unity-cinemachine

Unity Cinemachine (Camera System)

Based on Unity 6.3 LTS -- Cinemachine 3.1 package IMPORTANT: Cinemachine 3.x renamed CinemachineVirtualCamera to CinemachineCamera

Core Concepts

Cinemachine procedurally controls the Unity camera at runtime. Compose camera behaviors from reusable components instead of writing custom camera scripts.

Architecture

1. CinemachineBrain -- On Main Camera; drives the Unity Camera from the highest-priority active CinemachineCamera
2. CinemachineCamera -- Lightweight virtual camera describing desired position, rotation, and lens (replaces CinemachineVirtualCamera from v2)
3. Priority System -- Highest-priority enabled CinemachineCamera wins
4. Pipeline Stages -- Body (position), Aim (rotation), Noise stages compute the final camera state

Namespace

using Unity.Cinemachine;  // Cinemachine 3.x (NOT "using Cinemachine;")

Minimal Setup

1. Add CinemachineBrain to Main Camera
2. Create GameObject with CinemachineCamera
3. Set Follow target and optionally LookAt target
4. Add Body/Aim components as needed

using UnityEngine;
using Unity.Cinemachine;

public class CameraSetup : MonoBehaviour
{
    [SerializeField] Transform playerTransform;

    void Start()
    {
        var vcam = gameObject.AddComponent<CinemachineCamera>();
        vcam.Follow = playerTransform;
        vcam.LookAt = playerTransform;
        vcam.Priority.Value = 10;
    }
}

Camera Setup Patterns

Basic Follow Camera

CinemachineCamera + CinemachineFollow. Set Follow target to player.

// CinemachineFollow provides a simple offset-based follow
var follow = gameObject.AddComponent<CinemachineFollow>();
follow.FollowOffset = new Vector3(0f, 5f, -10f);
follow.Damping = new Vector3(1f, 1f, 1f);

Third-Person Camera

CinemachineThirdPersonFollow for collision-aware third-person cameras.

Property	Description
ShoulderOffset	Offset from follow target in local space
CameraDistance	Distance from shoulder point
CameraSide	0=left, 0.5=center, 1=right
CameraRadius	Collision detection radius
DampingIntoCollision	Damping when moving closer due to collision
DampingFromCollision	Damping when returning after collision