How to use Post Processing in Unity

Post processing can be used to apply image effects and filters to your game. To be able to use post processing you first need to install it. Post processing is part of Unity be needs to be installed as a separate package. To do this go to Window->Package Manager. In the package manager find the post processing package and install it. It may take a couple of minutes to install.

The next step is to create an empty game object that will handle the post processing. Add the component Post Process Volume to the object. Make sure you check the box for Is Global. That will make sure the effects are applied to the entire game. In the Profile click new to add a post processing profile.

For the post processing to show up in the game there is one more step, you have to add a post processing layer. First go to the Main Camera. Add the component Post Processing Layer. Go to the Layer at the top of the Inspector and add a Layer called Post Processing. Then set the in the Post-process Layer component set the Layer to Post Processing. Lastly, in the Post Process Volume object you need to set the Layer to the Post Processing layer that you created.

Now you can go into the Post Process Volume object that you created earlier and start adding effects. Two effects to get started with are the Bloom and Color Grading. Starting from not having done any post processing these two can have the biggest impact on being able to adjust the look of your game.

With the Bloom effect you can increase the brightness or intensity of the lights in your game.

To get the most out of the Color Grading you need to change the ColorSpace of your project from Gamma to Linear. You can do that by going to File-> Build Settings. At the bottom of the Build Setting is a button called Player Settings, click on it. That will bring up a Project Settings window. On the bottom right is a Setting for PC, Mac & Linux Standalone, open the Other Settings drop down menu. Here you will find the Color Space option. Change it from Gamma to Linear. This will cause you project to rebuild which may take a couple of minutes depending on the size of your project.

Now you can start playing with the Color Grading effect. This can be used to do lots of different things such as adjusting the temperature to give your game a cold blue look or adjust the Hue or a many other options.

There is a lot here that you can work with. It will take a lot of time and practice to be able to learn how best to use post processing in your game but it will be worth the time.

Good Luck Adventurer!

-Chris