Materials in Unity

Understanding Materials

In Unity, and in computer graphics in general, a material describes the surface appearance of a 3D model. When a model is first created in a 3D modeling application like Maya, it doesn't have any kind of surface appearance - it's just a uniform blank canvas that's made out of polygons. However, in the real world, an object might be made out of metal, wood, fabric, ceramic, and more. Materials allow us to create a huge variety of surfaces. 6 steps

• What is a Material? 3:02
• The Standard Shader 6:41
• Materials and The Standard Shader 5 questions
• Physically Based Rendering 7:26
• Applying Texture Maps 7:38
• Physically Based Rendering and Texture Maps 5 questions
• Extra Credit Read Marmoset's article on physically based rendering. Even if you don't understand it all, you'll likely gain a deeper understanding of PBR, which will help you work with materials in the future.

Textures in the Standard Shader

The Standard Shader is Unity's implementation of Physically Based Rendering. It has several inputs that help describe the color, smoothness, and bumpiness of a surface. Each of these inputs accepts a texture map for more fine-tuned manipulation. 6 steps

• Albedo Maps 6:11
• Metallic Maps 5:04
• Albedo and Metallic Maps 5 questions
• Smoothness Maps 6:28
• Normal Maps 7:18
• Smoothness and Normal Maps 5 questions
• Extra Credit Feeling ambitious? Authoring textures can be difficult if you've never done it before, but try using some of the textures included in the project files and adjusting them in Photoshop. Some of the results might be surprising to you, which will help you form a better understanding of how each individual map works inside the Standard Shader.

Additional Textures in the Standard Shader

Typically in the Standard Shader, the texture slots for albedo, metallic-smoothness, and normal will be filled. However, there are additional texture slots in the Standard Shader which allow you to add more detail. 6 steps

• Height and Ambient Occlusion Maps 6:36
• Emissive Maps 4:00
• Height, Ambient Occlusion, and Emissive Maps 5 questions
• Secondary Maps 3:53
• Rendering Modes 4:16
• Secondary Maps and Rendering Modes 5 questions
• Extra Credit Try adjusting some of the intensity values for things like height and emissive to see the effect they have on each material.

Scripting Materials

The material properties of the Standard Shader can be accessed via script. This makes it possible to animate materials and adjust their properties over time. 5 steps

• Scripting Material Parameters 6:12
• Animating Material Offsets 8:30
• Setting Emissive Colors 6:23
• Animating Emissive Colors 5:52
• Scripting Materials 5 questions
• Extra Credit Try coming up with your own scripts for the Standard Shader. What types of effects can you create by animating properties over time?