Screenshot A Day
Introduction
The asset helps you to create stunning timelapse videos for your project in three ways:
1- You can capture a photo automatically each hour or day, from multiple cameras that you place around your scene ( it can also capture the scene view & game view )
2- you can capture photos manually, if you want more control over the timelapse photos
3- you can use the Instant Timelapse module
1- You can capture a photo automatically each hour or day, from multiple cameras that you place around your scene ( it can also capture the scene view & game view )
2- you can capture photos manually, if you want more control over the timelapse photos
3- you can use the Instant Timelapse module
- which takes a list of game objects & reveals them sequentially
- capturing a photo after revealing every game object
- allowing you to create an instant timelapse of a scene or complex object
Quick start guide
Note: don’t rename or move the asset folder.
By importing the asset, it will automatically start capturing the scene view & game view ( Main camera ) every 2 hours by default
- the photos are stored in the project folder > _ScreenShot_ADay
- organized by project name
- then scene name
- then camera name
- ( they are in the top Project folder NOT the Assets folder, this ensures the photos are not serialized by Unity )
Asset settings
Access the asset menu from Tools > Screenshot A Day > Menu
The menu has options to control the asset behavior
Group Name: This changes the name of the subfolder that contains your screenshots
- for example, you can change the group name before doing major changes to the scene
- to easily find the photos before & after the scene changes
- for example, you can change the group name before doing major changes to the scene
- to easily find the photos before & after the scene changes
Dimensions: Width & Height of images, 4k & 8k photos can slow down Unity a bit when capturing the screenshot.
Audio & Log: enable or disable the audio & the Console logs of the asset
Auto Mode: uncheck to disable the automatic capturing of screenshots
Only If Unity Is Focused: enable this to only capture photos when Unity is focused
- This option helps you avoid capturing duplicate photos when Unity is not focused and nothing is changing
- Only affects Auto Mode
- This option helps you avoid capturing duplicate photos when Unity is not focused and nothing is changing
- Only affects Auto Mode
Seconds Between Photos: when photos are captured automatically every hour or day:
- if two cameras need to capture a photo at the same moment
- this setting ensures there is a delay between the two photos
- to avoid slowing down Unity by capturing multiple photos at once
- setting it to zero seconds, removes any delay between multiple photos
- ( this setting only affects photos that are automatically captured )
- if two cameras need to capture a photo at the same moment
- this setting ensures there is a delay between the two photos
- to avoid slowing down Unity by capturing multiple photos at once
- setting it to zero seconds, removes any delay between multiple photos
- ( this setting only affects photos that are automatically captured )
Include Scene View & Main Camera ( Game View )
- whether or not to include these cameras in the screenshots
Screenshot Hours: 2 means capture this camera every 2 hours. ( when Auto Mode is enabled )
Adding More Cameras
you can add editor cameras around your scene
- they capture the scene progress from a static point of view
- creating stunning, clear timelapse videos
- Assets / Screenshot_A_Day
- drag the "camera - screenshot (1)" prefab to the scene
- hit the Refresh Cameras list button in camera game object inspector
- to ensure the camera is instantly detected by the asset without delay.
each camera has a setting of “Screenshot Hours”
- 1 means the camera will capture a photo every hour ( When Auto Mode is enabled )
- 1/60 means the camera will capture a photo every minute
Important: the camera game object name is used as the folder name for the camera photos.
- ensure each camera game object in the same scene has a different name
- to ensure photos from different cameras are placed in different folders
Tip: these cameras are disabled so they have no effect on the game performance
Tip: you can put the camera game objects inside an empty parent & give it the tag “EditorOnly”.
- this will remove the camera game objects from you build.
Instant Timelapse Module
Note: the photos from Instant Timelapse Module are stored in the top Project folder > _ScreenShot_ADay > __Instant_Timelapse
Intro
This module takes a list of game objects
This module takes a list of game objects
- reveals them sequentially while capturing screenshots
- allowing you to reveal a scene sequentially, creating an instant timelapse
How to use
add the "instant timelapse controler" prefab to the scene by dragging it from the asset folder to the hierarchy.
add the "instant timelapse controler" prefab to the scene by dragging it from the asset folder to the hierarchy.
- the instant timelapse controller has a list of groups
- add a group by hitting the plus button
- then add game objects to the group
- each group has a list of game objects that are enabled sequentially from top to bottom.
- In the example image below, we're revealing the "ground" group first, then "water" group, then "trees" group ...etc
- the "rocks" group, has a list of 209 game objects.
Game Objects Per Screenshot: This setting allows you to enable the game objects of a group in batches instead of one by one
- in the example image above, we're enabling 8 rocks per screenshot
- this helps you create videos with more action
- since revealing one rock per frame can be boring
To capture the screenshots:
- enter Play mode
- Select the "instant timelapse controller" in the hierarchy
- Click "Capture Timelapse" in the inspector
- this will reveal the game objects sequentially & capture screenshots
- "Preview" button
- this will reveal the game objects sequentially to give you an idea of what the timelapse will look like, without capturing the screenshots
- ( Because capturing the screenshots for a big scene can take minutes or more depending on how many screenshots are being captured )
Tuning Game Objects Per Screenshot
In the example image below, we're enabling 10 trees per screenshot, and there are 500 trees.
- this means we will capture 50 frames revealing all the trees sequentially.
- if you will create your video at 30 frames per second ( in a video editor ), this means the trees will be revealed in the duration of 50 frames / 30 frames, which is 1.66 seconds.
- having a goal duration in mind can help you pick values for the "Game Objects Per Screenshot"
- the default value is 1, meaning the game objects will be revealed sequentially, 1 at a time.
In the example image below, we're enabling 10 trees per screenshot, and there are 500 trees.
- this means we will capture 50 frames revealing all the trees sequentially.
- if you will create your video at 30 frames per second ( in a video editor ), this means the trees will be revealed in the duration of 50 frames / 30 frames, which is 1.66 seconds.
- having a goal duration in mind can help you pick values for the "Game Objects Per Screenshot"
- the default value is 1, meaning the game objects will be revealed sequentially, 1 at a time.
Converting Photos Into A Video
Use any free video editor to convert the images into a video.
HitFilm Express is a great free option.
Open a new project in HitFilm Express
HitFilm Express is a great free option.
Open a new project in HitFilm Express
Select 1080 x 1080 dimensions
Select 30 frames per second
Select 30 frames per second
Click File > Options
Set "Clip Default Duration" to 3 frames. ( this means each photo you use will be 3 frames, or 0.1 second by default )
that's it for configuring HitFilm Express, now simply import your photos into the media tab, drag them to the timeline & render your video.
- there are many HitFilm Express tutorials that cover this process.
it really helps me if you rate the asset, thanks 😁
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- there are many HitFilm Express tutorials that cover this process.
it really helps me if you rate the asset, thanks 😁
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