Thank you so much! I look forward to starting! Would you suggest principles as a watch first or the beginner videos? 
Hey Pixamy and welcome to the community!
I do suggest starting with the “principles” video by Jason/VFX Apprentice. These fundamentals will help you make better choices when you start creating effects in any engine. This is because the things you’ll learn in that series are transferable to many things down the line (no matter what engine or style you are doing). I would also recommend coming back to the series after you already created some more effects. You will deepen the understanding of the topics more after getting a feel for how things assemble.
Other than that I suggest to jump in and create an effect in a engine of you choice. The first few effects have no need to be good and this should not be the goal at first. Just get comfortable with the tools and with some settings. Learn from mistakes and you will see an improvement faster than trying to make the “perfect” effect on you first try.
Looking forward to see some effects from you in the future!
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The Discord join link is not working anymore.
Also, it would be good to have it somewhere more visible, maybe even on the top menu bar!
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We’ve tried to figure that out before. Even though it’s a pinned topic, it doesn’t stay at the top of the page once a user has viewed it. There have been some updates to the website since it was last discussed though, so I’ll check with Keith and see if there’s now a solution or workaround for that issue. I know before I logged in for the first time on a different computer, it was showing at the top of the topics page. But you’re right, once I signed in it got pushed out by all the new topics and didn’t appear at the top anymore 
Edit: I’ll check to see what the status of the Discord link is now. At one point it was getting spammed by bots, so that link may have gotten disabled.
Ok, link to join the RealTimeVFX Discord channel has been updated with a fresh link
Currently I am studying for VFX at a school this year and knowing what to learn earlier could help me quickly! Thanks!
Definitely getting started in a game engine and getting familiar with its particle system is the top priority. Building particle systems and focusing on improving timing and layering would be the next biggest priority, as that will take the longest to begin understanding the subjective “feel” of a good effect.
Try not to lean to heavily on learning materials/shaders first, since the most crazy shader in the world won’t make up for an effect’s timing not looking right or feeling right.
Yes! This is great, thank you. good
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Great topic! I want to help with learning and I leave this link for a free course in Udemy about niagara effects. I’d be glad to help
https://www.udemy.com/course/unleashfx-unreal-engine-niagara-fx-and-sequencer/?couponCode=7D5B74354471347EB289
Thanks for sharing! I’ve been meaning to update and restructure this for a while now, but work and life seem to keep veering me off course lately. I’ll be sure to add it to the updated list of resources when I do
Hello Travis, I want to say thank you for this immense amount of information and resources to learn shaders.
I’ve been interested in learning shaders, but I’m new to this. I want to learn and get a better understanding of how shaders work and create one of my own. I look forward to staring this journey. Nice to meet you all.
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Please, I saw your post regarding the fortnite beam trail, is it possible to guide me through the process? I have been trying to get it to work using Niagara, but it doesn’t seem to work. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you