Some Fancy UE4 Material Blueprints
Following from basic materials I started to explore more complex once, the examples below have been pulled from our latest project and have been carefully constructed by my excellent colleague Kevin Lee. (Read his blog here: https://jia-weilee.blogspot.tw/)
The material below gives transparent objects and emissive glow, what's good about this is it's using a lerp and a fresnel reflection rather than a full object glow.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikW_VUcWFXsdjFihSpA8LuhP-Sx__7CJYlPBIaO-n-egnjoXQJw3gw6ZffM8Sy0cUcB1zcgtc2xewq4O1Z13Noj1nJbPBuFBSMoH07omvsa1dQjtCkZVr_JKRS0_jHQbzRcnEnrz7DBnk/s640/Outer_glow+material.jpg)
This material can be then made to pulse by adding a 'cosine' node into the Alpha Lerp channel.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpQffdLF3rH3OruHs_gyBGxbzFqB_rYbYLaQN-8GqJqcI4dWT_6kjosx57nm15mTnQEuGFDYTokzj7Tb4klzm5P76mHpbjWgqLga3SVM8YyzjOYw_o8ZcCwdWJ-gloJm7XXdV-Ir5LcsQ/s640/pulsing+material.jpg)
Making it rain is a difficult effect to get right, but I think this is material does a great job, I'd like to use this again and add more attributes within an instance. Using a Panner node into the world displacement with a tessellation multiplier can create amazing effects.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs8xiYi5NxOrNJnB0EptTdFRN7qfNOjpxmpE2sIFXx0lWA20kaciueiknZAXeC4blAcvLcvv7bDMtbg4Ezwge3EHCTb1tpCI0dy0NqBmpx1xps3QMJXbQFpEiBjbg9TMkBG1aY9ouEzgU/s640/Drrpping_water_material.jpg)
Lastly, this simple material made me rethink about how we use the RGB channels to apply three colour tints into one material. I'm sure with future development, this can be used for some creative results!
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQvjBYcfySiCF3cX5z7YLJc_m_ph_1adwxHI2kwL0DK4ztQfxNc0G-II0jBzSJaPV3pDwyj5h4GuDASLhW43Df4LCaIaeO6fj2ox0iratUp2SJYiiQJ3T05_xGGGmRX0KBd7rIxL1sKuo/s640/Three_colours_materials.jpg)
* UPDATE - New glass material
Today I was looking at the glass in the scene and put together a better material. The old glass is on the left and just seemed too dark and not enough reflection.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-MbY9ucAyiyX19EKFw8ttQaIBIako9rDP0EzJT6W00UmvVmMjSWL6zCQ5MZT2uGF8ViIsVx_hrmqb8CeQPNpOi2XGaReT1bMgdmsHqn09I1ElBvduLCbo0W-jgj5esCc2aITww4ZCCHU/s640/new+glass1.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE8JdpRAoLwuwEJpn7qB7Z6nQDJh9iGL7ZIlc3oLezuGtq50nWjPwgw4nMIi-Cs8q-axlsCcDswasa5pkUajYHEXzXFyOMpOzHaqueEFw0F2WAFJXLtJc3qpFa_rzc_WyTWES_0O_uIKE/s640/new+glass2.jpg)
The material below gives transparent objects and emissive glow, what's good about this is it's using a lerp and a fresnel reflection rather than a full object glow.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikW_VUcWFXsdjFihSpA8LuhP-Sx__7CJYlPBIaO-n-egnjoXQJw3gw6ZffM8Sy0cUcB1zcgtc2xewq4O1Z13Noj1nJbPBuFBSMoH07omvsa1dQjtCkZVr_JKRS0_jHQbzRcnEnrz7DBnk/s640/Outer_glow+material.jpg)
This material can be then made to pulse by adding a 'cosine' node into the Alpha Lerp channel.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpQffdLF3rH3OruHs_gyBGxbzFqB_rYbYLaQN-8GqJqcI4dWT_6kjosx57nm15mTnQEuGFDYTokzj7Tb4klzm5P76mHpbjWgqLga3SVM8YyzjOYw_o8ZcCwdWJ-gloJm7XXdV-Ir5LcsQ/s640/pulsing+material.jpg)
Making it rain is a difficult effect to get right, but I think this is material does a great job, I'd like to use this again and add more attributes within an instance. Using a Panner node into the world displacement with a tessellation multiplier can create amazing effects.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs8xiYi5NxOrNJnB0EptTdFRN7qfNOjpxmpE2sIFXx0lWA20kaciueiknZAXeC4blAcvLcvv7bDMtbg4Ezwge3EHCTb1tpCI0dy0NqBmpx1xps3QMJXbQFpEiBjbg9TMkBG1aY9ouEzgU/s640/Drrpping_water_material.jpg)
Lastly, this simple material made me rethink about how we use the RGB channels to apply three colour tints into one material. I'm sure with future development, this can be used for some creative results!
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQvjBYcfySiCF3cX5z7YLJc_m_ph_1adwxHI2kwL0DK4ztQfxNc0G-II0jBzSJaPV3pDwyj5h4GuDASLhW43Df4LCaIaeO6fj2ox0iratUp2SJYiiQJ3T05_xGGGmRX0KBd7rIxL1sKuo/s640/Three_colours_materials.jpg)
* UPDATE - New glass material
Today I was looking at the glass in the scene and put together a better material. The old glass is on the left and just seemed too dark and not enough reflection.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-MbY9ucAyiyX19EKFw8ttQaIBIako9rDP0EzJT6W00UmvVmMjSWL6zCQ5MZT2uGF8ViIsVx_hrmqb8CeQPNpOi2XGaReT1bMgdmsHqn09I1ElBvduLCbo0W-jgj5esCc2aITww4ZCCHU/s640/new+glass1.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE8JdpRAoLwuwEJpn7qB7Z6nQDJh9iGL7ZIlc3oLezuGtq50nWjPwgw4nMIi-Cs8q-axlsCcDswasa5pkUajYHEXzXFyOMpOzHaqueEFw0F2WAFJXLtJc3qpFa_rzc_WyTWES_0O_uIKE/s640/new+glass2.jpg)