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Effects in Unity

Effects in Unity

Table of Contents

Summary

This document is a guide to making realtime visual effects in Unity, as well as how to package and publish them with our SYNK pipeline so they can be accessed through a project’s library.

Tutorial video

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Before starting

There are three parts to Effects in Unity:

  • Setting up the effect

  • Adding the effect to an asset or set

  • Adding the effect to a sequence or shot

Each effect should be present in the breakdown of the project and on Ftrack in the 601_library, and have the FX task. It is possible an “effect” has to be added specifically to a character or a prop, such as a special shader, a particle system attached to a vehicle, etc. In such cases, the effect will be added during the Shading task on the parent asset. When an effect has to be present at all times in a set or added to/animated in a specific shot, the effect will be added during the FX task on the set/shot.

Starting the effect setup

Git

The setup of an effect is context-agnostic and therefore you have to decide where you want to create it. Is it a specific set? A specific sequence? Or just in the asset lineup? Use a Git Client (Sourcetree, Github Desktop, …) to clone the environment project you want to work in and then open it in Unity.

Unity

Once Unity opens, you'll need to:

  1. Make sure the SYNK packages are up to date

  1. Select the effect/asset you want to work on

In order to see the task of a specific effect or asset, it needs to be linked to the environment, set, sequence or shot that you opened.

  1. Check or change the task status

  1. You should not make any changes to scenes during the effect setup, but you can load them in order to create the effect in a certain context. The 604_scenes folder contains all scenes you might want: sequences (all sequences that take place in that environment), lighting scenes (one per environment lighting variant), and sets (one per set dressing variant). You can load as many as you like.

    image-20260203-114721.png

     

    image-20260203-115121.png
    An example of the Kitchen set with the A lighting variant

Starting the effect integration

Ftrack

In order to start working on the integration of your effect, you will first need to:

  1. Make sure you’re logged in to Ftrack connect, which is a standalone app.

  1. Travel to the FX task of the set/sequence where you want to add the effect.

  1. Launch the SYNK Git Unity Project Tool action.

Git Unity Project Tool

Once the Git Unity Project Tool opens, you'll need to:

  1. Set up the unity projects directory if this is your first time launching the tool

  1. Clone the unity project if this is your first time working on a task in this environment

  1. Make sure you have all the latest changes

Unity

Once Unity opens, you'll need to:

  1. Make sure the SYNK packages are up to date

  1. Select the set/sequence you want to work on. If you used the git-tool to clone/update the project, your project will already be restricted to one specific set or sequence task.

  2. Check or change the task status

  1. Lock the scenes you want to work on

Requirements and best practices