What Is A Shader? UE4 Materials 101 - Episode 1

[@3dRobLambert]

Probably one of, if not the best youtube channels i've come across on these topics in years. Fantastic work, keep them coming!

[@BenCloward]

Thank you!

[@tinyrainbow0505]

Thank you Ben for such a helpful tutorial series, I'm a Junior Char Artist and I'm watching your videos to learn what's actually under the hood when I'm working with textures in engine!

[@drinksoft5191]

Thank you so much for all these videos! These are treasures that you can't find elsewhere.

[@BenCloward]

どうもありがとうございました！ I really appreciate your support.

[@swagatkumarpatel4444]

I love your intro music and your tutorial are better than official tutorials

[@suprecam9880]

Ben, thank you so much for putting the time and effort into this video series. Just finished the first video to get back up to speed with Unreal’s Material editor. You cover everything simply and elegantly. Just wanted to express my gratitude, as not too many folks have the skill for both technical art *and* presentational speaking. Solid! Subscribed.

[@Slapdash86]

Agree 100%. This is an absolute goldmine - thanks Ben

[@shakaama]

Mister Cloward, thank you for not only this video, but the entire series, and even your channel. I can't thank you enough. fun fact: i need a monster energy to get through it, but my appreciation is probably creating this warm fuzzy feeling and make me nod off. every few minutes i'm just like, "oh this is soooo good, exactly what I've been hoping for, for soo lo zzzzzzzzzzz AHEM long"

[@acessoon8518]

Mostly UE4 tutorial,some of content are need to pay on market,or just one simple tutorial end up.This is true tutorial we need ! You deserve more sub and view ! Thanks so much

[@turalmemmedov3648]

Maaannnn, how I never saw this channel before :O You really need more subs. The tutorials from real developers of modern companies are what we really need. Thank you for this tutorials.

[@BenCloward]

Thanks a lot, Tural. I’m glad you like the videos! My channel is fairly new. Tell your friends!

[@merlemuliem377]

@@BenCloward Well am i right that Shaders going Hand in Hand with the Particle System ? Im creating a "Magic Ball" Effect in Houdini and want it to build in UE4. There is the Particle System called Niagara there i have to setup the Particle Flow but i need to setup the Shaders via a Materialnode is this right ? Im abit confused about it. So i have to create the Shader in the Materialnode and use Niagara System to create the Particle Effect for my "Magic Ball" ? Great Series im learning alot more then in other paid Tutorials its amazing !

[@brokemalone7011]

This is the best explanation of a shader I have come across

[@blendr64]

Thank you for putting together this course. I never thought I would get into shaders, but after going through this series with you, it really helped me get a better understanding of how they work, and make some awesome things along the way. Now I feel like I have a good foundation to experiment and start making my own materials. Can't thank you enough! For anyone just starting out, It can be challenging at times, but, Ben is great at explaining things clearly; just be patient, follow along closely, and you will begin to get more comfortable with creating increasingly more complex materials.

[@fracturedfantasy]

I'm committed to learning more about shaders, so I'm going to watch all of your videos starting with this one. I'll throw a comment on each video as I progress. This was a really good intro to shaders in unreal - having spent 2 years with Unreal already, I already knew most of this, however there were a few really good tidbits that I wasn't aware of. Thanks for the vid. 👌

[@alifarzamnia5185]

I don't really write comments for videos but this tutorial is really good and different from other tutorials, thanks for creating this series

[@MrJacksparrago]

Thank you so much for this, just what I needed. This is the thing I'm struggling with in UE4.

[@BenCloward]

You’re welcome! Hope you enjoy the rest of my videos too!

[@zminusone]

My new favorite content! Binge watching while watching my 1yo! Thanks for sharing your expertise!

[@flo615]

Thanks a lot for this video. I'm starting with creating shaders and always got frustrated when following tutorials because there are usually not so much in-depth explanations. This is exactly the kind of series I've been looking for !

[@chlbrn]

I really love tech artists sharing their ideas, opinions and especially experience. I am learning coding things and trying to become a tech artist. And man, Bioware is one of my favorite game studios and you work at Bioware. To me, that is way beyond awesome!

[@BenCloward]

Thanks Charlie! I'm glad you like the video. I'll be releasing a new one every Thursday. I have a lot of them recorded already and ready to upload. If there are specific topics you'd like me to cover, let me know.

[@robd5822]

Wow! These are great! Thanks so much for putting these videos together. Time to settle in and learn all about shaders!

[@carmenmanuela8747]

Excellent tutorials, I dont know how to tell my appreciation. Very systematic, clear and professional those are.

[@simgamedev6423]

The best videos on shaders, ever!

[@karlblumstein8396]

I found your Videos for some days. its unbelivable great. Thank you for that so much.

[@Dusk1990]

Was recommended these from a mentor, cant wait to dive in! Thank you for your time and effort!

[@BenCloward]

You’re welcome! I hope you have fun and learn some new things!

[@mandoramos6062]

Nice! I am super new to all this. Just downloaded UE5! I'm very excited. You explain everything with such simplicity. Thank you so much for these tutorials.

[@mlgnoob3126]

I’m going to watch this entire series and if I get distracted some slap me

[@OG_KIRITO]

SLAPPPPP 😂

[@isaacyoungyxt]

slap

[@EnvArtistRupesh]

*slap* 😂

[@ALLYJUNIO546456]

I have no words to express my gratitude to you, God bless you in abundance for being a such good soul, your channel is just the best Unreal content out there, I have been learning Unreal on the last 8 months and so far you have the best content.

[@03urukhai76]

Thanks a lot man! These tutorials are so great that i can't thank you enough!

[@TheGato3d]

Ben, hope all is well, thanks for putting this together.

[@3DSgeek]

These UE4 videos are great Ben.

[@coloryvr]

Many thanks for all these brilliant and helpful tutorials

[@Darkfault]

Great tutorial, thanks Ben!

[@RWHarperNC]

Great stuff Ben!

[@mkelly01]

I just found your channel, this is great stuff! I'm new to Unreal wanting to use it for filmmaking.

[@leetness13]

Thanks a lot sir, awesome tutorials. All this stuff was black magic for me, but now it makes more sense.

[@cipheroth]

🙏Master I have came herein search of Supreme Wisdom

[@memy4460]

After the first 5 min I subbed. Thanks for the clear explanation.

[@BenCloward]

You're welcome! I hope you enjoy all of the rest of the videos as well!

[@NicholasSinard]

Thanks for the video, and awesome to find somebody who worked on Robotech Battlecry! It's the reason I like mecha related things

[@BenCloward]

That was a really fun project to work on! I created the transformation and all of the animations for the Veritech fighter and really enjoyed figuring out how to make all of that work.

[@mariospeck63]

THX Ben for this nice tutorials.

[@jesseg.3371]

Holy Sh*t!!! No wonder you're so damn good at this! The Legend behind the scenes! Noice. Thank you for sharing this man

[@-Engineering01-]

Thank you master for such a great video !

[@ContentMonsters]

⭐

[@furyodev1842]

About the HLSL videos. Should I start by them or can I start right from this one? I'm only interested in making shaders for game engines but I'm wondering if HLSL can still bring me more of skills/techniques regarding graphics for video games.

[@carelevelzero]

Too funny; I go looking for some UE4 shader videos and find myself on the page of a guy I used to work with at BWA. Thanks for sharing your knowledge, Ben!

[@BenCloward]

Glad I could help!

[@pixpix1918]

Where is the difference between the term of shader and material? There are so many different definitions. And I would like to hear your opinion on that :)

[@BenCloward]

The two terms are used synonymously. If you want to be really technical, there is a difference, but personally, I don't care about it much and just use both. Technically, any code that runs on the GPU could be referred to as a shader. A material is a small part of a shader that describes the surface properties - like base color, roughness, specular, metallic, etc. A material does not contain any lighting, but a shader can contain a material, lighting, vertex transforms, etc. When you create a node graph in the Unreal Material Editor, you're creating a material, not a shader, but I often call it a shader anyway.

[@pixpix1918]

@@BenCloward I see, thank you very much for your detailed answer :)

[@FXAcademy]

thanks for sharing your tutorial! it is very useful!!

[@BenCloward]

You're welcome! I'm glad you like it. Let me know if there are any specific topics you'd like me to cover. I'll be posting a new video every Thursday.

[@sikan5158]

beautiful content!!

[@MehmetSarkd]

Really helpful. Thank you.

[@TheOfficialBMF]

Thank you so much for this.

[@kleestrat1237]

Very helpful, thank you!

[@liquaard2824]

i am also commited to waching these videos . i will also comment as i progress .

[@Kitekatstudio]

thanks so much for sharing this!!!

[@BondalapuRajeshKumar]

@Ben Cloward hi, we have a problem regarding about meagascan trees. actually i applied(painted) a burn shader on a tree downloaded from sketchfab. the mesh paint is working on the downloaded tree, but not working in on megascan trees. can we paint a burn shader on megascans european beech trees in ue5?

[@anhnhat35]

love your teaching me!

[@kalubandali2241]

Thank you! your a legend!

[@mirhammendoza]

Thank you so much for this!!

[@StianF]

I don't understand the difference between material and shader, it seems the two terms are used interchangeably here?

[@BenCloward]

Technically, a shader does "shading" - meaning lighting calculations. That means that everything we create in the Material Editor is not a shader - it's a material. All of the lighting calculations are handled by the root node. However, the two terms have been used interchangeably for a very long time, so it's perfectly acceptable to use the term "shader" to describe what we're doing here, even though it's not technically correct.

[@pohuligan5998]

Thank you very much!

[@hectorarmienta3569]

Excellent

[@cmarzo]

Hey!! I have participation in production of Flushed Away, Curious George and Dora, the explorer too!!

[@cghow]

thanks for this video

[@weareeternal3230]

Is this tutorial playlist still relevant if you're using unreal engine 5.1? Do the concepts still hold up or should I look for more recent tutorials?

[@BenCloward]

Everything in this series is still relevant for Unreal 5 - except in episode 26 where mention tessellation. That feature has been removed in Unreal 5. But everything else still works great.

[@МихаилКарев-г5ь]

Wow!!!!Thank's a lot!!!!

[@kangkang365]

Hey everyone. I' m a newer in UE. Can I use full of shader code (vertex shader, fragment shader...) in UE material?

[@jorgejacintozaratesalvatie4552]

You awesome mannnn, I'm suscrib in your channel

[@НужнобольшеЗолота-л1в]

You're my Hero!

[@jakanddaxterps5302]

tharlevfx recomend's me your channel, I'm sure I'm gonna learn so much with your tutorials

[@vickz372]

hello, can those video be also apply to unity shader graph? thanks

[@BenCloward]

Hi Victor, thanks for asking! The answer is yes and no - mostly yes, but a little no. The yes part is for all of the ideas, concepts, and core math. The no part is for the interface and some of the names of the nodes. I haven't used the Unity shader graph myself, but it's possible that some of the nodes are named differently in Unity - so you wouldn't be able to follow the tutorial "exactly" in Unity, but you should be able to take the ideas and the math I'm using and translate them for use in the Unity editor. If you're just starting out in the Unity editor, you're probably better off finding tutorials that are specifically targeted to that. But if you've used the Unity editor for awhile, you should be able to make my shader in the Unity editor just fine.

[@vickz372]

Thanks , I will give it a try .

[@th3lazyguy]

Thank you so much! :)

[@cmds.learning7426]

my god! you are great!

[@dimitriskoutris6139]

Bioware? :o I m such a big fan of dragon age and i heard about the struggle with the engine :)

[@chenzhao8144]

Thanks a lot！

[@UnityGamer2077]

Great, thank you so much. Ben, will you make some shader tutorial for Godot, it's a great opensource game engine

[@16lapin]

Respeto master

[@DrGameTazo]

subscribed!!

[@weianqi2096]

Thank you

[@tangentarc7477]

Just got a job as a lead tech artist at Bethesda - Now I need to learn what shaders, models and games are. Can someone point me to my desk?

[@BenCloward]

Lol, wut?!

[@tangentarc7477]

@@BenCloward Failed attempt at humour.

[@abilalp9104]

Thank you.

[@OneFromEasternFinland]

17:04 Are you serious? That list looks almost endless!

[@BenCloward]

This playlist goes over the the most commonly used ones and gives examples for how to use them: kzbin.info/aero/PL78XDi0TS4lEBWa2Hpzg2SRC5njCcKydl

[@dantheplanner]

I'm still using UE4.

[@ЕгорСтупников-д8н]

You are a god

[@g4fly4ever8]

Anthem is a flawed game but the graphics was amazing

[@BenCloward]

Thank you, I'm glad you liked our work!

[@srod8509]

Hello, is there a UE shader that creates rounded edges/beveled edges on selected geometry and when geometry intersects? Is it possible to write one with UE tools? I'm looking for an Unreal Engine Shader of this Unity shader example kzbin.info/www/bejne/apy8dKN7rKt6b9E

[@thelandsavior402]

Can you be my teacher? Luv you 3000

[@yarralink6138]

Hello world

[@tips6233]

If a shader is just a material why do they call it a shader?

[@BenCloward]

The terms are a bit ambiguous and are used differently in different software applications.

[@shadowmurlock282]

"Making art with math" well if you suck at math and logic, pack your bags. I hate how everything that pays better has to have math in it.

[@BenCloward]

On a more positive note, I took zero math in college, but I've been able to learn things as I go - and the fact that there is beautiful art as a result and the results are visual is a really neat motivator to learn. My trouble with math originally was that I was doing stuff with a bunch of numbers and the result was more numbers. That wasn't that impressive to me. But when the result is cool looking images, it's way easier and more motivating to figure it out - because I can see something visual as a result.

[@shadowmurlock282]

@BenCloward I came to the same conclusion after thinking it over while I read my comment, I'm a college student at LSU and I'm coming up to my senior year and I decided to take on a rigging project and well I've come to realize I like making cool looking stuff more than making something move.