Materials in Unity

Treehouse
Course Summary
In Unity, and in computer graphics in general, a material describes the surface appearance of a 3D model. Materials can create the appearance of surfaces like wood, metal, fabric, and more. In these lessons, we'll learn how Unity implements physically based rendering, which is rapidly becoming the de facto industry methodology for creating dynamic and realistic textures.
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Course Description
About this Course In Unity, and in computer graphics in general, a material describes the surface appearance of a 3D model. Materials can create the appearance of surfaces like wood, metal, fabric, and more. In these lessons, we'll learn how Unity implements physically based rendering, which is rapidly becoming the de facto industry methodology for creating dynamic and realistic textures. What you'll learn
- Materials
- Textures
- The Standard Shader
- Physically Based Rendering
About the Teacher
Nick is a teacher at Treehouse and an independent game developer. His Twitter handle is @nickrp.
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Course Syllabus
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 stepsAdditional 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 stepsScripting 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