Material Node Library

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Material Graph Production

Constants

Right-click to convert to Parameters

Parameters

Can be exposed for user and/or BP.

Motion 4 Way Chaos

Configuration

  1. Search in Engine Content by Filter: Material Function
  2. Search for motion to find Motion_4WayChaos

Distance To Nearest Surface

image

Workflow

  1. Enable Project Settings > Engine > Rendering > Lighting > Generate Mesh Distance Fields
    • Requires Editor restart.
  2. Access Distance To Nearest Surface node in Material.

Example

Resources

Utility Expressions

Utility Expressions nodes are nodes that can affect Materials in a number of different ways than one might be used to. For example the GIReplace node will Replace an objects indirect bounce color with a given value you input while the Linear Interpolate node will help blend between two Textures based on an Alpha input.

docs.unrealengine.com

Panner

image

The Panner node offers a solution to effectively animate a texture across a coordinate system. Linking time and a speed multiplier to it initiates the dynamic movement. As an example this can provide a quick and effective way of generating the illusion of smoke with a noise texture. The effect shown below was created using the settings noted below:

Example

In this example, a landscape was created and then a duplicate of the landscape was positioned a few inches higher. The landscape below was applied the landscape material and the landscape above was applied this moving cloud material.

image

Process

  1. In Affinity Photo (or Photoshop), add a layer with white fill and use the Perlin Noise filter to create clouds.
    2. image
  2. The exported image does not tile well, so use Substance B2M with the following settings to process a tile-able version of the image.
    3. image
    image
  3. Create a material with the following setup and settings:
    • The Opacity parameter is what controls the transparency of the texture.
    • Black (0) - Fully Transparent
    • White (255) - Fully Opaque
      • image
  4. 1st LandscapeCoords node:
    5. image
  5. 2nd LandscapeCoords node:
    6. image
  6. 1st Panner node:
    7. image
  7. 2nd Panner node:
    8. image
  8. Material node:
    9. image

Resources

Animating UV Coordinates

The ability to add motion to your Materials is a must, especially when you try to recreate effects such as fire, water, or smoke. A very cheap and effective way to do this inside Unreal Engine 4 (UE4) is to use the Panner Material Expression node.

docs.unrealengine.com

On This Page

  • Material Graph Production
  • Motion 4 Way Chaos
  • Distance To Nearest Surface
  • Panner