Epic Games' Fortnite, out this year in Early Access, has earned a bit of acclaim for its striking, colorful aesthetic.

That stylization permeates every aspect of the game's visuals, as Epic Games' Jonathan Lindquist deftly explained in a talk at GDC 2013 about the game's shader-based procedural animation.

It was a fascinating talk that dug into the vertex shaders that bring every inanimate object in the game to life, and the development process that led to this specific art direction. Lindquist offered lots of insight to fellow devs by providing in-depth visual descriptions, code samples and high-level concepts that, when taken together, provide a springboard for devs looking to build their own shader-based procedural animation systems.

Now that the game is out, you can go back and watch Lindquist's talk (completely free!) via the official GDC Vault YouTube channel!

About the GDC Vault

In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its new YouTube channel offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.

Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC, GDC Europe, and GDC Next already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.

Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Americas