# Materials and shaders

> Use materials and shaders to control the appearance of GameObjects in your application.

The following topics give an overview on how to use textures, shaders, materials, and graphics APIs in Unity.

| **Page**                                                                                                        | **Description**                                                                                              |
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| [Materials](/engine/6000.0/manual/materials-and-shaders/materials.md)                                           | Resources for using materials to define the appearance of a scene.                                           |
| [Prebuilt materials and shaders](/engine/6000.0/manual/materials-and-shaders/built-in.md)                       | Resources for using the shaders Unity provides to control the appearance of GameObjects in a scene.          |
| [Custom textures](/engine/6000.0/manual/materials-and-shaders/textures.md)                                      | Resources for importing, converting, and loading textures so that you can use them in shaders and materials. |
| [Custom shaders](/engine/6000.0/manual/materials-and-shaders/shaders.md)                                        | Resources for writing programs that run on the GPU to draw GameObjects in a scene.                           |
| [Color and High Dynamic Range (HDR)](/engine/6000.0/manual/materials-and-shaders/graphics-color.md)             | Resources for working with linear and gamma color spaces in Unity, and High Dynamic Range (HDR).             |
| [Shader Import Settings window reference](/engine/6000.0/manual/materials-and-shaders/class-shader-importer.md) | View and edit properties and settings for a prebuilt shader or a custom shader.                              |

## Additional resources and examples

* 👥 **Community**: [Join the conversation on Unity Discussions for Graphics](https://discussions.unity.com/lists/graphics)
* 📖 **E-Book**: [Introduction to the Universal Render Pipeline for advanced creators (Unity 6 edition)](https://unity.com/resources/introduction-to-urp-advanced-creators-unity-6?isGated=false)
* 📖 **E-Book**: [Create popular shaders and visual effects with the Universal Render Pipeline (Unity 6 edition)](https://unity.com/resources/create-shaders-visual-effects-urp-unity-6?isGated=false)
* 📺 **Video**: [20 advanced 2D shader effects - part 1](https://youtu.be/wav3YUcqUCA)
* 📺 **Video**: [20 advanced 2D shader effects - part 2](https://youtu.be/fVzBLxuHOmM)
* 📺 **Video**: [Compute shaders - Part 1: Particle fun](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omZap7XHxKc)
* 📺 **Video**: [Compute shaders - Part 2: Flocking](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rOinLsyXAA)
* 📺 **Video**: [Compute shaders - Part 3: Vertex animation](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcDtiqXRVOc)
* 📺 **Video**: [Introduction to the Render Graph in Unity 6](https://youtu.be/U8PygjYAF7A)
* 📺 **Video**: [Understanding URP settings and essentials](https://youtu.be/HCXCmHgV7Sk)