Bloom and color grading in Unity - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Bloom and Color Grading in Unity

📖 Scenario: You are creating a simple Unity scene where you want to enhance the visual look by adding bloom and color grading effects. These effects will make the scene look more vibrant and visually appealing, similar to how photos are edited to look brighter and more colorful.

🎯 Goal: Learn how to set up a Post Processing Volume in Unity and apply bloom and color grading effects using the Post Processing Stack. You will create a volume, configure bloom intensity, and adjust color grading to change the scene's mood.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a Post Processing Volume in the scene

Add and configure a Bloom effect with intensity 5

Add and configure a Color Grading effect with increased saturation

Print confirmation messages after setting up each effect

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Game developers use bloom and color grading to improve the visual quality and mood of their games, making scenes more immersive and attractive.

💼 Career

Understanding post processing effects is important for roles like Unity developer, game artist, and technical artist to create polished and professional game visuals.

1

Create a Post Processing Volume

Create a PostProcessVolume variable called postProcessVolume and assign it by adding a PostProcessVolume component to the current GameObject.

Unity

# Create a PostProcessVolume variable and add the component
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use gameObject.AddComponent<PostProcessVolume>() to add the component and assign it to postProcessVolume.

2

Configure Bloom Effect

Create a Bloom variable called bloom, instantiate it, set its intensity to 5f, and add it to a new PostProcessProfile assigned to postProcessVolume.profile. Also, set postProcessVolume.isGlobal to true.

Unity

using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.Rendering.PostProcessing;

public class BloomColorGradingSetup : MonoBehaviour
{
    PostProcessVolume postProcessVolume;

    void Start()
    {
        postProcessVolume = gameObject.AddComponent();
        // Create Bloom effect and set intensity
        // Your code here
    }
}

Need a hint?

Create a new PostProcessProfile, add the bloom effect to it, and assign it to the volume's profile.

3

Add Color Grading Effect

Create a ColorGrading variable called colorGrading, instantiate it, set its saturation to 20f, and add it to the existing postProcessVolume.profile.

Unity

using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.Rendering.PostProcessing;

public class BloomColorGradingSetup : MonoBehaviour
{
    PostProcessVolume postProcessVolume;

    void Start()
    {
        postProcessVolume = gameObject.AddComponent();
        postProcessVolume.isGlobal = true;

        PostProcessProfile profile = ScriptableObject.CreateInstance();

        Bloom bloom = ScriptableObject.CreateInstance();
        bloom.intensity.Override(5f);
        profile.AddSettings(bloom);

        // Create ColorGrading effect and set saturation
        // Your code here

        postProcessVolume.profile = profile;
    }
}

Need a hint?

Instantiate ColorGrading, set saturation, and add it to the profile.

4

Print Confirmation Messages

Add two Debug.Log statements inside Start(): one printing "Bloom effect set with intensity 5" after setting bloom, and another printing "Color grading set with saturation 20" after setting color grading.

Unity

using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.Rendering.PostProcessing;

public class BloomColorGradingSetup : MonoBehaviour
{
    PostProcessVolume postProcessVolume;

    void Start()
    {
        postProcessVolume = gameObject.AddComponent();
        postProcessVolume.isGlobal = true;

        PostProcessProfile profile = ScriptableObject.CreateInstance();

        Bloom bloom = ScriptableObject.CreateInstance();
        bloom.intensity.Override(5f);
        profile.AddSettings(bloom);
        // Print bloom confirmation
        // Your code here

        ColorGrading colorGrading = ScriptableObject.CreateInstance();
        colorGrading.saturation.Override(20f);
        profile.AddSettings(colorGrading);
        // Print color grading confirmation
        // Your code here

        postProcessVolume.profile = profile;
    }
}

Need a hint?

Use Debug.Log to print messages after setting each effect.