FrameShot User Guide

FrameShot is a photo mode for the Unity Editor. Place one or more FS Cameras in your scene, fly them around in a live preview, compose the shot, apply photo filters and save the result as an image file.

Typical uses:

• Marketing images, store screenshots, key art and wallpapers.
• Icons and thumbnails for items, characters, props or UI, with transparent backgrounds.
• Consistent product shots on a solid or gradient background.
• Quick high resolution captures of any scene while you work.

The preview and the final capture run exactly the same rendering code, so the saved image matches the preview.

FrameShot’s filters are implemented by FrameShot itself rather than by URP or HDRP post processing, so they look the same in every pipeline.

1. Import the package from the Package Manager (My Assets).
2. Wait for scripts to compile. No setup is required.
3. Optional: open the demo scene to try the included 3-zone photography studio showcase and four pre-configured FS Camera rigs. Use Doxfen Studios/FrameShot/Demo/Scenes/FrameShot Demo or Window > Doxfen > FrameShot > Demo > Open Demo Scene. When opened, the demo scene checks your active render pipeline (Built-in, URP or HDRP), offers one-click environment material setup if needed, and prompts you to open the FrameShot Studio window.

The package is self-contained in Assets/Doxfen Studios/FrameShot:

To uninstall, delete the FrameShot folder. FrameShot does not change project settings, render pipeline assets, Volumes or other packages.

1. Open Window > Doxfen > FrameShot > Open FrameShot.
2. Click + New in the toolbar, or use GameObject > Doxfen > FrameShot Camera. A new FS Camera is created at the position of the Scene view camera.
3. Click inside the preview and fly to a good angle using the mouse and W A S D. You can also frame the shot in the Scene view and press From Scene View.
4. Choose a Resolution and a Background on the right.
5. Enable any filters you like under Look.
6. Press Capture or Ctrl + Enter (Cmd + Enter on macOS).

Images are saved to <Project>/FrameShots by default. Open that folder with Open Folder, or click the Last line under the Capture button to reveal the latest image.

Toolbar

Preview

The preview always shows the exact framing of the output resolution. A checkerboard indicates transparent areas. The status line at the bottom shows the output size, supersampling, active pipeline, focus distance (when Depth of Field is on) and whether isolation is active.

Settings panel

The right side contains all settings of the selected FS Camera, grouped in collapsible sections. Sections with a checkbox in their header can be switched on and off as a whole. Every change supports Undo and is saved with the scene.

Capture area

• Capture: renders and saves the shot of the selected camera.
• Capture All FS Cameras: captures every FS Camera in the open scenes, each with its own settings.
• Open Folder: opens the output folder of the selected camera.

Click the preview first so it has keyboard focus. A thin colored border shows that the preview is focused.

All keys can be changed in Edit > Shortcuts (Unity > Shortcuts on macOS) under the Doxfen category. They only work while the FrameShot window is focused, take priority over global Unity shortcuts there, and never fire while you are typing in a text field.

Look sensitivity, move speed and Invert Look Y are available in the Camera section and are remembered per user.

An FS Camera is a GameObject with a Camera and a FrameShot Camera component.

• The Camera component is locked. It is always disabled and hidden from the Inspector, so it never renders to the Game view and costs nothing in Play mode. Even if a script enables it, FrameShot disables it again before the frame is rendered. FrameShot renders the camera on demand only.
• The important camera settings (projection, field of view, size, visible layers and clipping planes) are shown in the FrameShot window and in the FrameShot Camera Inspector.
• If you remove the FrameShot Camera component, the Camera becomes visible and editable again.
• New FS Cameras are tagged EditorOnly, so Unity strips them from player builds.
• Each FS Camera stores its complete setup: output, background, subjects and look. You can keep several cameras with different setups, for example a wide shot, a close-up and an icon camera.

Camera

Output

Background

Filters Affect Background (Solid Color and Gradient only): when off, the background keeps exactly the color you picked and filters only affect the subject. When on, filters such as vignette or color grading apply to the whole image.

Subject

Subjects are also used by Frame Subject, by depth of field Subject focus and by orbiting.

Rendering

Look presets

• Preset / Apply: applies a saved look (all settings of the Look sections) to the current FS Camera.
• Save As…: saves the current look as a FrameShot Look asset. You can also create one with Assets > Create > Doxfen > FrameShot > Look Preset.
• Reset: restores all Look sections to their defaults.

Color grading

Photo filter

One-click looks with an Intensity slider: Black And White, Noir, Sepia, Vintage, Cinematic (teal and orange), Warm, Cool, Faded, Vivid, Bleach Bypass, Cross Process, Infrared and Polaroid.

Depth of field

The blur follows a thin-lens camera model driven by the field of view, aperture and focus distance, so it behaves like a real camera: telephoto lenses and close subjects give more blur.

Bloom

Intensity, Threshold (brightness where glow starts), Soft Knee (how smoothly glow fades in), Scatter (how far the glow spreads) and Tint.

Lens

Chromatic Aberration (color fringes toward the edges), Distortion (positive is barrel, negative is pincushion) and Sharpen.

Vignette

Intensity, Smoothness, Roundness (1 is round, 0 follows the frame shape) and Color.

Film

Grain, Grain Size, Colored Grain and Posterize (number of color levels, 0 is off). Grain looks the same at any output resolution.

Fog

Distance fog with Color, Density, Start Distance and Affect Sky.

Outline

Draws an outline around the subjects (all visible renderers when no subject is isolated). Width is in output pixels. It works with every background, and is especially useful for icons.

Frame and letterbox

Letterbox Aspect adds cinematic bars (for example 2.39 for 2.39:1). 0 turns the bars off. Border adds a frame around the image in percent of the image height, with Border Color.

Marketing shot with depth of field

1. Create an FS Camera, choose 4K UHD and Supersampling x2.
2. Add your hero object to Subjects and enable Depth of Field with Focus Mode Subject.
3. Lower the Aperture and raise Blur Strength until the background is soft enough.
4. Add Bloom, a Photo Filter such as Cinematic at 50%, and a light Vignette.
5. Capture.

Transparent icons

1. Create an FS Camera and choose an Icon resolution, for example 512x512.
2. Add the item to Subjects, turn on Isolate and press Frame.
3. Set Background to Transparent and Format to PNG.
4. Turn on Trim To Content and Trim To Square with a small padding.
5. Optionally enable Outline, then capture.

For many items, duplicate the FS Camera or change the subject and capture again. Capture All FS Cameras captures every camera in one click.

Product shot on a studio background

Use a Gradient background with Filters Affect Background off, isolate the product, and use Orthographic projection for technical views.

• Built-in: FS Cameras render in HDR with MSAA, and supersampling adds anti-aliasing on top.
• URP: SMAA is enabled on FS Cameras. URP Post Processing controls whether scene Volumes are applied.
• HDRP:
  • Volume post processing and exposure always apply, because they are part of HDRP’s look.
  • Captures render 8 warmup frames so automatic exposure settles.
  • Transparent, Solid Color and Gradient backgrounds are cut out of the normal sky render, so lighting and exposure stay exactly as in the scene.
  • Isolated shots keep the exposure of the full scene.
• Custom SRPs: basic support. The camera is rendered with the pipeline’s defaults and FrameShot’s filters are applied on top.

• Switch View > Preview Resolution to Half, or turn off Live, in very heavy scenes.
• Depth of Field and Outline are the most expensive filters. They run at full quality only for the final capture.
• 8K images with supersampling need a lot of GPU memory. FrameShot lowers supersampling automatically when needed.
• In HDRP the first capture can take a few seconds while HDRP compiles shaders.

• Transparency, Depth of Field, Fog and Outline use FrameShot’s own scene pass. It supports Mesh, Skinned Mesh, Sprite, Line, Trail, Billboard and Particle renderers, plus terrain heightmaps. VFX Graph effects, terrain trees and grass, and decals appear in the image but are not part of the transparency mask or the depth effects.
• Transparent materials (glass, particles) contribute partial transparency based on their texture and color alpha. Additive effects without alpha may appear opaque in transparent shots.
• The FrameShot window is an Editor tool. The runtime assembly can be used from code, but it does not include an in-game photo mode user interface.

The preview says there is no FS Camera.

Create one with + New. Only FS Cameras in the open scenes are listed.

W A S D does nothing.

Click the preview first; it needs keyboard focus. Also check Edit > Shortcuts > Doxfen in case the keys were rebound.

My transparent PNG has a dark or colored fringe.

Use Supersampling x2 or higher, and make sure the object’s material is opaque or alpha tested.

The image looks different from the Game view.

Check URP Post Processing, Color Grading › Tonemapper (avoid tonemapping twice) and the FS Camera’s Visible Layers.

I cannot find the Camera component on my FS Camera.

It is hidden on purpose because FS Cameras must never render to the screen. Its settings are in the FrameShot window and the FrameShot Camera Inspector. Remove the FrameShot Camera component to get a normal camera back.

Where are my images?

In <Project>/FrameShots unless you changed Folder. Use Open Folder.

Does FrameShot affect my builds?

No. Editor code is excluded from builds, FS Cameras are tagged EditorOnly, and the runtime code is only included if your own code uses it.

FrameShot can be driven from your own Editor scripts:

using Doxfen.FrameShot;
using Doxfen.FrameShot.Editor;

var shot = Object.FindAnyObjectByType<FrameShotCamera>();
shot.Settings.output.width = 1024;
shot.Settings.output.height = 1024;
shot.Settings.background.mode = BackgroundMode.Transparent;
using var renderer = new FrameShotRenderer();
if (FrameShotCapture.TryCapture(shot, renderer, out string path, out string error))
    Debug.Log("Saved " + path);
else
    Debug.LogError(error);

FrameShotRenderer.Render returns a RenderTexture instead of a file, for custom processing.

Email info@doxfen.com. Please include your Unity version, render pipeline and the steps to reproduce when you report a problem.