Camera and Cinemachine

The Camera component

A camera in Unity is an ordinary GameObject with a Camera component. The main fields:

• Projection — Perspective (3D, with perspective) or Orthographic (no perspective; 2D/isometric).
• FOV (Field of View) — the vertical field of view in degrees. The standard for FPS is 60–90°.
• Clipping Planes: Near / Far — the distance to the near and far clipping planes. Anything closer than Near or farther than Far is not drawn. A large spread (for example, 0.01 ↔ 10000) degrades Z-buffer precision and leads to “Z-fighting” — flickering intersections. Try to keep Far/Near < ~10000.
• Culling Mask — which object layers this camera draws.
• Target Texture — render the picture not to the screen, but to a texture (minimaps, portal effects).
• Depth — the draw order of multiple cameras.

// A simple follow camera in LateUpdate
public class SimpleFollow : MonoBehaviour
{
    [SerializeField] private Transform target;
    [SerializeField] private Vector3 offset = new Vector3(0, 2f, -4f);
    [SerializeField] private float smoothTime = 0.15f;

    private Vector3 _velocity;

    private void LateUpdate() {
        Vector3 desired = target.position + target.rotation * offset;
        transform.position = Vector3.SmoothDamp(transform.position, desired, ref _velocity, smoothTime);
        transform.LookAt(target.position + Vector3.up * 1.5f);
    }
}

Vector3.SmoothDamp is a critically convenient function: it smooths movement with spring mechanics, without overshooting the target position. It stores the “velocity” in an external variable.

Cinemachine — follow a target without pain

Cinemachine is a UPM package (preinstalled in the standard Unity 6 templates, but still installed via the Package Manager) with virtual cameras. The idea: there is one real Camera in the scene, and Cinemachine dynamically switches it between different virtual viewpoints. Without any scripts you can assemble:

• Follow — follow an object with delay and damping.
• Look At — look at an object, smoothly turning toward it.
• FreeLook — an orbital camera with three rings (third-person, like in Dark Souls).
• Cart/Dolly — movement along a spline.
• State-Driven Camera — switching virtual cameras based on the Animator state.

A basic follow camera in Cinemachine 3.x

Unity 6 ships with Cinemachine 3, whose API differs noticeably from 2.x:

1. Add a CinemachineCamera to the scene (formerly CmCamera/CinemachineVirtualCamera).
2. In the “Tracking Target” field, specify the player’s Transform.
3. On the virtual camera, add stage components (subclasses of CinemachineComponentBase): CinemachineFollow (formerly Body) and CinemachineHardLookAt / CinemachineRotationComposer (formerly Aim). This is a separate category, not the same as Cinemachine Extensions (Impulse Listener, Deoccluder, etc.).

A single CinemachineBrain on the main Camera automatically blends between the active virtual cameras by priority. Want to switch the view? vcam.Priority = 100; — and the Brain will smoothly move there over the configured blend time.

public class CameraSwitcher : MonoBehaviour
{
    [SerializeField] private Unity.Cinemachine.CinemachineCamera firstPerson;
    [SerializeField] private Unity.Cinemachine.CinemachineCamera thirdPerson;

    public void SwitchToFP() {
        firstPerson.Priority  = 20;
        thirdPerson.Priority  = 10;
    }
}

The main advice about the camera

The camera is a director, not an intern operator.

The best camera is the one the player does not notice. Add smoothness (smooth follow), enough field of view so the target does not run into the edge of the screen, and don’t let the camera jump on the character’s sharp turns. Cinemachine already accounts for most of these cases for you — use it.

In the next chapter — rendering: how Unity actually draws pixels.