Advanced Unreal Engine Shader Course
Build elaborate Unreal Engine shaders and learn best industry practices with live art direction and critique.
EARLY ENROLLMENT
Dive deep into advanced Unreal Engine shader techniques, and gain professional insights and guidance at every step. Create an amazing character shader effect in four weeks!
Course Length: 4 weeks
Mentors: Oli McDonald
Next Start Date: August 10th, 10AM CDT
$800 | Pricing options available
Less than $200 per week of live advanced mentorship.
Register Now
Advanced UE5 Shader Course
Dive into the world of Unreal Engine shaders! Build your shader skills step by step, starting with color blending and gradients, then moving on to techniques like caustics, flow maps, and parallax effects.
Create a full character shader, including details such as reflections, vertex offsets, and material functions. By the end, combine everything into one polished final piece!
Early Registration is Open
Hurry! Only a limited number of seats are available.
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The Advanced Shader Class Starts on August 10th, 2026 at 10 AM CDT
Advanced UE5 Shader Course Full Curriculum Breakdown:
Week 1 - Introduction & Color Foundation
Get on board with the project and explore the different color setups used in our Aquanna Shader. Blend colors in different variations to create dynamic gradients.
Week 2 - Advanced Shader Techniques
Expand your shader toolkit. Confidently use a variety of shader setups, such as Caustics, Bi-planar Projections, Flow-maps & Parallax Occlusion.
Week 3 - Blueprint Interaction and Cleanup
Finalize the Aquanna shader by adding a subtle Vertex Offset alongside a Dynamic Reflection System. Add Normal Maps and Decals to your arsenal of shader tricks.
Week 4 - Production Tips and Tricks
Finalize your shader with the techniques widely used in production: Blueprint Interactions, Translucent Materials, Refractions, Blend Modes and more.
Join Advanced UE5 Shader Course and get access to:
- 4 weeks of live lectures and check-in sessions
- Direct feedback from professional VFX artists
- Fully animated Aquanna Character model
- 5+ hours of exclusive lesson content
- New Project Files, Assets & Assignments
- 2 months of VFX-A All Access FX courses
- Permanent Discord Community Access
Your Mentors
Oli McDonald
Senior VFX Artist
Oli McDonald is a VFX artist who has worked on a wide range of different games and platforms across his 14-year career in games.
From League of Legends on PC, first-person shooters on console and handheld, such as Killzone: Shadowfall and Killzone: Mercenary, to third-person action MMOs and even a virtual reality title in RIGS: Mechanized Combat League.
This experience has given him knowledge of many challenges related to VFX across different contexts and an understanding of various pipelines and workflows.
What You Get from this Advanced UE5 Shader Course
- Explore color setups, color blending, and gradient techniques
- Refine the Unreal Engine shader VFX by adding details such as vertex offset and dynamic reflections
- Harness more complex techniques like caustics, flow maps, parallax occlusion, and bi-planar projection
- Use material functions to achieve cleaner workflows with Unreal Engine shaders
- Gain understanding of practical topics such as translucency, refraction, and blueprint integration
- Try the best practices for optimizing UE5 shaders
FAQs
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Testimonials
Kevin Leroy
VFX Artist - Riot Games
I truly wish this website existed when I first started VFX. It's chock-full of industry-defining resources and tutorials covering a vast diversity of subjects. And maybe even more importantly: it covers different engines and softwares. From concepting to in-engine implementations, these courses have it all, and it is all of the highest quality.
Tyson Murphy
Art Director - Riot Games
Jason is one of the only people I've met throughout my entire career that has world class artistic talent in the craft of VFX, and also has the kindness, wisdom, and dedication of a great teacher. Jason is an incredible value to any of the world's top studios, and I've personally seen him change the lives of aspiring artists and students everywhere. He is passionate about his educational work, and it is truly the best I've seen. Anyone who wishes they were a VFX artist needs to get in touch with Jason and VFX Apprentice.
Drew Skillman
Founder - Tilt Brush
I've had first hand experience learning from, and being inspired by, Jason Keyser. He's an exceptional artist, a leader in the Real Time VFX industry, and a phenomenal teacher who deeply, deeply cares about sharing the elusive techniques behind best in class VFX and helping people realize their creative dreams. Jason is the real deal - I learn from him every chance I get.
Fred Hooper
Lead VFX Artist - NVIDIA
Jason Keyser's VFX Apprentice is THE go-to place to learn real time visual effects. Jason will teach you how to make effects from the ground up from an artistic and technical perspective. The VFX Apprentice courses will start you on the path to becoming a real time VFX artist.
Bill Kladis
Director, Technical Art at Epic Games
When it comes to preaching the art & soul behind real-time FX, Jason is truly the most dedicated of anyone I know. Good FX artists of today and tomorrow must balance so many different artistic & technical disciplines. These courses are a must-have for anyone wanting to break into real-time FX.
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