A Real-Time Watercolor Shader for Botanical Futurism

Built for EWENIVERSE’s “Botanical Futurism” aesthetic, this shader introduces organic watercolor textures that balance the game’s clean, futuristic UI, creating a cohesive look that feels both alive and modern.

PICTURE BOOK MOTIF

During the production of EWENIVERSE, I developed a custom watercolor shader to extend the project’s core idea of Botanical Futurism: blending organic, natural textures with clean, futuristic UI elements.

The watercolor effect introduces softness, texture, and imperfection, grounding the interface in a living, natural world. In contrast, the sharper and more minimal UI components reinforce the player’s identity as an astronaut, creating a visual duality between nature and technology.

ROLE - Technical Artist

SCOPE - Shader Making, Technical + visual exploration

OVERVIEW

DURATION

TOOLS

1 Month

Unity, Shader Graph, Blender

PROJECT TIMELINE

Project Planning & Research

Concept ideation
Thematic Direction
Technical Research

Testing & Making of Shader

Assets Creation

Environment
Characters

Implementation in Game engine

01 About PICTURE BOOK MOTIF

During the production of EWENIVERSE, I developed a custom watercolor shader to extend the project’s core idea of Botanical Futurism: blending organic, natural textures with clean, futuristic UI elements.

The watercolor effect introduces softness, texture, and imperfection, grounding the interface in a living, natural world. In contrast, the sharper and more minimal UI components reinforce the player’s identity as an astronaut, creating a visual duality between nature and technology.

02 VISUAL REFERENCES

To ground the shader exploration, I studied games with similar art directions, focusing on how watercolor-inspired effects are achieved through stylistic detail rather than realism.

My primary references were Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon & Doraemon Story of Seasons, both of which adopt a picture-book aesthetic using watercolor textures to create warm, inviting worlds that encourage exploration.

Inspired by these approaches, I recreated a similar effect in Unity’s Universal Render Pipeline (URP) using shader graphs, exploring how subtle stylization, such as texture layering and soft edges can shape mood and influence user experience while remaining expressive.

03 BREAKDOWN & ANALYSIS

To translate watercolor-style rendering into EWENIVERSE’s Botanical Futurism aesthetic, I analyzed the painterly effects used in Bayonetta Origins.

I identified key visual components: swaying crosshatch lines, paper-grain motion, texture overlays, and soft-edged shadows, and used them as modular building blocks for shader development. This breakdown allowed me to reconstruct the effect systematically in a controllable, real-time shader.

Minimal overlays and softer color motion, creating a calm, pastoral feel.

Painterly, storybook aesthetic with bold strokes reinforcing silhouette.

04 DESIGN GOALS

From analyzing these watercolor components, I defined three core goals to guide the shader development process:

Convey a handcrafted, painterly atmosphere

Create a soft, storybook-like watercolor aesthetic that reinforces the organic side of Botanical Futurism.

Ensure clear readability of gameplay elements

Maintain visual clarity by avoiding excessive noise while preserving expressive stylization.

Develop a style that complements UI overlays with in-game rendering

Ensure the painterly world rendering remains cohesive with clean, futuristic UI elements.

05 OVERVIEW

To achieve the “picture-book watercolor” style in EWENIVERSE, I developed a two-part shader system consisting of an Object Shader and a Full-screen Image Effect. Together, they create the layered, swaying, hand-painted look that supports the project’s Botanical Futurism aesthetic.

OBJECT SHADER [For Ground, Characters, and Props]

Applies a watercolor rendering style directly to 3D meshes.

Key Features:

Texture-based color blending & paper grain
Soft edges, outlines, and stylized shadows
Adjustable motion and noise for organic variation

Ground/Character/Object Meshes in the scene have a shader comes with watercolor like shading - blooming effect [smudges], changeable noise texture [strength + brightness], overlaying patterns [scale + rotation + position], light and shadow, watercolor edges, outline [color], swaying effect [speed], paper type [texture].

Mainlight's shadow map is sampled to apply a watercolor shadow effect. Shadow look can be arrange in terms of intensity [opacity], cover amount, wobbliness.

Variations: For Grounds and Floors | For Objects and Characters

IMAGE EFFECT SHADER [Full-Screen Pass]

Adds global post-processing to unify the painterly look.

Key Features:

Screen-wide outlines and edge softening
Subtle distortion to simulate watercolor bleeding
Vignette framing inspired by pigment fading

These effects combine to create the feeling of watercolor paint bleeding outward and softening at the edges of the screen.

It covers the entire screen and is responsible for rendering outline, distortion, and a vignette frame. These effects combine to create a stunning visual representation of watercolor paint gradually fading out at the edges of the screen.