ID Gradient Mapped Shader & VFX Showcase

This project showcases a stylized character rendering pipeline built around a custom Shader Graph character shader, tightly integrated with VFX Graph and post-processing effects to achieve a cohesive, art-directable visual style.

The core of the system is a character shader designed to support high-quality thematic variations while minimizing per variant texture memory usage. Instead of relying on multiple texture sets for visual diversity, the shader leverages mask IDs and compact gradient map data to recolor and restyle characters procedurally on top of a shared set of preprocessed setup maps.

This approach enables a wide range of visual variations using only kilobytes of gradient information, making it both memory-efficient and production-friendly for large character sets.

The pipeline includes:

A Shader Graph–based character shader supporting stylized lighting, gradient-driven coloration, and material ID masking via texture.

A Substance Painter template and smart material setup for automatic map generation during baking

Model requirements and vertex color encoding guidelines to support the shader workflow

Supporting VFX Graph particles designed to match and reinforce the shader’s visual language

Post-processing outlines and highlights to unify the final look and enhance readability

Together, these elements form a complete visual pipeline rather than an isolated shader. The system was designed to be flexible for art direction, scalable across multiple characters, and easy to integrate into a production environment.

Art Dirention and specification request:
And Nicole Lara: https://www.artstation.com/uaebd0b2e , https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicole-lara-9a85362a9/