Ocean shader that procedural generates waves using a Gerstner wave equation that is set up in a separate material function. The colors of the water are determined based off of the height of the normals. The base color is established through a series of Lerps and Depth Fades that help to create a gradient depending on the location of the water in relation to an object.

Screenshot of my updated ocean material where I have switched over to a Gerstner Wave Material Function  (based off the information HERE). The Material Function helps create stronger wave deformation and boosts the actual appearance that it is a moving ocean.

Screenshot of the old method that I used to produce the waves. It was a series of sine/cosine waves overlapping with one another over different periods. It was effective to a degree but not at achieving the desired effect that I wanted.

This video showcases both the candle flame particle and the wax material that I created. I put it together in Unreal Engine 4 and utilized their Subsurface material properties. The lights from the candles really push the effect of the material.

Simple subsurface material that I put together in Unreal Engine 4 that simulates light passing through the material, such as light from a candle flame, and causes the material to be more realistic in its rendering. The light passes through the peach colored wax to produce an orange tone.

My WIP lake water shader. It is very much at the bare bones level right now, but with effort and time it will look as great as my ocean water shader.

Very much a work in progress. I have not had as much time recently to really flush out the shader and get it looking as nice as the ocean shader. I am trying to simulate lake water.

The reel shows off four materials that I worked on for a personal project that correspond to objects that I have. I wanted to practice with making realistic shaders in Unreal Engine 4 using a mix of pictures taken in real life, as well as, procedural textures created in Unreal. Working from reference has really increased the quality of my work and having the objects at hand to manipulate really allowed me to get my materials looking as realistic as possible. My proudest accomplishment is the glass material that I put together in Unreal. It was a challenge and Unreal has some issues rendering glass but I am really happy with the way it came out. Also it would be nice to get some anisotropic reflections on the brushed metal.

This still showcases the glass material that I created alongside the reference that I used. I was working with an empty cologne bottle that I just happened to save. The glass had an amazing clarity and played with the light in such an interesting way. It would be great if in the future Unreal would support better refraction and light manipulation through translucent materials but the fact that Unreal is not usually utilized as a rendering software I can understand the lack of ability. That being said they have come a long way.

This is the tree bark material that I compiled in Unreal. I first took the photo under some usually not recommended settings (bright sunlight) and then tried to adjust it to the best of my ability in Photoshop. The photo adjustments proved to be a little difficult. I managed to remove as many shadows and highlights as possible and worked on getting the bark to have a visually tactile feel so it would look believable. Another challenge that I had to overcome was the fact that the color of the tree bark is slightly similar to that of a rock and I needed to figure out how to make it look visually different than that.

Again I used a part of the cologne bottle that I referenced for my glass material. The metal material really gets controlled by the roughness. I do kind of wish I could have figured out how to achieve an anisotropic reflection on the material but I have not quite found the correct reference for it. Maya provides a shader that allows easy manipulation at the cost of render time. Something like that in Unreal would really improve the way different metals can be manipulated.

I referenced my laptop bag for this material. This was probably the second hardest material for me to create simply because the roughness and the displacement were really finicky to get just right. I also had issues with getting the displacement to work properly because I constantly altered the tiling of the material to get it looking closer to the reference. Every time I changed the tiling it would change the way the displacement looked. It was a successful attempt at recreating the leather on my bag. For future exercises, I think that I want to use a larger reference.

This was a project that I took on to further my develop with creating non-organic materials. This is usually my realm of comfort when texturing because the materials are readily understandable and can be manipulated in a way that is known. Organic materials have a more chaotic trait to them which can be harder to capture properly. This was also a project of redemption because I wanted to redeem myself for the quality and model of the scythe that I used. It was a highlight in a previous project of mine and I feel like I did not do the best that I could have on it. I wanted to really nail the materials this time and give it a look fitting of the weapon I believe it to be.

This project was a stretch for me. I have never taken on organic modeling or materials before and I was really concerned about what the scene I was going to create would be. Thankfully a friend pointed me into the direction of shrines and it kickstarted my ideation process. I decided to create a sort of mushroom garden around the shrine because they have a lot to offer in terms of subsurface light play and the way their textures can be rendered. There are so many different types of mushrooms so they provided a lot of texture variation.

This project was an endeavor for myself to delve into the more technical side of materials and particle generation. The scene was compiled using on hand assets. The only new objects are the main focal objects. The idea was to transition a weapon from one material state to another whilst incorporating particles to help better tie the scene together.

This model sheet depicts my first milestone in my project. I created the initial scythe model and set up its two different material states. The model was created using Maya and the two different textures were painted on using Substance Painter.

With feedback in hand I went back into Maya and adjusted the model to create a more sturdy staff for the scythe. I also took the model back into Substance and created a more suiting texture for it. Included in the sheet is some of my shader work where the transition between the two materials occurred. The transition was controlled using timeline.

The rune particles trigger as is being generated by a spell signalling the start of the transition for the object. After the cloud of runes disappears spinning disks of light appear and begin the transition for the weapon.

Render of my final product in Unreal 4. The material transition has started. Along with the transition some scripted particles are following it to better enhance the effect.

The accompanying particles are slowly passing up and along the scythe as the material transitions from worn and old to fresh and new.

Still shot of the end of the scene. The transition ended with the blade fresh and good as new.

Double burst version of the firework particle. There is a secondary burst after the initial burst along with added trails from the particles. The particle follows a sequence of events so that each burst and trail occurs when/where it is told to.

This is a cascade screenshot of the emitter set up within Unreal Engine 4. It is a series of events that trigger one another upon their death. The primary burst sends off a signal to the secondary bursts that also trigger the respective trail sparkles. The hardest thing to get right was the burst scale within the particle so that all of the sprites triggered all at once and were perceived like their real world counterpart. I utilized THIS WEBSITE [link on the bolded text] to capture the colors of the fireworks in a way that reflects reality so as to not appear cartoonish.

Video of the single burst version of the firework. The particle is powered by instance parameters and is easily customized to whatever requirements are needed for the event. The smoke within the particle is still being tweaked.

This was my first attempt at making a firework particle. It was just a simple burst that had tail sprites emerge, or bloom, out of the center and then flicker away leaving behind smoke. Even in its simplicity it was still a challenge to get quite right. My biggest challenge was overcoming some spawn issues and getting the smoke to appear and disappear uniformly without overcoming the firework.

The tail particles for the fireworks are entirely separate entities due to the nature of the firework particle. The way the emitters are set up would not allow for the tails and the firework burst to be in one single system so I put them together using a Blueprint Script. The tail particle produces its own smoke and sends glowing sprites downward to simulate the flight of the firework.

This particle is similar to the previous tail particle but it differs just in the way it spawns emitters. It has a more shower like spawn rate and descent rather than the cone shape the other tail takes on.  Both particle systems [the tails] have a "Shell" emitter that is spawned from the generation of the actual sprite. This "shell' emitter simulates the actual shell that fireworks are contained in and the light/energy they emit when combusting.

Clip showcasing my torch fire particle from Unreal 4.

Using the Sub-UV material below I created this flame particle with a torch fire as reference. There are also some embers orbiting the particle to create some subtle hints of particulates flowing off.

Screenshot of the particle layout in Cascade (Unreal 4). The particle emits its own light and interacts with the environment.

My campfire particle in action within Unreal Engine 4. Adding in the vector fields to help push the embers and flame movement really helped to solidify the effect.

A reworked version of the Torch particle. I have taken it and widened the flames location as well as increased the amount of smoke and embers that are produced. I also added in a vector field from Autodesk Maya to better simulate the embers movement from a fire as the wood pops.

Cascade screenshot of the layout for the particle. There is now a second flame emitter creating smaller versions of the fire to make it flit in and out a little better. There is also a duplicated embers emitter that produces bursts of embers moving around the fire and disappearing.

This material controls the embers that are in both particles. There is a dynamic parameter within the material that allows myself and other users to control the flicker amount on the embers.

Clip of the candle flame particle along with a wax material to really highlight how a candle would look.

Fire material that utilizes Sub-UVs and is enhanced via some UV and Macro-UV distortion through panning noise textures through the UV information. This distortion solidifies the very fluid-like nature of fire and helps to enhances the particles that utilize this material. This material was used for both the Torch Fire particle and the Campfire Particle.

Simple smoke material that was created first in Photoshop and then brought into Unreal 4. The material adds some noise information to the material in order to add alpha jitter through each sprite emission in the particle editor.

Still image of the candle flame particle. I have since updated the particle from its previous render. This version is utilizing the Fire Material that I created. It has turned out to be quite resourceful in its possible uses. The updated particle is tapered more and actually produces flicks of light on the scene.

The candle flame material is just a basic radial gradient mask that I have added some panning normal distortion to enhance the heat distortion. It also allows for some variety within the sprites so that it is not entirely read as a flat entity.

Cascade screenshot from Unreal Engine 4. I put together two emitters to create a candle flame. One emitter controls the flame and the other controls heat distortion from the flame.

Video showcasing the force field particle within Unreal Engine 4. Some of the particle has been pushed using a post process volume. The effects help to solidify the magic effect.

Still image of a force field particle that I have been working on in Unreal 4. I wanted to make it have a magical feel to it so I added a mesh overlay with a duplicate material and panned a rune texture over it.

Series of Mesh data emitters that rotate and scale over each other to create the pulsating effect you can see in the video. The tiny sprites were added to boost the magical quality of the particle.

Material snapshot showing the basic nodes used. Simply there are noise textures panning over each other to create distortion that can be utilized within cascade.