Watercolor Shader Prototype

The complete Unity Project for my watercolor shader prototype, including full source for the custom shadow effect. 

See the effect in motion on YouTube or read more about it on the Unity Forums.

The animated demo scene is included in the download (Assets\Skybreaker\Demo Scenes\TwoCamera), though the background music is not (I'm holding onto that one, sorry!).

The project files also include a number of work-in-progress renders, a tutorial image describing my process in creating the shader, and several Photoshop documents I'd originally used to plan out the effect before jumping into the code.

Though the project was last edited in Unity 2017.3, all source code is compatible at least as far back as Unity 5.5 (which is where this was initially developed). It has only been tested on Windows, and I cannot guarantee that certain shader features will be available on all graphics cards - but it be fine on most modern PCs.

Please note that the project is strictly provided as-is. It's important to understand that this was intended only as a proof-of-concept for personal use, which I've only decided to share after receiving numerous requests. The code's a bit messy, files don't all have the clearest names, and there are many unfinished work-in-progress variations on the shader amidst the project files.

The project is intended primarily as a learning resource for programmers and tech artists with some experience in shader development. Do not expect to be able to simply drop my code into an existing project and have it look amazing! The intent is rather to provide full source so you can directly see and learn from how the effect was achieved. Think of this not as a complete solution, but rather as a starting point and reference if you'd like to apply similar techniques to your own work.

It's also important to note that the effect was intended specifically for ground shadows, and not for shadows cast on walls and other surfaces. To get the best results a slightly unusual two-camera setup is required; one camera renders the ground along with a copy of all above-ground geometry set to the "shadows only" rendering mode, whilst a second camera renders all above-ground geometry in "no shadow" mode over the top. This setup is demonstrated in the TwoCamera demo scene.

The OneCamera scene demonstrates a simpler setup which could potentially work for all scene geometry (including walls, etc. - not just the ground), but which introduces ghosting artefacts which may be undesirable. 

Both techniques can almost certainly be improved upon, though they are functional in their current state.

If you make something with this, please get in touch to share it - I'd love to see what you come up with!

-Hadyn