Character Camera: First and Third-Person Camera Setup

The Character Camera component is a self-contained camera controller that ships with the Character Animation System. It handles first-person and third-person perspective switching, applies stabilization in first-person mode to smooth out animation jitter, plays procedural camera shakes for hit feedback and recoil, and supports smooth FOV transitions for aiming or sprinting. Add the component to your camera’s parent GameObject and wire up the input and transform references to get started.

Features

First- and third-person views — toggle freely between perspectives at runtime.
Camera stabilization — first-person mode dampens the camera against skeleton movement to reduce swimming artifacts.
Camera shakes — procedural fire-and-forget shakes driven by random ranges on each axis.
Smooth FOV updates — interpolated field-of-view changes for aiming, sprinting, and other states.

Input Properties

These properties feed the camera with gameplay data each frame. Set them from your character controller script.

float

Horizontal rotation input — typically mapped to the horizontal mouse axis or right analog stick X. Drives left–right camera rotation.

float

Vertical rotation input — typically mapped to the vertical mouse axis or right analog stick Y. Drives up–down camera rotation.

bool

Set to true when the player is aiming. The camera uses this value to select the correct Offset struct (aiming offsets) and can also trigger FOV changes.

bool

Set to true when the player is crouching. The camera reads this to apply the crouch-specific Offset values, lowering the camera to match the crouched stance.

bool

Defines the active view mode. When true, the camera follows the First Person Socket transform and stabilization is active. When false, the camera uses the third-person offset configuration.

bool

Determines the shoulder anchor in third-person mode. Set to true for a right-shoulder view and false for a left-shoulder view. Toggle this at runtime to let players switch sides.

float

The interpolation speed used when smoothing camera rotation. Higher values produce snappier, more responsive camera movement; lower values create a floating, cinematic feel.

Transform Properties

Transform

The transform that the camera follows when Is First Person is true. Assign the head bone, a dedicated camera socket bone, or any child transform positioned at eye level on your character. If this is left unassigned, the camera will default to the world origin, placing it at the character’s feet. See Camera appears at the character’s feet for the fix.

Transform

An animated transform whose motion is applied to the camera for procedural sway and weapon-bob effects. This is typically a bone or an empty GameObject that is driven by the animation system to add life to the camera in both first- and third-person modes.

Offset Properties

Camera offsets are grouped into structs, one per gameplay situation. Each struct has two fields:

Vector3

Position offset applied relative to the Pivot point. Use this to nudge the camera forward, backward, or vertically within a given scenario.

Vector3

The pivot point offset relative to the player transform’s origin. Adjusting the pivot shifts where the camera orbits in third-person mode, or where it anchors in first-person mode.

The Character Camera uses the player’s root transform as the world origin for all offset calculations. Offsets are applied additively on top of the socket transform in first-person mode.

The available offset scenarios are:

Scenario	When it is used
Default Standing	Player is upright, not aiming, third-person
Default Crouching	Player is crouching, not aiming, third-person
Aiming Standing	Player is upright and aiming, third-person
Aiming Crouching	Player is crouching and aiming, third-person
First Person	Any first-person state

Camera Collision

The collision system traces a sphere from the player toward the camera each frame and pulls the camera forward if the trace hits an obstacle, preventing it from clipping into walls and geometry.

float

The radius of the sphere used for the collision trace. Increase this value if the camera clips through thin walls or narrow geometry; decrease it for tighter offset behavior near obstacles.

float

The speed at which the camera smoothly adjusts its distance when collision is detected or cleared. Higher values make the camera snap quickly to the safe position; lower values produce a gradual glide.

LayerMask

The physics layers included in the collision trace. Assign the layers that represent solid world geometry (walls, floors, props). Exclude layers such as characters, triggers, and water to prevent unintended collision responses.

FOV API

Call the following method to update the camera’s target field of view at runtime. The camera interpolates smoothly from the current FOV to the target value each frame:

// Smoothly transitions the camera to a new target FOV.
characterCamera.SetTargetFOV(float targetFOV);

A typical usage pattern is to call SetTargetFOV in response to the aiming input:

public void OnAim(bool isAiming)
{
    float targetFOV = isAiming ? aimFOV : defaultFOV;
    _characterCamera.SetTargetFOV(targetFOV);
}

Camera Shakes

Camera shakes are fire-and-forget procedural motions that add impact feedback for events such as weapon recoil, explosions, or landing. Each shake asset defines the motion range per axis and how quickly it decays.

Shake Asset Properties

Vector4

Pitch/Yaw/Roll ranges for motion around the X axis. The shake system picks a random value between Mathf.Random(range.x, range.y) for the outgoing swing and Mathf.Random(range.z, range.w) for the return swing.

Vector4

Pitch/Yaw/Roll ranges for motion around the Y axis, using the same four-component range format as X.

Vector4

Pitch/Yaw/Roll ranges for motion around the Z axis, using the same four-component range format as X.

Vector4

Per-axis angular range values. The x and y components define the minimum and maximum of the forward swing; the z and w components define the minimum and maximum of the return swing.

float

Playback speed multiplier for the shake. Values above 1.0 produce a faster, snappier shake; values below 1.0 produce a slower, heavier feel.

float

The interpolation speed used when blending the shake motion. Higher values give the shake a sharper, more immediate onset; lower values create a rolling, sustained feel.

A shake value is sampled as two random draws: the outgoing displacement uses Random(range.x, range.y) and the return displacement uses Random(range.z, range.w). Setting both pairs to the same values produces a consistent shake; widening the gap creates more varied, organic results.

Playing a Shake from Code

Call PlayCameraShake on your CharacterCamera reference to trigger a shake asset at runtime:

[SerializeField] private CameraShakeAsset recoilShake;
private CharacterCamera _characterCamera;

private void Start()
{
    _characterCamera = GetComponentInChildren<CharacterCamera>();
}

private void OnFireWeapon()
{
    // Play the recoil shake every time the weapon fires.
    if (_characterCamera != null)
    {
        _characterCamera.PlayCameraShake(recoilShake);
    }
}

Camera shakes are fully additive — you can call PlayCameraShake multiple times in quick succession (for example, on automatic fire) and the shakes will stack and blend together naturally.

Get Started

Core Concepts

Animation Modifiers

FPS Add-on

Guides & Reference

Character Camera: First and Third-Person Camera Setup

Features

Input Properties

Transform Properties

Offset Properties

Camera Collision

FOV API

Camera Shakes

Shake Asset Properties

Playing a Shake from Code

​Features

​Input Properties

​Transform Properties

​Offset Properties

​Camera Collision

​FOV API

​Camera Shakes

​Shake Asset Properties

​Playing a Shake from Code

Features

Input Properties

Transform Properties

Offset Properties

Camera Collision

FOV API

Camera Shakes

Shake Asset Properties

Playing a Shake from Code