Here are some general tips for when creating materials in Unreal Engine:

• Keep materials modular. Break complex effects into smaller, reusable nodes or master materials.
• Use material instances. Tweak parameters without duplicating the base material.
• Don’t overcomplicate things. Only add nodes or textures that actually make a visible difference.
• Optimize textures. Use the right resolution and compress when possible.
• Plan your UVs. Good UVs prevent stretching, weird tiling, or wasted texture space.
• Test performance as you go. Small tweaks can make a big difference in large scenes.
• Prioritize clarity over realism. Especially for stylized projects, clean shapes and readable colors matter more than over-complicated materials.

Another technique I’ve used to create materials for my game has been AI Image Generation.

I can’t stress how many doors this opens up!

For example, you can upload a realistic base color image and make it stylized. It is an extremely powerful, yet underrated tool that can be used to take your materials to the next level!

Again, I am still learning, this is just what has helped me. If anybody has any feedback, reply below.