3.8 - Advanced Color Techniques
Feb 8 · 21 min read · What We're Learning Color is one of the most powerful tools in your graphics arsenal. So far, we've worked with basic color operations - sampling textures, mixing colors, and applying simple lighting. But there's a whole world of advanced color manip...
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3.7 - Fragment Discard and Transparency
Feb 2 · 20 min read · What We're Learning So far in this series, every fragment we've processed has been drawn to the screen. We've colored them, textured them, and lit them - but we've always drawn them. What if you don't want to draw certain fragments at all? What if yo...
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3.6 - Procedural Noise
Jan 25 · 23 min read · What We're Learning So far in this series, we've worked with mathematical functions like sine waves, smooth gradients, and geometric patterns. These are powerful, but they all share a common limitation: they are too perfect. Nature isn't perfectly re...
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3.5 - Distance Functions (SDFs)
Jan 18 · 24 min read · What We're Learning In previous articles, we created patterns using explicit boundaries: "Is this pixel inside the square?" But there is a more powerful way to define shapes in computer graphics: "How far is this pixel from the edge?" This is the wor...
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3.4 - Gradients and Interpolation
Jan 10 · 25 min read · What We're Learning In the real world, colors are rarely static. The sky shifts from deep azure to pale cyan; a metal pipe has a bright highlight that fades into shadow; a sunset paints the clouds in bands of orange, pink, and purple. To replicate th...
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3.3 - UV-Based Patterns
Jan 5 · 37 min read · What We're Learning In the last article, we learned how to give a surface a solid color or a smooth gradient. But the real world is full of intricate details - bricks, tiles, fabrics, and complex designs. How do we create these without relying on pre...
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3.2 - Color Spaces and Operations
Dec 27, 2025 · 40 min read · What We're Learning In the last article, you learned the fundamental mechanic of the fragment shader: outputting a vec4<f32> to color a pixel. Now, we dive into the art and science behind that vector. The simple act of choosing a color touches on phy...
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