Technical art, shaders, and rendering
Shaders, rendering, VFX, materials, and lighting — the layer between what your artists authored and what the hardware can actually draw. It is the work that decides both how a project looks and whether it holds frame rate, and those two questions are almost always the same question.
The rate is how an estimate gets built — you aren't buying an hourly meter. Work is scoped into deliverables and milestones at a fixed fee, agreed in writing before anything starts.
What this covers
- Custom shaders, in Shader Graph or hand-written HLSL
- Compute shaders and GPU-side systems
- Render features, custom passes, and pipeline work in URP, HDRP, or built-in
- VFX and particle systems
- Look development, materials, and lighting
- GPU and CPU profiling, and the optimisation that follows it
- Artist-facing tooling, so your team can drive the look without me
People usually come to me with
- The game looks flat and nobody is sure which lever to pull.
- You have a look in mind that no off-the-shelf shader gives you.
- It runs fine on a desktop and not at all on the device you are shipping to.
- Your artists are fighting the renderer instead of using it.
What it usually costs
One platform, nothing added, and priced as minimum viable product on a standard schedule. Complexity, scheduling, extra platforms, and add-ons move it from there — the estimator does all of that live, as you answer.
| Size | Effort | Roughly |
|---|---|---|
Tiny One effect, start to finish. A dissolve shader, a hit spark, a water surface. | 84 hrs 3 weeks and 2 days | $8,750 – $13,100 |
Small A related set. The impact VFX for a combat system, or a stylised outline pass with the lighting to sell it. | 156 hrs 6 weeks and 2 days | $16,225 – $24,325 |
Medium A game's visual identity. The full VFX library for a character roster, or a cel-shaded look built across every material. | 348 hrs 14 weeks | $36,200 – $54,300 |
Large The whole look of a title, and the pipeline behind it. Custom render passes, an authored shader library, and the tooling artists work in. | 780 hrs 31 weeks and 1 day | $81,125 – $121,675 |
This is a preliminary estimate based on the information provided. Real-time work is sensitive to target hardware and asset quality, so the final quote is confirmed after review and may change if scope changes.
Price my projectAlso on offer
A complete build, from an empty project to something people can install.
VR, AR, and spatial work — headset experiences, training, installations, and interactive pieces.
Editor tooling, automation, and reusable packages for your team.
One system — a mechanic, a controller, an inventory — built to drop into what you already have.
A read on a project you already have: performance, architecture, feasibility, and what to do next.
Ready for a number?
No email gate, no sales call. Build the estimate first and decide from there.
Start my estimate