So I have been toying around with material creation for a while, worked through all the official resources (videos, wiki, etc.) and now seem to have hit a wall in terms of progress. While I am able to create basic materials with some effects, I have no idea how to make more advanced stuff (for example post-process materials for cellshading or outlines). I have seen materials for these examples, but their implementation usually goes way over my head without any further explanation.
I do realize that creating materials is essentially writing shaders, which is lots of math and a whole bunch of experience. So my question is basically this: Where do I go from here? Just read books / tutorials on general shader creation and try to implement those in the material editor? Or are there more specific resources which I can use to learn more about material creation?
I personally would recommend you to just play around a little bit (e.g try to create one special kind of shader) + take a look at some advanced material setups + make use of the documentation (especially the page where all material nodes are explained)
That’s what I have been doing so far. Playing around, looking at existing stuff. But there are always those moments where you cannot really progress any further without more explanations. Here’s an example, taken from the unreal docs.
