PerfectShot — Documentation

What is PerfectShot

An editor-only tool to capture marketing images, store icons and animated GIFs straight from your Unity scene — no builds, no permanent scene changes.

PerfectShot renders your scene through a dedicated camera into a preview, lets you tweak framing, lighting, post-processing, canvases and background/foreground layers, then exports clean images (SD up to 8K) or GIFs. It works with URP, HDRP and the Built-in render pipeline.

📐 Any resolution

SD → 8K, custom sizes and presets for Steam, Google Play and the App Store.

🖼️ Photo library

Every capture is organized, searchable and re-openable inside the tool.

🎞️ GIF capture + editor

Record GIFs of the last seconds, then trim, re-time and re-export them.

🌫️ Non-destructive scene tweaks

Change lights, fog and colors only for the shot — reset restores everything.

✨ Post-processing

Bloom, color grading and more via a volume profile.

🫥 Transparency

Cut-out backgrounds for PNG, EXR, TGA — and now GIF.

Export formats

.png · .jpg · .exr · .tga for images, animated .gif for clips.

Quick Start

First-time setup

Configure PerfectShot for your render pipeline once via Tools ▸ PerfectShot ▸ Setup ▸ Configure for URP / HDRP / Built-in, and your input system under Setup ▸ Input.

Create your first image in under a minute:

Open the tool from Tools ▸ PerfectShot ▸ Open PerfectShot.
Make sure a Scene view is open — PerfectShot follows a camera.
Pick a camera in the Camera dropdown (defaults to the Scene View camera).
Frame your shot in the Scene view; the preview updates live.
Press Create Icon.
Open the Photos tab to see, ping or open the result.

Tip

Every field has a tooltip — hover and wait a moment to read what it does.

Interface

The window is a live preview surrounded by controls, with tabbed panels below. The most-used controls:

Top & preview controls

Control	What it does
Resolution presets	Quick switch between store/social presets.
Resolution input	Custom output size in pixels (width × height).
Field Of View	Camera FOV. Sync FOV keeps it matched to the target camera.

Left toolbar

Control	What it does
Profile	Save/restore complete tool setups (see Profiles).
Camera	Which camera PerfectShot follows.
Projection	Perspective or Orthographic.
Culling Mask	Which layers render into the shot.
Background Type / Color	Camera clear mode and background color.
Far Plane	Camera far clip distance.
Ambient / Light / Fog colors	Temporary scene look overrides (non-destructive).
Post Processing	Toggle post-processing for the shot.
Record Gif	Starts GIF recording and reveals the GIF tab.

Right toolbar

Render Canvas toggle + canvas picker, Grid toggle + color, and quick links: Quality, Graphics, Camera, Render Texture, Light Explorer, Lighting, Volume settings, plus Reset Scene Settings.

Tabs

Photos · Folders · Animations · Particles & VFX · Light · Canvas · Advanced · GIF.

Resolution Features

Set output size three ways:

Presets — ready sizes for Steam capsules, Google Play, the App Store and common social formats.
Custom input — type any width × height, from SD to 8K.
Multi-Resolution — export the same shot at many sizes at once (see Advanced).

The preview keeps the correct aspect ratio, and on-screen guides help you frame for each platform.

Photo Library

The Photos tab stores every capture (images and GIFs) in the project.

Search by name or resolution (e.g. steam or 512).
Order By date (newer/older) or name.
Show Preview On Hover shows a large preview while hovering a thumbnail.
Double-click a photo to open it; thumbnails for GIFs are tagged GIF.

Right-click menu

Item	Action
Ping	Highlight the asset in the Project window.
Edit GIF New	Open the GIF Editor (only shown for `.gif` files).
Delete	Delete the file (with confirmation).
Copy / Copy Path	Copy the image or its path to the clipboard.
Show in Explorer/Finder	Reveal the file on disk.

Files & Folders

The Folders tab controls where and how captures are named.

Folder — drag-and-drop the destination folder.
File Name — supports tags like <scene> and <photonumber>; click a tag to insert it. A live preview shows the final name.
Format — .png, .jpg, .exr or .tga.

Creating Icons

Press Create Icon to render the current preview to a file using all active settings (resolution, transparency, post-processing, canvases, GIF, etc.). With Multi-Resolution enabled, one click writes every configured size.

Tip

The Attribute Target label above the button shows what's being captured, so you always know the subject of the shot.

Lighting, Fog & Colors

Adjust the look of a shot without touching the real scene:

Ambient color, main directional light color, fog color and fog density.
Camera Spot Light — an optional light that follows the PerfectShot camera (intensity, color, cookie, position/rotation offsets, full light props). Great for dramatic or flashlight-style shots.
Directional lights in the scene are listed in the Light tab for quick tweaks.

Non-destructive

Changes apply only while shooting. Reset Scene Settings restores fog, ambient light and intensities to their original values.

Post Processing

Toggle post-processing with the Post Processing switch. In the Camera Settings panel you can pick (or create) a Post Processing Volume profile, set Anti-aliasing, and open the profile to tweak bloom, color grading and other effects.

Animations

Pose animated characters for the perfect frame in the Animations tab:

Pick the Animator, then an Animation clip.
Scrub the Animation Time slider to the exact pose you want.
Open Animator Settings for deeper control.

Transparent Background

Enable transparency to produce clean cut-outs with no background. Use a format that supports alpha — .png, .exr or .tga.

Updated

GIFs now support transparency too (transparent pixels use the palette's transparent index). Toggle it in the GIF Editor or let recording carry the tool's transparency setting.

Background & Foreground

The Canvas tab adds layers behind and in front of your subject:

Background / Foreground Canvas — UI canvases rendered behind/in front of the shot. Ping the object or prefab, and update the prefab after edits.
Background / Foreground Image — drop a texture behind or in front of the subject; Edit Image opens it for adjustment.

Creating GIFs Updated

PerfectShot records GIFs of gameplay — perfect for Steam, itch.io and social posts.

Enable Record Gif in the left toolbar. This starts recording and reveals the GIF tab.
Open the GIF tab and set your options (below).
Let the action play — PerfectShot keeps a rolling buffer of the most recent seconds.
Press Create Icon. A GIF is saved alongside the still image and added to the Photo Library.

GIF tab settings

Field	Description
GIF Loop	Loop the animation forever (on) or play once (off).
GIF Frame Rate	Target frames per second. Capped by the tool's Target FPS — capture can't run faster than the editor update rate.
GIF Quality	Color quantization quality 1–100. Higher = better colors but slower; values above ~90 take noticeably longer.
GIF Time	Duration in seconds to keep in the rolling buffer (the seconds before you press capture).
Playback Speed	Speeds up / slows down playback without changing capture (1 = real time, 2 = 2×, 0.5 = half).
GIF data	Live estimate of frames, resolution and timing.

Updated — accurate playback speed

Frame delays now come from the real capture timestamps, not the assumed frame rate. So even if the editor can't hit the target FPS while recording, the GIF still plays back at correct real-time speed (no more "too fast" clips).

Notes & limits

Multi-Resolution is incompatible with GIF capture — the GIF uses the current resolution.
GIF Frame Rate is limited by Target FPS (the editor's update rate).
Very high quality (>90) increases encode time.

GIF Editor New

Recorded in real time, GIFs often need the start or end trimmed. Right-click any GIF in the Photo Library and choose Edit GIF to open the editor.

Preview & playback

The preview matches the GIF's aspect ratio, on a transparency checker.
Play / Pause and a frame scrubber with a live frame / total readout.

Trimming

Set the kept range with the Start / End fields or the min–max slider. While you drag a handle (or edit a field) the preview jumps to that frame, so you can see exactly where you're cutting. The info line shows kept frames and output duration.

Output settings

Field	Description
Loop	Loop the exported GIF (auto-detected from the source).
Transparency	Keep transparent pixels (auto-detected from the source).
Quality	Color quantization quality 1–100 (higher = better, slower).
Speed	Time scale 0.01–10. Higher = faster (less time), lower = slower. Affects preview and export.

Export

Save As New… — encode the trimmed range to a new .gif.
Save (Overwrite) — replace the original (with confirmation). The Photo Library reference is refreshed automatically.

Fast & faithful

Trimming re-uses the original per-frame timing, and encoding is multi-threaded across frames — large GIFs export several times faster while staying responsive.

Profiles

A Profile saves a complete tool setup — camera, resolution, lighting, GIF and more — so you can switch between looks instantly. Pick one from the Profile dropdown in the left toolbar.

Using Play Mode

PerfectShot can also capture during Play Mode, letting you photograph runtime-only states (spawned objects, gameplay UI, live effects). Drive captures from play using the PerfectShot play-mode photo component, then find the results in the Photo Library.

Advanced Settings

The Advanced tab holds performance and batch options.

Setting	Description
Resize Preview With Window	Auto-scale the preview to the window width.
Preview Size	Fixed preview size (128–1024 px) when auto-resize is off.
Use Multi-Resolution	Export one shot at many sizes; add sizes from the dropdown.
Use Custom LOD Bias	Override the project LOD bias for more detailed shots (e.g. 10 vs the default ~1.5) so LOD'd detail shows up.
Target FPS	The rate the tool updates/renders at (1–60). Also the cap for GIF Frame Rate.
Use Layer Distances	Per-layer culling distances on the capture camera, scaled by a Max Distance.

Tips & Tricks

Turn on the Grid (and pick a color) to align subjects and judge composition.
Hover any field for a tooltip — every control is documented in-place.
Raise LOD Bias when far detail (rings, decals, distant meshes) is missing from a shot.
Save reusable looks as Profiles.
Use Reset Scene Settings if a shot's lighting tweaks leak into your scene view.

Hiding Objects from your photos

To keep something out of a shot, exclude its layer from the Culling Mask (left toolbar). The object stays in the scene but won't render into the capture — handy for helpers, gizmos or placeholder geometry.

Limitations

Some HDRP custom shaders are not rendered into the final image (may improve in future updates).
Multi-Resolution and GIF capture can't be used together.
GIF capture rate is limited by the editor's update rate (Target FPS); if the editor can't hit the target, the GIF has fewer distinct frames (but still plays at the correct real-time speed).