How can I design my own visual effects in Unity using Shader Graph?

[Mila3]

I'm trying to learn how to make my own materials in Unity and started following a unity shader graph tutorial. I can follow the steps to recreate an effect, but I don't really understand *why* connecting certain nodes works. How do you move from just copying tutorials to actually designing your own visual effects?

[Nathan_G]

Nice goal moving from copying to designing your own visuals starts with a mindset shift not just following steps inspect what each node does and how data flows

[Brian_G]

Start small pick a tiny effect like a glow or edge glow and map the data path on paper first then translate it into the shader graph

[Jason_M]

In shader graph think of it as a flow chart the key is tracing data from a texture sample through a few math steps to the final color and asking what each step contributes

[Addison40]

Rather than chase dozens of tricks pick a few core techniques and build them into reusable blocks then mix them together you will learn what looks specific changes cause

[Anthony.D]

Document your reasoning as you wire things up a quick note on why you chose a certain node helps when you forget later

[LunaR]

If you want I can help you plan a tiny first project and sketch a rough node layout for your target effect so you can see the how rather than just the what