Achieve Stunning Visual Effects with Unity URP Green Screen

Date: 2023-12-16T08:46:33+00:00 - (Skid Vis)

Welcome to this comprehensive tutorial on creating professional green screen effects in Unity! In this guide, I’ll walk you through the process of putting yourself (or anyone else) into your game using Unity’s Universal Render Pipeline (URP) and a green screen video. This technique is perfect for game developers, content creators, and virtual production enthusiasts looking to blend real-world footage with digital environments.

What You’ll Learn

In this tutorial, you’ll discover how to:

• Set up a green screen material in Unity using Shader Graph
• Configure a video player to display green screen footage
• Fine-tune the chroma key effect for clean results
• Position and scale your video subject within the game world

Prerequisites

To follow along with this tutorial, you’ll need:

• Unity 2022 LTS (or a similar recent version)
• A video with a green screen background
• Basic familiarity with Unity’s interface

Step-by-Step Tutorial

1. Setting Up Your Project

I’m using Unity 2022 LTS for this tutorial. To get started:

• Create a new Unity project or use an existing one
• Add a plane to your scene to serve as a surface for placing objects
• Import your green screen video footage
• Import a screenshot of your video (optional, but helpful for color picking)

2. Creating the Green Screen Material

The heart of this effect is a custom shader that will mask out the green color:

1. Import the Shader Graph (you can download mine from the link below)
2. Right-click on the Shader Graph and select “Create Material”
3. In the material settings, ensure:
   • Surface Type is set to “Transparent”
   • Blending Mode is set to “Alpha”

The Shader Graph includes several important parameters:

• Texture: The video feed to apply the green screen effect to
• Color: The specific green color to mask out
• Hue Range: For fine-tuning which colors get masked
• Fuzziness: Controls the softness of the mask edges

3. Setting Up the Video Player

Now let’s create the object that will display our green screen video:

1. Create a new empty GameObject in your scene (I named mine “Player”)
2. Add a Video Player component to this object
3. Inside the Player object, add a Plane (this will be our video display surface)
4. Resize the plane to match your video’s aspect ratio (I used 16:9, so I set X to 16 and Z to 9)
5. Scale down the parent object to a reasonable size (I used 0.5)
6. Lift the object slightly to prevent Z-clipping

4. Configuring the Material and Video

Now we need to connect everything together:

1. Apply the green screen material to the plane

2. In the material settings:

   • Drag your screenshot into the Texture field (for testing)
   • Use the eyedropper tool to select the exact green color to mask out
   • Fine-tune the Hue Range and Fuzziness as needed

3. Configure the Video Player component:

   • Drag your green screen video clip into the Video Clip field
   • Set Update Mode to “DSP” for smoother playback (especially on slower computers)
   • Enable Loop if you want the video to repeat
   • Change Render Mode to “Material Override”
   • Drag the Plane into the Renderer field
   • Uncheck “Auto Select Property” and set it to “texture”

5. Positioning and Orientation

To position your video subject correctly in the scene:

1. Rotate the Player object 90 degrees on the X-axis (so it’s standing upright)
2. Adjust the height so the feet touch the ground
3. Optional: Add a script to make the player always face the camera for a billboard effect

6. Testing the Result

Hit Play to see your green screen video integrated into your Unity scene! The background should be transparent, showing only your subject against the game environment.

Tips for Best Results

• Lighting: Ensure your green screen is evenly lit when recording
• Color Selection: Use the eyedropper to pick the exact shade of green from your footage
• Fine-tuning: Adjust the Hue Range and Fuzziness parameters for cleaner edges
• Performance: If you experience lag, try reducing video resolution or using a more optimized codec

Resources and Support

For those who want to dive deeper, I’ve made my URP Green Screen Shadergraph available at: https://ko-fi.com/s/14f8a769c1

I would love to connect with you through my Discord server where we can discuss more about Unity and virtual production: https://discord.com/invite/CVNuqSZ

If you’d like to support my work, consider becoming a Patreon member: http://www.patreon.com/sharkjets

The background music in the video tutorial is by Flawed Human Being, check them out at: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0ywnFmJWQwP4adEG9otvYA

Conclusion

This green screen technique opens up countless possibilities for integrating real-world footage into your Unity projects. Whether you’re creating a game with live-action elements, a mixed reality experience, or just want to put yourself in your game world, this approach provides a professional-looking result with minimal setup.

If you found this tutorial helpful, please consider subscribing to my channel for more Unity and game development content. If you have any questions or run into issues, feel free to leave a comment on the video!

Watch the full tutorial on YouTube