Shading the Canvas: Vertex & Fragment Shaders
The two tiny programs that decide where things go and what color they are.
Summary
Every pixel on the GPU passes through two small programs: a vertex shader that decides position, and a fragment shader that decides color. This article introduces both in OpenGL ES 3, explaining how they cooperate to turn geometry into the images you see — the conceptual core of the whole series.
Two small programs do all the heavy lifting in real-time graphics. This article introduces the vertex and fragment shaders in OpenGL ES 3 — how they split the work of position and color, and why understanding them unlocks everything else.
Key ideas
- 01 The vertex shader runs per vertex and computes positions.
- 02 The fragment shader runs per pixel and computes color.
- 03 Varyings pass interpolated data from vertices to fragments.
- 04 Understanding this pair unlocks nearly all real-time graphics.
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