I don't think that's an especially good example, i was just messing before going to bed ^^ You shouldn't look too much for complex examples and super large and impressive shading networks, some very basic effects can easily simulate a large range of materials :)
You need to look at some example shaders. Try shaderFX from www.lumonix.net , and for general shader info, check out http://tech-artists.org/wiki/Portal:Shaders