Unity Shader Graph - Stylized Trails Tutorial

[@GabrielAguiarProd]

Stylized effects are awesome aren't they? 💥Go learn this awesome Stylized Explosion: www.udemy.com/course/visual-effects-for-games-in-unity-stylized-explosion/?couponCode=17.99_UNTIL_20-09

[@oliverdumrique6269]

One of the best shader tutorials I've seen in a while! Perfectly paced and informative of the whole process. Subscribed!

[@its_jesteR]

I just wanna tell you that i appericiate you releasing these tutorials and making them available for free. Thank you for helping aspiring developers and lots of love

[@AshCooper-d6c]

nice tutorial! i appreciate how you show us every step along the way, even the process of drawing your own custom trail.

[@GabrielAguiarProd]

Glad it was helpful!

[@RiversJ]

Fantastic to see you getting sponsored by Unity, your tutorials inspired me to dabble in VFX Graph, now i get to do it professionally.

[@GabrielAguiarProd]

That's so awesome! Wish nothing but the best ;)

[@manolov4074]

Unity sponsorship AHHAHA NICE. I love that I was a part of the channel when it was not big :) Keep killing em Gabi !!

[@morganlak4337]

This is such a fantastic and simple technique, I'm an unreal user but it transfers seamlessly

[@nikhilvardhantawania4591]

ISSUE: Trail is flattened out instead of waved FIX: 1. Make sure in the Master Node(Vertex-Fragment) you have "Alpha Clip Threshold" is present and enabled not grayed out. 2. And of course for the texture png image properties set the WRAP mode to 'Repeat' and TEXTURE TYPE as 'Default'.

[@GabrielAguiarProd]

That's an awesome Tip, thanks for sharing it with the community! 👍

[@okidokii2871]

you're amazing! Thank you!

[@madhusudansharma9506]

I still have that issue

[@saharalucas2668]

Thank you so much you saved my night with this!

[@MSCardinal]

The best Unity VFX channel strikes again. Thank you very much for your awesome tutorials :)

[@GabrielAguiarProd]

You're very welcome!

[@RafaelSnyder-c2j]

like

[@raploky]

It's awesome! Thank you! I feel like traveler discovering new places when I watch your tutors!

[@GabrielAguiarProd]

Glad you like them!

[@boncret]

Looks amazing and its adaptable on many different uses!

[@serj_1264]

hi Gabriel! congrats for your recent milesteone! 5M views! Truely deserved!

[@GabrielAguiarProd]

That's so awesome from you, thanks Sergio! Have a great week!

[@TheUncutAngel]

every time i think i did anything neat in my own project you come out with a tutorial that's so lightweight and perfect it forces me to redo my efforts :( lol

[@GabrielAguiarProd]

lol well, didn't meant to ;) Good luck on your project btw !

[@Airidas12111]

Thank you so much for these amazing tutorials! I have recently started looking more into VFX and your videos and courses in Udemy are very helpful

[@GabrielAguiarProd]

Glad you like them!

[@manai2683]

This is almost good for some stylized slashes too. Interesting.

[@kumorikuma]

Thank you so much! This is exactly what I was looking for and it was really easy to follow along

[@roowiki]

How did you solve it?

[@HeddaSolstad]

I feel like I just watched black magic.... I am gonna have to rewatch this video a few times to get everything. But thank you for making the tutorial

[@gentlemengamings]

This is great! Im making a demon slayer vr game, and these will be great for the breathing styles!

[@hayesgeldmacher8592]

this was super helpful- Thank you!

[@GabrielAguiarProd]

Glad it was! 👍

[@satellite4349]

Thanks so much for this tutorial! I ended up just using the particle effect at the end, I'm making a first person spell casting game and the trail looks really flat when its traveling directly away from the camera, but the particles still look super cool! I'm sure I will deffinitely find a good use for the trails though!

[@igormoreiravilhena2917]

Thank you so much Gabriel! 🙏👌💯

[@delspeedy]

Great tutorial i learned so much from you. Thanks a lot you are the best!

[@GabrielAguiarProd]

Happy to hear that!

[@manolov4074]

Gabi , I had a very interesting idea for a video. Might as well drop it here in the comments. It will probably be very difficult tho. The idea is to create a vfx of a realistic water but it can gradually fill up a tank. And that way we can show the mesh rising up with the help of the Vfx. I think that would be an interesting thing. Niagara in Unreal had something like that but no one ever showed how it is done. Thought it might be cool. Cheers :)

[@GabrielAguiarProd]

Thanks for the idea! Difficult, but thanks ;)

[@manolov4074]

@@GabrielAguiarProd It is difficult for sure :) No problem. I really want to see the channel grow even more. I think you deserve it :)

[@benjaminlehmann]

This is totally epic. Excellent. Thank you.

[@alexchatziagapis2351]

Love this channel

[@thejaycem]

Damn, i got 8 ads in that video, hope that you earn some money from it

[@yichongshen2928]

Awesome tutorial! You are so helpful like always.

[@RobinDoesUnity]

My dude, that tutorial was amazing! Thank you so much for offering these for free. I will consider subscribing to your patreon. :)

[@juliaeichhorst]

at 10:25 your trail looks very whispy at the end, for me mine looks chunky as it dissipates no matter what texture I make. Do you know what I could be doing wrong? As well, when I move my trail around it produces it on multiple planes that are highlighted when i'm moving it, making it look weird when it making it turn corners cause it folds on it's self

[@miserstecher123]

thats probably due to the unity provided trail renderer not being as well made, i'd suggest trying some of the free options mentioned in this tutorial, i myself have literally no idea what to do either or how to implement the community provided renders but i guess we have no other option anyway :)

[@Hina_763_sorasaki]

really helped a lot! thanks!

[@dagarik1979]

everything worked out, except for the movement of particles behind the wake. All settings are in local. When changing "update particles" from "global" to "local", the particles continue to rotate around the glowing point and do not follow the tail. Help me solve the problem

[@rovivodesign9387]

I love you Gabriel

[@AlqueMeteor]

So cool!

[@antix527]

Do you think you could release a beginner course on shader graph? all these tutorials are so amazing and easy-to-follow but I think something that goes more in-depth with explanations and gives me a greater understanding of what exactly I'm doing and why, would be great! I'd definitely pay for it. Thanks :D

[@GabrielAguiarProd]

Yes I totally understand. Well there's this course which is exactly that, from beginner to intermediate: www.udemy.com/course/unity-visual-effect-graph-beginner-to-intermediate/?couponCode=16.99_UNTIL_20-03

[@antix527]

@@GabrielAguiarProd amazing! Thankyou

[@JackAllpikeMusic]

No matter what I seem to do, my trail seems to have a hard edge, with no transparency dropping off on the sides. :/

[@Liqvidniy]

Beautiful

[@rutchjohnson]

Very helpful tutorial!

[@akiraakiraakiraakira]

amazing. thank yu so much :3

[@bantix9902]

This is magic to me

[@johnw3194]

Great ,thanks!

[@nxt_tim]

Really love your vids. Do try to reduce the "by the way" tho please, it gets a bit distracting over time

[@felipe18383]

Great tutorial, Thanks!

[@GabrielAguiarProd]

You're welcome!

[@OnTheWayToTheDirection]

RESPECT!!!!! BRO

[@lejocarry]

Problem : My trail seems flat unlike your "flame movement"... Fix : the import parameters of the png were wrong. Make sure to have Texture Type : Defauult (I was doing sprite/pixel art) Thanks for the tutorial ! It's really good stuff ♥

[@GabrielAguiarProd]

Thanks for sharing

[@mariodanielvazquez5368]

I tried with this solutions but it didn't work for me. The solution was changing the Wrap Mode to: "Repeat" (on the PNG properties). Thanks!

[@nat-rose]

@@mariodanielvazquez5368 YES that worked thank you!

[@binodsarkarIN]

doesnt work, mine was set on default but it still looks flat, please help ?

[@nikhilvardhantawania4591]

@@binodsarkarIN Same for me

[@suicune2001]

Thanks! I was doing ok until it came to clamping the alpha. Then the whole thing turns invisible for some reason. :( I'm still trying to figure out why.

[@GabrielAguiarProd]

Try to play with alpha clip, you may need to turn it On in the Graph Inspector.

[@suicune2001]

@@GabrielAguiarProd For whatever reason I had to uncheck the Alpha Clip option for it to work properly. 0_o

[@incbyakyabyakya6275]

@@suicune2001 did u find the solution?

[@suicune2001]

@@incbyakyabyakya6275 Apparently I had to uncheck the alpha clip. Which is basically the opposite of what he had to do. It's very strange.

[@incbyakyabyakya6275]

@@suicune2001 i have found the problem, it was too small intensity of the white in the alpha texture)

[@woohj7649]

Thanks tutorial!

[@chicao.do.blender]

your work is amazing mas ce já sabe disso. o tanto de conhecimento q eu obtive em 5 segundos do seu video vale horas de leitura de documentação.

[@lawrence9713]

I want such ball attached to a character and the trail appears when the character moves. but the vfx does not stay in place and disapears

[@sanfera5644]

One more option! You can multiply the entire shader with a gradient, and control the gradient with a custom float value. So basically, a new UV, create a new gradient, multiply this with a float value of 1, and then multiply this float controlled gradient with final result of the shader. Then, create a particle system that does nothing, Add Custom Data, Vector with 1 element, Element name X, change it to the float name you use to control the shader, And control the float with a curve by using the particle lifetime. Adjust the particle lifetiem to juust a bit shorter than trail itself, and voilla. Or, the custom data part could be added to whatever particle system you wanted to attach this trail to. What is actually happening is, trail's end point will become invisible and then trail will close off. Since the shader already faded out, the stretched end of trail will be invisible and its animation doesn't matter. Is it good? Eeehhh... Only one trail maybe. Or multiple custom datas with multiple shader float values, all with different names. Not the most elegant way maybe, but it worked for me.

[@pequeno3d]

Really awesome 😱

[@BrianLife]

( Question then Fixed Edit: Im so grateful. I have one issue, ( so far) my texture is very clipped, like I dont see the smooth soft brush, gradients I made in Krita, the wave. it seems to be almost clamping or harshly crude around edges. not like my texture...ad tips? EDIT: oh I had Alpha clipping oN, when I shut it off, is shows as the black /gray/white texture is, smooth, soft! wow!

[@darrenblondin]

Thanks a lot for this tutorial. Mine, when it's moving it looks great, but when it stops the trail sort of folds up like an accordion. I noticed your trail stays long and flowing when the object isn't moving. How do you achieve that and do you have any advice to keep it from folding up? I'm guessing this is an artifact of the stretch texture mode and I couldn't find any obvious way to minimize it.

[@FourMileFox]

Having the same issue. The trail kind of tapers off and then restarts. Were you able to resolve this?

[@albertpujols6589]

so beautiful! useful video

[@outside2000s]

One question: How did you make the trail's transparent smooth while turning on the alpha Clipping?🤔If I turn off the alpha Clipping, the transparent is soft but the shadow's shape does not fit the trail's shape.

[@csellers900]

1:51 why don't I have those 3 options on the tab list dropdown?

[@TheNei]

Very Cool!! Thanks!!

[@pygarg26]

Great but how do you remove the shadows ?

[@AnilAnimator123]

Amazing tutorial!! Please keep share video like this. I have bought a course of your from Udemy.

[@farfama]

Great tutorial. Any tips on how to make it feel less stylized? I like the effect but it doesn't match the more realistic graphics I have in my game currently.

[@vladislavussenko6477]

Thanks man

[@plyrni3]

Wow big gg This is beautiful

[@astridpinel]

my material just looks bright pink when I drag and drop it!!! what might be the problem!?!?!

[@mipd7935]

I noticed that in the tutorial there is always a shadow to the tail...but in the final render there is not....how could I remove this shadow?

[@Ai_Unofficial]

Can I get this trail using build in pipeline

[@zskull162]

I am on an older unity version (2019.4.31), and i don't see "Shader Graph > Blank Shader graph" in the create menu. What do I do instead?

[@GabrielAguiarProd]

You can start with an Unlit Graph.

[@xXRazor03Xx]

I wonder, I have encountered a problem in Unity where a Visual effect is not shown in the Scene window but funnily renders and shows in the game window. Do you or someone know wy this is?

[@jeronimocollares320]

Hi. At 13.56, where or how u change the size (how to enable to type the value and parameter)? (edited - spacebar :) )

[@estebanairasca6435]

Great work Gabriel, now I'm kinda of interested in VFX but the thing is that IDK when using shader is a good idea or textures, or both for making something. I mean of course it depends on what I'm looking for but if you can tell me some advice it would be great!

[@CompetitiveMinecraftLegacy]

please help, when i set the texture of the trail to the texture you showed us how to create, the "tilling and offset" block part just transforms it into a wide line

[@HJY4353]

The material of the shader graphs looks pink, but what should I do?

[@GabrielAguiarProd]

Make sure you are in URP or HDRP. Don't forget to press the 'Save Asset' button on the top left corner of shader graph.

[@somecookie4329]

@@GabrielAguiarProd I had the same Problem and the 'Save asset' Button solved it, Thanks!

[@workthenplay]

@@GabrielAguiarProd The save asset was the fix for me too. Thanks!!

[@leonard4]

Is there a way to make the VFX trail only follow the Trail object and not be affected by a parent object that that trail is a child of? Trying to use this as a rotating fire shield effect but when the player moves the trail is moving with the player and not just rotating with its own circular trail.

[@neelamshahi8630]

Keep it up

[@AlanAstle]

I don't understand what the "specially prepared texture that comes with telegraph" is. Is this a commercial texture?

[@francescobrunocia3110]

Can i increase the density of particle emitted by my trail

[@jakemarcus9999]

How do you have all those options available like depth write? I'm working in Unity 2021.7 and they're not anywhere to be found.

[@peny1981]

Can i make sth like trailrederer using this tool? For example with transparency of trail changing progesivly with its lenght.

[@AlexanderBurdun]

Hi! I've tried to use this shader as strip renderer inside VfxGraph, but is is "inverted" (transparent at start and solid at the end) I've played with it a lot of time but not achieved success, would you help me with it? I've tried to invert movement of noize textures and cutting direction but result is the same.

[@BrianLife]

Are there other ways to make this smooth, with the Unity version, no plug in or purchased packages? Any adjustments to be made so it’s not glitchy? K don’t have money to by the $30, one.

[@psadicodes]

I have pink issue with shader how do I fix it ? (I am using 2D) please help me

[@GabrielAguiarProd]

Are you in URP?

[@dhaloh]

Mine's also pink and I'm in URP.

[@dhaloh]

I had the same problem and I found why it happened. When he saves the asset I did ctrl + s to save but that doesn't save the asset, it saves the file. You have to click "save asset" in your shadergraph top menu and then create material.

[@IndieGamesWTF]

I'm trying the same stuff with HDRP but the result is very different :/

[@gtgmyt2589]

Bro how to make shader like Zelda with unity

[@nikolaifilipov4163]

I followed the steps but my trail does not have the smoke detail at the end of the tails so can someone help me achieve that please :)

[@onuronursal2156]

hey can you do a tutorial about water splashing and wave attack or something like that?

[@GabrielAguiarProd]

Maybe, yeah.

[@TubbyMusics]

hello can we do this same in built in renderer ?

[@GabrielAguiarProd]

Yes you can. In the latest unity versions 2021.2 you can use shader graph in the built in renderer.

[@TubbyMusics]

@@GabrielAguiarProd i using unity 2021.2 but when i do everything you do in this video, unity gives me a pink texture ( null material )

[@MM-od9gr]

i followed the tutorial until 7:01 bt my shader turns out pink, i also checked if i followed all steps, i´m wondering if u have an idea what it could be?

[@GabrielAguiarProd]

Make sure you are in URP. I would recommend creating an empty project with Unity Hub and select URP as the template.

[@jbsunking]

How come my default particle is not scrolling like yours...?

[@GabrielAguiarProd]

There's a drop down menu in the scee, you can google it where it is, called Animated Materials. Maybe you need to to turn it on to see the shader in action. OR make sure the material assigned has a value different then 0 in the speed.

[@aquazzz2000]

gasm as always ;]

[@sekker2k446]

Some realistic vfx for hdrp? Thanks i LOVE your skills

[@vampirexorcist]

i applied the material on the plane but its just a magenta color? please help.

[@aaronsimon5527]

Hey - If you're still having this issue (or anyone else) you may need to upgrade your project you use the Universal Render Pipeline. There's official unity documentation if you search "Installing the Universal Render Pipeline into an existing Project". I had this issue but it was only because i was missing the final step.

[@issaelynuma9001]

time node is not working. some Help?

[@catafest]

good tutorial ! thank you for share. can you make a shield with a custom geometry ?

[@GabrielAguiarProd]

Maybe something like this: kzbin.info/www/bejne/f4ukq5ahf8aGhZo

[@catafest]

@@GabrielAguiarProd Looks ok! Thank you.

[@Hyphen3372]

can you help me? idk what is going on but the simple noise is broken for and idk how to fix it.

[@GabrielAguiarProd]

How broken? Make sure shader graph is up to date btw.

[@UltramarineAfterglow]

I appreciate this tutorial, but the Unity trail renderer is quite clunky to work with (just as the Unity line renderer). I personally much prefer making these effects only with the Unity shadergraph and vfx graph. But your tutorials are awesome :)

[@GabrielAguiarProd]

Agreed! Around 12:12 I mention that the trail renderer is not that great and there’s alternatives for creating smooth trails.

[@ripsy]

The start of my trail textuer is like a sharp line, how can i get it to blend in more?

[@GabrielAguiarProd]

Not sure what's happening there, but the texture is very important. Try to play with it rotate it, scale it down or up, etc.

[@dasnomessan4568]

Every time i create a martial for the shader and add it to my plane 3d Objekt it turn just pink and i cant see shit on the plane Help plz

[@GabrielAguiarProd]

Make sure you press the Save Asset button on the top-left corner in Shader Graph.

[@dertobbe1176]

Good

[@conceptualandclinical190]

How to add this trail effect behind my character in 2D platformer? Can anyone help me with that please

[@__dane__]

I'm surprised you didn't try to figure out Particle Strips in VFX Graph

[@GabrielAguiarProd]

Guess I hadn't the time, plus the focus was a bit more towards the shader and texture. But if you end up creating trails with the Particle Strip in VFX Graph, let me know. I'm curious.

[@__dane__]

@@GabrielAguiarProd I'm working on something now. Particle strips are still missing some features but I've been making good progress lately. My latest experiment has been to use the Heads and Trails system but instead of Trigger Event Over Time use Trigger Event Always. Set the Trigger Event Always Rate to the strip capacity in the Initialize Particle Strip Context. Then, for the strips, I Set Position to the result of a Bezier curve created from oldPosition, position, and targetPosition (all set to current). I did try using oldPosition (Source) as point A - and that should work well in runtime - but I was having some annoying position snapping when using a test animation in timeline (this is likely only an issue that only appears when editing in timeline, it does not appear when the system is played normally). You can use the built-in Sample Bezier node or you can create a (three-point) Quadratic Bezier Curve with a few simple lerps (see Freya's Bezier Curves video for a great example). There is a simpler example given (in one of the threads linked below) to lerp between oldPosition and position using a T value = spawnIndex / spawnCount; Following that example I used T = spawnIndexInStrip / spawnCount for my strips. I've tried using particleCountInStrip instead of spawnCount but I haven't determined if there are any significant differences yet. Unity has prototyped smooth spawning mode using sub-frame interpolation, shown in one of the following threads. These two threads discuss the current issues vfx graph has with spawning from a moving system: forum.unity.com/threads/trigger-event-over-distance-how-to-spawn-evenly-between-position-and-oldposition.1190797/ forum.unity.com/threads/how-to-improve-appearance-of-a-moving-system-spawning-behavior.1166027/

[@ThanhNguyen-po7zy]

For some reason, I see the tail only when I move the trail, then it is shorten and disappear. Do you know why? Thanks for the nice tutorial btw.

[@GabrielAguiarProd]

That's normal behaviour of the Trail Renderer. If you wanna have a look at the trail and work on it without disappearing you can increase the duration/lifetime to a lot and then move the trail a little bit to the side "only with one stroke".

[@gomolemomolefhi8929]

I'm confused...really I mean do i have to use different yearly versions of unity specifically for these effects or can I do all this with my unity 2019 Lts? Please answer me anyone

[@GabrielAguiarProd]

For the shader you simply need a shader editor like Shader Graph (if you are in 2019 URP or HDRP) or Amplify Shader (for 2019 SRP). The Trail Renderer exists in pretty much all versions.

[@gomolemomolefhi8929]

Thnx mate