this learning experience, you will be able to:

Explain how surfaces in Unity are defined and rendered.

Select a type of shader for your own project.

Create materials for a common shader, using a wide variety of properties.

Create your own simple shader using Shader Graph.

This project is a standalone learning experience which uses content developed for the 

. You’ll find everything you need to get started with shaders and materials in Unity, but you may also notice references to the guided learning journey for that pathway.

If you decide that you’d like to complete the whole 

, you can start at any time. You’ll receive credit for any tutorials that you have already completed when you do. 

All content in this course uses:

Unity Version 6.0