if you want to learn how to program shaders you will need maybe 2-3 months of work before you can do anything complex.. becasue it's not simply iunderstanding of HLSL or whatever, or even D3D, but optical science and 3d math as well. Your best bet is to simply use shaders that have alrady been done, you can find plenty on the forums, or you can use my Sphere Engine which has most of the effects you would want built in.