All content in this course uses:

Set up the Camera component, a Cinemachine virtual camera, and post-processing effects to create a more visually engaging game view.

The Camera

Now that you’ve created a player character and environment, it’s time to think about the camera for your game.


Set up a virtual camera using Cinemachine

Add a range of different post-processing effects

Once you’ve completed this tutorial, your camera will be set up to make the game as visually interesting for players as possible.


In the previous tutorial, you created a level for your game. The character can now walk around the Scene, but this means that he sometimes wanders away from the camera. In this tutorial, you’ll adjust the camera settings to make sure this doesn’t happen. 

Scenes in Unity are made up of GameObjects which in turn have a collection of components attached to them. The way that the Scene is viewed by players is constructed in the same way.

To view the Scene, a GameObject in the Scene must have a 

.  When a new Scene is created, a GameObject is added called Main Camera which has a Camera component.

The camera points down the GameObject’s 

 and behaves exactly like all other GameObjects. In the Scene view, you can see a gizmo representing the camera’s 

. The frustrum is a solid shape that looks like a pyramid with the top cut off parallel to the base. This is the shape of the region that can be seen and rendered by a perspective camera

When you make a game, you have a few options to make sure that the camera followers the player character. One solution would be to write a script for this. However, Unity has a built-in solution to the problem: 

Explore the Camera Component

Cinemachine is Unity’s answer to all things relating to cameras in games. A basic summary of this system is as follows:

One or more ‘virtual’ cameras are created in a Scene.

These virtual cameras are managed by a component called the Cinemachine Brain.

The Cinemachine Brain is attached to the same GameObject as a Camera component — by default this will be the Main Camera GameObject.

The Cinemachine Brain manages all of the virtual cameras and decides which virtual camera (or combination of virtual cameras) the actual camera should follow.

In your game, the camera will only ever be following JohnLemon, so you’ll only need one virtual camera. You’ll make sure that this virtual camera follows JohnLemon, and then the Main Camera GameObject will stick to that.

How does Cinemachine work?

To set up a virtual camera using Cinemachine:

In the Hierarchy, select the JohnLemon GameObject.


Move your cursor over the Scene window and press the 


This will create a new GameObject in the scene called 


This will be created at the focus point of the Scene window’s camera, so it should be right on top of JohnLemon.  However, since you now have a virtual camera in the Scene it will have moved the Game window’s view, so you can no longer see JohnLemon in the Game window.


To fix this, you need to make sure the virtual camera is tracking the character by changing the Cinemachine Virtual Camera component settings.  


Set up a Virtual Camera using Cinemachine

To set up the virtual camera so it tracks JohnLemon:


In the Inspector, find the Cinemachine Virtual Camera component. This component has a lot of settings, but at the moment you just need to focus on three sections: the target references, the body and the aim.


The target references section has two settings: 

.  These are optional references to the Transform components of GameObjects.  

If you want your virtual camera to move, then it needs to know 

 to move. Specifically, it needs a reference to a Transform that it will follow.  Likewise, if you want your virtual camera to rotate then it needs to know what it has to rotate to look at.

.  These are settings for how the camera moves and rotates respectively.  You’re going to restrict the movement of the virtual camera, so it has JohnLemon in view all the time but doesn’t actually look at the character.



 section, change the drop-down menu at the top right from 

Drag and drop the JohnLemon GameObject from the Hierarchy window onto the Follow property of the Cinemachine Virtual Camera Component. This will change the 

 setting to reference JohnLemon’s Transform. 

 section, change the drop-down at the top right of the section from 

Changing the Body to a Framing Transposer will allow you to control the virtual camera’s position by giving it rules about where on screen its 

 target has to be.

To find out more about the different Body setting values, you can check the Cinemachine documentation (in the top menu bar, go to 

).

The Game window should now have several red and blue boxes on it.  These are guides for where on the screen the target can be:

Now let’s set the virtual camera at the correct angle. In the Hierarchy, select the 

GameObject. On the CM vam1 GameObject’s Transform component, set the 

.

Now the virtual camera is tilted down and looking at the character from above.  This is roughly the look you’re looking for. Why did the virtual camera move when you only changed the rotation?  This is the power of Cinemachine!  

You knew that you needed a more top-down angle to our camera, and the virtual camera worked out that if you wanted it to be tilted down, it needed to be higher up in order to have its target on screen.


Most of the default settings of the Framing Transposer are fine for your game.  The only one you need to change is the 

setting — the character is a little too small on the screen, so you need to move the virtual camera a little bit closer.

Change the 

Deselect the VirtualCamera GameObject to remove the guidelines from the Game window.


 from the top menu, or by pressing Ctrl + S (Windows) or CMD + S (macOS).


Click the Play button in the toolbar and test the game so far.  Click Play again when you’re finished testing.


That’s it — you’ve set up the virtual camera and its movement! Now you can start adding some visual flair to the camera to make the game look even more awesome.


Change the Cinemachine Virtual Camera Component Settings

Post-processing involves applying filters and effects to the game image before it’s rendered on screen (similar to filters that can be added to photos). In this section of the tutorial, you’ll explore how post-processing works in Unity and then apply it to your own game.

Generally, post-processing effects are grouped together and used on different areas of the game world. This means that when the camera is in a particular area, its designated set of processes are applied to the image.

Imagine that you are in a dark room and then step through a door outside into bright daylight.  Your eyes will take a while to adjust and everything will  seem much brighter than it usually does when you exit the room. In Unity, this could be simulated by having different groups of post processes applied in the room and outside it. The groups of post processes are Assets called 

. The areas of the game world which have profiles assigned to them are Components called 

Sometimes, different cameras have different post-processes. To link a set of processes to a specific camera, a 

component is added to the same GameObject as the Camera component. Layers are a way of organising GameObjects by behaviour.

Find out more about post-processing in Unity

This tutorial includes step-by-step instructions to add specific post-processing effects in Unity Editor. If you’d like to explore these effects in more detail, you can find more information in:


The Unity Manual post-processing overview

The post-processing package documentation

Add Post-Processing Effects

 property below the GameObject’s name.


A GameObject can only belong to one layer. The Main Camera is on the Default Layer. There are several options by default in Unity, but you can also create your own layers in the Tags & Layers Manager.


In the Tags & Layers Manager there are 32 available Layers in (starting with 0 and ending with 31).  


The first eight Layers are reserved for Unity’s default Layers, but the remaining 24 can be used for whatever you want.  Since you need a Layer for your Post Process Volume, it makes sense to create a Layer for all Post Process Volumes.


In the Hierarchy, select the Main Camera GameObject. It will still be on the Default Layer:


This is because although you have created a new layer, you have not reassigned Main Camera to this.



Change the Layer property from Nothing to 

Create a Post-Processing Layer

Before you move on to set up your volume and profile, let’s quickly consider anti-aliasing. 

Aliasing is when the edge of an object looks jagged and the pixel outline can be seen:



 is a post-processing effect that reduces the prominence of these jagged lines by surrounding them with pixels of intermediate shades of color.  There are several different algorithms for working out which pixels need adjusting and by how much — you’re going to use the simplest and most effective one.




Make sure that the Game view is visible, so you can see the changes you are making in this section of the tutorial.


In the Post Process Layer component, change the 

 property dropdown from No Anti-aliasing to 

checkbox below the dropdown.


JohnLemon already looks a lot better!

Now the Post Process Layer is set up properly, you can move on to creating your volume.

Improve Image Quality with Anti-aliasing

.  The global volume works as a default profile for the cameras it affects.  Other non-global volumes could then override the effects of this one, but your game will not need any additional volumes.


Add a Post Process Volume Component to GlobalPost.


property. This will create a new Post-processing Profile. Its Asset will be saved in a new folder called 

Now that a Profile has been set, you will see more settings available in the Post Process Volume Component. 

The 

 subsection refers to the different effects that can override how the camera normally renders.  By default a profile has no effects, and so there is nothing in the Overrides subsection.

Create a Post-Processing Volume

.

Color Grading is a way of changing the brightness, contrast and colors of the rendered view.  You can think of it like applying filters in photo editing software or Instagram. To make your game look spookier, you’re going to adjust the colors and brightness levels of the rendered view.



The settings within this component are shortcuts to the Profile Asset; all changes to the Overrides subsection will change the Profile Asset and will not directly affect the Component. 



 the scene. Tonemapping changes the output of the final rendered frame so that it's much easier to control lights and shadows.

Enable the 

subsection. Using the drop-down menu, change its property from None to 

. ACES tonemapping is an industry standard way of applying tonemapping.  It helps create a more film-like look for your projects.


You'll notice that the scene looks really dark now.  This is because the ACES default exposure is zero (for more information, see the documentation).  A good way to fix this is to use the Post-exposure feature.  Post-exposure is a way of adjusting the default exposure.

In the 

You can also make your scene a little spookier by changing some colours. Halfway down the Color Grading section, find the color circles called 

 checkboxes beneath each Trackball. 

Lift affects the colours of your shadows, Gain changes the brightest highlights, and Gamma covers everything in the middle (or mid-range) of your image’s color.


Drag the circle in the center of the Trackballs to slightly adjust the color in your Game view. Drag the:


This will add depth to the shadows and warmth to the lighting.



Add the Color Grading Effect

Your lights are much more effective, but they don't look quite like real lights yet. Add the Bloom effect to give them a nice glow:



 shortcut just below the section title — this will enable all the settings for Bloom. Currently nothing is actually glowing, as the

, to create a nice bright glow on the lights.



You might see some other brighter objects that you feel could also look nice with a little glow. You can add them to the Bloom effect using the 

property.  Lowering this value adds less bright pixels to the effect.

Set the Threshold to 

Add the Bloom Effect

The lights now feel bright, but it’s important to maintain the spooky atmosphere for this haunted house. A good way of darkening some of those corners and cracks is to use the 

effect. Ambient Occlusion mimics the real-life effect of light not reaching tighter corners by darkening those areas.

To add this effect:


 shortcut to activate all the features that you need.


Like Bloom, you will need to set the Intensity before we can see it work. Set the Intensity property to 

, and you'll create a nice spooky shadow in the corners of the rooms.


You can spread this effect even further across the room by using the 

. Set the Thickness Modifier property to 

Now you should be able to see a big shadowy effect spreading behind some of the other props in the scene.


Add the Ambient Occlusion Effect

Several effects simulate how a real camera would view the scene.  The last few effects will change how such a camera’s lens would work. First, you’ll add the Vignette effect to darken the edges of the camera lens itself. This helps to focus in on the player and makes the game feel more claustrophobic.

To add this effect:

 shortcut to activate all the features that you need.



Like Bloom and Ambient Occlusion, the Vignette effect needs an Intensity.  This will determine how far across the screen the effect spreads. Set the 

You can make feel even more claustrophobic and spooky by increasing the Smoothing.  The Smoothness property determines the distance over which the effect fades towards the centre of the screen. Set the 

Add the Vignette Effect

The final effect you need to add is Lens Distortion. This warps the final rendered frame and will help to make it feel like you're watching the game through a spy camera.

To add this effect:

controls the strength of the effect.  Have a go sliding the Intensity back and forth to get an idea of the effect. Then set the

When you use this effect, it can sometimes create visual glitches at the edges of the screen where the image has been warped. To fix this, you can simply zoom into the rendered frame a little to remove the glitches from view.

Set the 

Add the Lens Distortion Effect

In this tutorial, you dealt with a lot of the visuals for your game — not only how the camera moves but also changing the visuals so that your game looks really professional. Look at the visual difference it has made:

In the next tutorial, you’ll explore your game’s UI (user interface) and create an ending for the game.

Unity Version 2020.3