Links
🛠Download HoloPlay Service to follow along on your Looking Glass!
✏ Download or make sure you have a code editor of your choice (like Sublime, vim, brackets, etc. I like visual studio code https://code.visualstudio.com/)
👋 Download Unity 2020+ : https://unity3d.com/get-unity/download
👯♂️👯♀️ Download Looking Glass Unity Plugin: Scroll down and its under “Developer tools”. You have to log in or make an account to download: https://lookingglassfactory.com/software
🌟 Link to my presentation slides
📚 Looking glass resources for Unity developers
Code
Checkpoint 0: Fundamental
Here we will learn polar coordinate, color channel, scale, sin, cos and time: https://gist.github.com/CharStiles/2d8e47d3a61c45b0ac785155e438f06e
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/62b1e7ca6ca42995253b6d61/62fac131203b8b84d35ab241_fundamental_music_viz.gif)
Checkpoint 1: Color
Here we learn using palette and combining colors to explore a bit: https://gist.github.com/CharStiles/f07be896021eb109d1b84c564a9a4261
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/62b1e7ca6ca42995253b6d61/62fac1316d1822d2ef811b0d_final_music_viz.gif)
Checkpoint 2: Final
Here we use space transformations to explore a bit: https://gist.github.com/CharStiles/5ebc0fddd938e601da7323ea357d0fdc
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/62b1e7ca6ca42995253b6d61/62fac1313c443ca7f9f7a819_finalshaderclass-1.gif)
Tools
🧰 Here you can find the sticker sheet: https://gist.github.com/CharStiles/787c2e3e898b68f7e2ca1acbdc0262b5
🌈here is Inigo Quilez’s page for 2D SDF: https://www.iquilezles.org/www/articles/distfunctions2d/distfunctions2d.htm
🧮 Here is an online graphing calculator, very helpful when writing shaders: https://www.desmos.com/calculator
🎨 Here is the cosPalette function graphed out: https://www.desmos.com/calculator/18rq4ybrru
Creation Prompt! (optional)
Create an object in Unity and color it using shaders in a way that “makes sense”
“Makes sense” can be interpreted broadly. Some options:
- Make a lava lamp where the inside blobs are driven by a shader.
- Make some bubbling soup or a cauldron.
- Make washing machine where the window part is a shader.
- Make a ghost!
This homework is most of all meant to be a prompt to encourage exploration, which is why its left to broad interpretation.
Next Steps
These are some specific suggestions from me if you want to continue learning but don’t know how to start.
💜Join a community!
Shader.Zone is a a safe and inclusive discord to talk about shaders, tools, generative art, and more! Started by my friends Conner Bell and Patricio Gonzalez Vivo: https://shader.zone/
💙Watch the Twitch stream Curiously Minded!
It was started by two former students of mine who met at a workshop that was just like this one!: https://www.curiouslyminded.xyz/ This is their stream: https://www.twitch.tv/curiouslyminded/
💚Learn the maths from The Book of Shaders
If you haven’t looked at this already, look through it! Its wonderfully paced and has a lot of versatile useful information: https://thebookofshaders.com/
🔢More online math
http://immersivemath.com/ila/index.html
🌟Learn more about GLSL shader functions:
https://www.shaderific.com/glsl-functions
📽Learn more math that is relevant from an awesome YouTube channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYO_jab_esuFRV4b17AJtAw
📈Some easing functions if sin & cos get boring 🙂