Shader Making help needed Thread

Hello im trying to make some things happen and its actually in a variety of platforms ,

Sage 2
Specifically im planning to continue at some point later on a mod i started but never finished... but i need to make a custom shader for it.
I wish to do a 6 picture swap shader on the models to animate in realtime on a model a simple sprite such as ropes swaying.
For this id like to use 6 Diffuse channel bitmaps and 6 alpha channels each in succession to try and reproduce a high detail model with lower cost resources cpu wise, (of course im not even sure if thats a good idea,or if it will fail miserably,i've seen 2d game makers use a feature like this and thought itd be nice to use in 3d combination)
Also which shader in c&c 3 would be best for showing wakes and water splashes ?
so far ive looked at the basic shader example in the fx folder.. but im a noob when it comes to shaders.. any help appreciated.

UDK 3
Im helping build a game , im not the programmer , nor the dubbed texture artist, im the modeller who is supposed to supply textured models and have some sorta shader applyed to them... problem is while i can add in a diffuse/normal in udk im at a loss to what other things to include so the programmer wont bitch and complain the model isnt settup right.
Both programmers in this team seem to guide me to tutorials on the game (however they have changed the layout in udk to disable certain things in udk for the game... thus it makes following tutorials frustrating and humilliating )
for example I wanted to colour in using textures id made ages ago the landscapes... seems I have to import heightmaps they have made rather then geometry.. but the feature im told to use... greyyed out. how do i fix this ? do i give up ?
ANy shader tutorial where it demonstrates more of how to make custom things like footprints or damage to showup in texture refrences would be nice.
I did say id try and create a basic shader set for some models im working on but so far ive done nothing but workout basic diffuse and normals.
(the game im supposed to be helping build is hearts of oak)
dont want to redo everything i work on ,do i start making lots of non textured models ?
Opinions or shader tutorials in udk 3 please !

UDK

I'm not sure about your problem, but when something is greyed out in UDK materials that usually has to do with the material type you use. For example, usually the opactiy node is greyed out, but if you want to mask something (with an alpha), you have to change your material type to masked_soft, masked or to translucent and you will see the different inputs get black/usable.

Another thing is, below in the material settings there is usually a value, for example: 1. This determines when the material becomes masked. 1 stands for black in this case, so nothing may happen when you connect a mask. The lower value you chose, the more of your diffuse becomes visible through the mask. 0 stands for completely visible (white), 1 for unmasked/black.

Also: mobile games don't use terrain at all in UDK, so you HAVE TO import a mesh for those. It depends on your model resolution and the purpose, but you can always import a mesh as terrain. However, using terrain in UDK/PC games is the better option, because it is optimized for streaming and lighting.

I think tutorials are plenty. If you want some basic ideas for materials go to this (official) site and start rebuilding the materials you find there. In UDK materials the main shader compound is always on the left (the big container, and your original textures are on the right. All the nodes inbetween are used to change the original textures in ways that make them useful for a certain purpose). Material Links UDN:

Udn.epicgames.com

Udn.epicgames.com

Edited by: SinKing

Thanks man, though its the terrain import function thats greyed out.
due in fact to our programmers scripting and i dont have a clue how to make it right again.
That said im going to go checkout your materials guides, much obliged for those.