Shape Shader Functions WITHOUT Knowing Math!
Cashew OldDew
Visit resource ↗Description
This YouTube video from Cashew OldDew is a free shader lesson on using mathematical functions as shape-building tools in shaders, presented as one tutorial rather than a channel index.
It walks through treating functions as brushes, shaping a function in Godot, visualizing it in a shader, adding parameters, combining functions, and applying those patterns to common shader tasks. Chapters cover define, plot, parameterize, and compose workflows without formal calculus framing.
It suits beginners and early intermediate technical artists who want practical shader control with limited math background. Viewers should be able to open a simple Godot shader and follow on-screen edits.
The resource is a YouTube watch page with timed chapters and related Godot shader videos. Access is free in a browser or the YouTube apps.
The lesson bridges abstract function plots to fragment-shader shapes with a repeatable workflow for procedural or SDF-style forms.
Related resources
- Hologram Shader Breakdown (Cyanilux)
A Shader Graph breakdown for Unity URP holograms: world-space scanlines from sine or frac, Fresnel rim, HDR additive tinting, plus optional UV distortion and glitch for quads.
100% match · <shaders><fragment><free><functions><index><rather><shader><simple> - Swapping Colours (Cyanilux)
Swapping Colours is a February 2023 Cyanilux post on recolouring textures and procedural inputs in Unity Shader Graph for 3D, sprites, UI, or signed-distance shapes. Sections cover Tint, Lerp, channel-packed greys, mask textures, Replace Color, Blend modes, gradient ramps as textures, and palette index lookups.
100% match · <shaders><forms><free><functions><index><one><procedural><rather> - 5 ways to draw an outline (Alexander Ameye)
Five Ways to Draw an Outline is Alexander Ameye's 2021 note (alexanderameye.github.io / ameye.dev).
100% match · <shaders><access><artists><free><related><screen><style><technical> - A gentle introduction to shaders (Alan Zucconi)
Alan Zucconi's A gentle introduction to shaders in Unity3D (June 2015) is part one of his Gentle Introduction series on alanzucconi.com, aimed at Unity developers new to GPU programs. It connects vertices, materials, and shaders in Unity's pipeline, covering ShaderLab Properties and SubShader layout, inspector uniforms, Queue tags, ZTest, and the surface-versus-vertex/fragment split for lighting versus effects. Little prior shader knowledge is assumed; fixed-function shaders are skipped as obsolete.
100% match · <shaders><beginner><access><artists><free><related><shader><technical> - A Look at Spyro's Portals - Rendering the Background
Daniel Pokladek's November 2020 post begins a Unity series on Spyro Reignited portal shaders, focusing on the background visible through the opening while later installments cover
100% match · <access><artists><background><free><related><shader><shaders><style> - Believable Caustics Reflections (Alan Zucconi)
Believable Caustics Reflections is Alan Zucconi's September 2019 Unity blog post on faking pool-style ripple caustics without ray tracing, sparked by Florian Gelzenleuchter's popular shader GIF. One tileable texture is sampled twice in a Surface shader at different scales and scroll speeds, combined with min(), then tinted onto albedo with slight RGB UV offsets for dispersion. The walkthrough covers _ST tiling, _Time animation, HDR albedo above 1.0, and Post Processing Stack v2 bloom.
100% match · <shaders><access><artists><beginners><free><one><related><shader> - Blending Meshes into Terrain (Inresin)
Louis Waloschek's April 2020 Inresin tutorial blends static meshes into Unity Terrain using baked depth masks and Amplify surface shaders.
100% match · <shaders><access><artists><free><limited><one><related><shader> - Blur Renderer Feature Example/Template for URP / Unity 2021.2 (Alexander Ameye)
Custom Render Passes in Unity is Alexander Ameye's July 2021 ameye.dev note on URP ScriptableRendererFeature and ScriptableRenderPass boilerplate, heavily commented where Unity SRP documentation still feels sparse. The sample applies a two-pass box blur: blit camera color to a temporary buffer, blur vertically then horizontally, with adjustable strength and downsampling.
100% match · <shaders><access><artists><control><free><function><related><screen> - Easing Functions
Easings.net is a free interactive cheat sheet by Andrey Sitnik and Ivan Solovev for choosing easing functions that control how a parameter changes over normalized animation time. The catalog lists quad, cubic, quart, quint, exponential, circular, elastic, and bounce curves in ease-in, ease-out, and ease-in-out forms.
100% match · <access><artists><free><function><functions><open><page><related> - Stylized Water Shader (Alexander Ameye)
Alexander Ameye’s stylized water shader note documents a URP-oriented water material: depth-based coloring, foam, waves, and art-directable parameters for low-poly or stylized scen
100% match · <shaders><access><artists><free><rather><related><shader><technical> - TextureLab
Lets artists iterate on albedo/height-style maps outside DCC apps, then import into Unity, Unreal, or Godot.
100% match · <access><artists><browser><follow><free><procedural><related><simple> - Your First Shader from ZERO in Godot 4
GDQuest beginner tutorial that teaches writing a first 2D fragment shader in Godot 4 by building an animated portal effect step by step.
100% match · <shaders><beginner><building><fragment><godot><math><shader><shapes> - Procedural Skybox Shader (Kelvin van Hoorn)
Kelvin van Hoorn’s procedural skybox shader tutorials build stylized atmospheric gradients and clouds inside Unity Shader Graph / HLSL, tuned for art-directable time-of-day without baked cubemaps. Walks through noise layers, sun disc, horizon fades, and parameterization for gameplay-driven weather.
94% match · <shaders><access><artists><free><procedural><related><shader><technical> - Perlin It In a Minute!
OGLDEV video on generating terrain heightmaps with Perlin noise in C++ for OpenGL or Vulkan using GLM's perlin function.
83% match · <math><video><channel><function><procedural><using><walks> - Freya Holmer - Acegikmo (YouTube)
Video tutorials visualizing math for graphics programming - vectors, splines, shader coding in Unity/HLSL, and geometric algebra.
73% match · <math><shaders><video><abstract><procedural><shapes><youtube> - The Book of Shaders
Gentle step-by-step guide to fragment shaders - shaping functions, patterns, image processing, simulation, and raymarching.
71% match · <shaders><beginner><browser><fragment><patterns><shaping><workflows> - The Art of Code (YouTube Channel)
Video tutorials on advanced fragment-shader techniques - noise, fractals, raymarching, domain warping, and creative coding.
67% match · <shaders><video><beginners><open><shapes><watch><youtube> - Technical Artist's Guide to Profiling in Unreal Engine (Unreal Fest Orlando 2025)
Unreal Fest Orlando 2025 session on practical Unreal Engine profiling workflow for technical artists.
58% match · <artists><patterns><repeatable><technical><youtube> - Desmos Graphing Calculator
Free online graphing calculator for plotting functions, parametric curves, and sequences.
56% match · <math><browser><functions><shaders><shaping> - UE Rendering Basics (blog series)
Structured Unreal rendering fundamentals blog series bridging engine rendering concepts and shader or material work.
56% match · <shaders><artists><technical><workflows>