Introduction to the Intermediate course and to the Material system. How to create new Materials and overview of the Material Editor. Learn about the Material Inputs node, Constant nodes such as Constant2Vector, and keyboard shortcuts for the Material Editor.

Learn the precise definition of a Texture in Unreal Engine and how to use them. Covers the Texture Sample node, Texture property, Sampler Source property, supported Texture resolutions and file types.

Learn about the most commonly used Material Inputs, including Base Color, Metallic, and Roughness. Learn what the difference is between Roughness and Specular.  How to use the Emissive Color input with overdriven values to create a glowing effect. Also covers the Multiply node and the Ambient Occlusion input.

Learn the definition of normal vectors and normal maps and how to use them with the Normal Input of an Unreal Engine Material to add subtle details to Materials in a high-performance way. Learn why normal maps contain so much light purple in them.

Explains the difference between isotropic and anisotropic materials in chemistry and physics and how that relates to the Anisotropy input in Unreal Engine. Also covers the Tangent input which works in tandem with the Anisotropy input. Explains what is meant by tangent-space normal maps vs object-space normal maps.

Covers the various buttons and menus of the Material Editor Toolbar, including the Apply, Home, Hierarchy, Live Update, Clean Graph, Preview State, Hide Unrelated, Stats, and Platform Stats buttons. Also covers the Preview Material, All Node Previews, Realtime Nodes, Clean Up, Hide Unused Connectors, Lock Node State, and Focus Whole Chain settings.

Learn the difference between the various settings of the Blend Mode property - Opaque, Masked, Translucent, Additive, and Modulate. Understand the Opacity and Opacity Mask inputs. Create a chain link fence Material using an Opacity Mask. Also covers the Two Sided, Screen Space Reflections, and Lighting Mode properties and how lit translucency is very computationally expensive.

Learn how Material Instances allow you to create multiple variations of a parent Material in an efficient manner. Understand Parameter nodes and how parameterize a Material. Learn the difference between scalar parameters and vector parameters. Also covers the TextureSampleParameter2D node, the Save Sibling and Save Child buttons, and the Material Property Overrides property.

Demonstrates the use of Dynamic Material Instances by creating a Material that gets darker every time it is hit by a projectile. Covers the Create Dynamic Material Instance, Set Scalar Parameter Value, and Set Vector Parameter Value nodes.

Explains the various settings of the Shading Model property including Default Lit, Unlit, Subsurface, Preintegrated Skin, Subsurface Profile, and Two Sided Foliage. Also cover the Subsurface Color input and the Mean Free Path Distance and Mean Free Path Color properties.

Covers the remaining Shading Models, including Clear Coat, Hair, Cloth, Eye, Thin Translucent, and From Material Expression. Explains the difference between the Clear Coat and Clear Coat Roughness inputs. Explains the Scatter, Backlit, Fuzz Color, Cloth, Iris Mask, Iris Distance, TransmittanceColor, and Custom Data inputs. Also covers the Clear Coat Enable Second Normal property and the ClearCoatBottomNormal and ThinTranslucentMaterialOutput nodes.

Covers the use of the SingleLayerWater Shading Model which is used to create Materials that look like the surface of water. Learn about the SingleLayerWaterMaterialOutput node and its ScatteringCoefficients, AbsorptionCoefficients, PhaseG, and Color Scale Behind Water inputs. Learn about the Refraction input, including the Refraction Method and Reflection Depth Bias properties, and the difference between the Index of Refraction, Pixel Normal Offset, and 2D Offset properties.

Covers many of the Math Expression nodes available, including the more common Add, Subtract, Multiply, Divide, Power, SquareRoot, Round, Floor, Ceiling, Truncate, Fraction, and Absolute nodes. Also covers some of the more advanced Math Expression nodes, including the FMod, Sign, Clamp, Saturate, OneMinus, ComponentMask, AppendVector, InverseLerp, SmoothStep, Logarithm10, Logarithm2, CrossProduct, DotProduct, and Normalize nodes.

Covers many of the Input Data Expression nodes available, including the ActorPositionWS, CameraPositionWS, CameraVectorWS, WorldPosition, PixelDepth, PixelNormalWS, ObjectBounds, ObjectRadius, ObjectOrientation, and ObjectPositionWS nodes

How to use Material Functions to make reusable Material networks and make your graphs more readable. Learn about the FunctionInput, FunctionOutput, TextureObject, and StaticSwitch nodes. Also covers the Preview Value and Expose to Library properties and the Preview pin.

Covers several of the Material Functions in the Blend and Image Adjustment categories of that Palette, including Blend_ColorBurn, Blend_ColorDodge, Blend_Darken, Blend_Lighten, 3ColorBlend, CheapContrast, CheapContrast_RGB, SCurve, and HueShift. Covers the difference between the Base and Blend pins and how to use the Hue Shift Percentage pin. Also explains the Show Engine Content setting.

Achieve texture masking using Lerp or Multiply nodes along with a grayscale texture. Allows you to divide Materials into different sections which can have different Material input values. Also covers the Start Previewing Node option.

How to combine multiple Materials into one using Material Layers. Learn about the old method using Functions and about the new method which uses a dedicated Material Layer asset. Learn the difference between the GetMaterialAttributes, SetMaterialAttributes, MakeMaterialAttributes,  and Input Material Attributes nodes. Also covers the MaterialAttributes pin and Attribute Set Types property.

Learn about the Material Layer Blend asset and how its Top Layer and Bottom Layer pins work.

Learn about the concept of UV mapping, which is the method used to determine how two-dimensional texture maps get applied to three-dimensional objects. Also covers UV coordinates, UV channels, the Texture Coordinate node, and the Coordinate Index property.

Goes into detail about the Texture Coordinate node which was introduced at the end of the previous lecture. The Texture Coordinate node allows you to modify the UV map that a texture uses. Explains the UTiling, VTiling, Un Mirror U, Un Mirror V, Num Customized UVs, and Const Coordinate properties. Also explains the Customized UVs inputs including the Customized UV0 input.

How to create gradient textures directly within the Material Editor using the LinearGradient, DiamondGradient, and RadialGradientExponential nodes. Also covers the UGradient, VGradient, UV Channel, Falloff, CenterPosition, Invert Radius, and Density pins.

Shows how the Time Node can be used to create some simple animation effects in your Materials. Explains the Ignore Pause and Period properties. Also covers the Sine, Cosine, and Tangent nodes, the Arcsine, Arccosine, and Arctangent nodes, and the ArcsineFast, ArccosineFast, and ArctangentFast nodes.

How to rotate and pan Materials using the Rotator and Panner nodes. How the Speed, Center X, Center Y, Speed X, Speed Y, and Fractional Part properties work.

How to use bump maps, also known as height maps, to give the illusion of depth to different parts of a Material. Explains the BumpOffset node and its Height and HeightRatioInput pins and its Reference Plane property.

Learn about the World Position Offset input which affects the vertices of the mesh that the Material gets applied to. Also learn about the SimpleGrassWind and VertexNormalWS nodes.

This lecture will cover the use of the Pixel Depth Offset input, which will cause the pixels of a Material to be drawn at a further distance away from the camera.

Covers Decals which can be used to add additional details to surfaces such as cracks, dirt, blood, bullet holes, graffiti, and so on. Or to create thin, flat objects such as posters and paintings and building details such as fake windows and doors. Learn the difference between a Decal Actor and a Decal Material and what the purple arrow of the Decal Actor means. Learn about the Receives Decals property, the Decal Lifetime Opacity node, and the Deferred Decal value of the Material Domain property. Covers how to use decal fades including the Fade Duration, Fade Start Delay, Destroy Owner After Fade, and Fade Screen Size properties.