Material Authoring
Materials & RenderingAuthor material shader graphs: node-based visual programming for surface appearance, material expressions, texture sampling, and Substrate.
/skill material-authoring What this skill does
Material Authoring gives you expert guidance on building material shader graphs from scratch in Unreal Engine 5's Material Editor. This skill covers the node-based visual programming system for defining exactly how surfaces look and respond to light. You will learn how to work with material expressions, sample and manipulate textures, perform math operations on shader inputs, create reusable Material Functions, and choose the right shading model and blend mode for your needs. Starting with UE 5.4, this skill also covers the Substrate (Strata) material model for advanced multi-layer surface definitions.
Covers
- Material Editor (node graph, pin types, preview)
- Core expressions (math, texture, utility, parameter)
- Texture coordinate manipulation
- Material Functions for reuse
- Shading models (Default Lit, Subsurface, Clear Coat, Unlit)
- Blend modes (Opaque, Masked, Translucent, Additive)
- Material domain settings
- Custom HLSL nodes
- Substrate/Strata model (5.4+)
Does not cover
- Material Instance parameter setup → material-basics
- Nanite material constraints → nanite-optimization
- Landscape layer painting → landscape-management
- Post-process volume configuration → post-process-fundamentals
How to use
Invoke directly in Claude Code:
/skill material-authoringThis skill is also auto-detected when your prompt mentions material graph, shader, node, custom material, texture coordinate, UV, procedural texture, or subsurface intent. AgentUX will automatically activate Material Authoring when it recognizes you are building or editing a material shader graph.
Key Unreal Engine concepts
| Concept | Description |
|---|---|
| UMaterial | The parent material asset that defines a complete shader graph, serving as the template from which Material Instances inherit. |
| UMaterialExpression | The base class for all nodes in the Material Editor graph, including math operations, texture samples, parameters, and utility functions. |
| Material Editor | The visual node-graph editor where you wire expressions together to define surface appearance, with real-time preview and pin-type validation. |
| Shading Models | Predefined lighting response models (Default Lit, Subsurface, Clear Coat, Unlit, etc.) that determine how the surface interacts with light. |
| Blend Modes | Control how a material composites with the scene behind it: Opaque for solid surfaces, Masked for cutouts, Translucent for see-through, Additive for glow effects. |
| Substrate/Strata | The next-generation material model introduced in UE 5.4 that replaces fixed shading models with a flexible, layered approach to surface definition. |
Related skills
material-basics
Apply and configure materials
lighting-fundamentals
Light scenes for cinematic and real-time rendering
nanite-optimization
Nanite virtualized geometry
landscape-management
Create and edit Landscapes
What you'll learn
- How to build material shader graphs from scratch in the Material Editor
- Choosing the right shading model and blend mode for any surface type
- Creating reusable Material Functions to share logic across multiple materials
- Writing custom HLSL nodes for effects beyond built-in expressions
- Using the Substrate model for advanced multi-layer surface definitions in UE 5.4+