# Tutorials on shaders?
**URL:** https://discussions.unity.com/t/tutorials-on-shaders/16681
**Category:** Questions & Answers
**Created:** [March 14, 2011, 5:51am UTC](https://discussions.unity.com/t/tutorials-on-shaders/16681 "2011-03-14T05:51:21Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Noah-1](https://discussions.unity.com/u/Noah-1)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2011, 5:51am UTC](https://discussions.unity.com/t/tutorials-on-shaders/16681/1 "2011-03-14T05:51:21Z")
Hello guys well I know that a very important part of Unity and game development are shaders but I really cant understand them.
Are they written in javascript?
Do you know a good place to learn something about shaders?
I also have seen in some unity assets that the artists create the normal textures and sometimes some black/white textures why?
Help is aprecciated and rated.
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### Author:  [@loopyllama](https://discussions.unity.com/u/loopyllama)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2011, 6:58am UTC](https://discussions.unity.com/t/tutorials-on-shaders/16681/2 "2011-03-14T06:58:29Z")
Jessy has made this wealth of information:
[http://m.youtube.com/#/profile?desktop\_uri=%2Fuser%2FJessyUV&sort=p&start=0&livestreaming\_tutorial=False&ytsession=%7B%7D&channel\_id=0&user=JessyUV&gl=US](http://m.youtube.com/#/profile?desktop_uri=%2Fuser%2FJessyUV&sort=p&start=0&livestreaming_tutorial=False&ytsession=%7B%7D&channel_id=0&user=JessyUV&gl=US)
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### Author:  [@anon49375823](https://discussions.unity.com/u/anon49375823)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2011, 8:33am UTC](https://discussions.unity.com/t/tutorials-on-shaders/16681/3 "2011-03-14T08:33:13Z")
I know nothing at programming, so I don't know whether its a javascript, but I've been working on autodesk maya for a while now to understand how shaders work.
Basically, a shader is like a material for a 3d object. If a 3d object does not have a shader, it becomes transparent. Likewise, many objects can share one shader.
* * *
Artists can paint on a digital canvas, and that painting can be applied on a 3d object to give it that particular painting as its texture.
* * *
As for the black and white painting you saw, its a MAP to indicate which parts of the texture that the specific MAP the b/w painting is for, such as SPECULARITY, or REFLECTIVITY.
In the digital media world, white is the value of 1, and black 0.
What this means is, on the REFLECTIVITY MAP for a specific object, on the white parts of the map, reflections can be seen in the rendered view, while the grey areas are less reflective, and the black areas totally unreflective.
They do not affect the COLOUR of the painting texture, however. It's just a map.
Hope that helps. =)
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### Author:  [@whydoidoit](https://discussions.unity.com/u/whydoidoit)
#### Post date: [November 5, 2012, 8:44am UTC](https://discussions.unity.com/t/tutorials-on-shaders/16681/4 "2012-11-05T08:44:29Z")
We’ve added a section on Shaders to [Unity Gems](http://unitygems.com) which attempts to cover off the first baby steps in Shader programming.