A free and open-source Unity 6+ editor tool for VFX artists to batch-edit textures without leaving Unity.
Use it for fast mask cleanup, contrast pushing, gradient mapping, channel packing, thresholding, blur, posterize, dilation, erosion, and other common VFX texture tasks.
Made by PudinKiller.
Contrast / Origin Push Push grayscale masks around an adjustable origin using artist-friendly curves. |
Gradient Mapper Turn grayscale textures into colorful VFX ramps using gradients or curves. |
Full workflow demo
VFX artists often need small texture edits while working inside Unity: pushing mask contrast, remapping grayscale textures into colorful ramps, packing channels, cleaning thresholds, or expanding and shrinking masks.
Opening Substance Designer, Photoshop, or another DCC tool can slow down iteration, especially when dealing with many small VFX textures.
VFX Texture Lab is not trying to replace Substance Designer.
It is a lightweight Unity editor utility for the quick edits that happen all the time during VFX production.
| Feature | What it is useful for |
|---|---|
| Batch processing | Process many VFX textures with the same operation stack |
| Always-visible preview | Compare original and result while editing |
| Contrast / Origin Push | Art-direct mask contrast around a chosen origin |
| Gradient Mapper | Convert grayscale textures into colorful VFX ramps |
| Channel Pack | Copy grayscale data into R, G, B, or A channels |
| Threshold / Posterize | Create hard masks, stylized bands, and cutoffs |
| Blur / Dilate / Erode | Soften, expand, or shrink mask shapes |
| Data Linear / Color sRGB | Choose correct output color space for data or color textures |
| PNG / EXR output | Use simple 8-bit output or high precision output |
This method requires Git to be installed on your computer.
In Unity:
- Open
Window > Package Manager - Click the
+button - Choose
Add package from git URL - Paste:
https://github.com/PudinKiller/VFXTextureLab.git
Install without Git
Use this method if Unity says Git is not installed.
- Open the GitHub Releases page.
- Download
Source code (zip). - Unzip it somewhere on your computer.
- In Unity, open
Window > Package Manager. - Click the
+button. - Choose
Add package from disk. - Select the unzipped package's
package.json.
If a .tgz package is provided in Releases:
- Download the
.tgzfile. - In Unity, open
Window > Package Manager. - Click the
+button. - Choose
Install package from tarball. - Select the downloaded
.tgzfile.
Open the tool from:
Tools > VFX Texture Lab
Basic workflow:
- Drag one or more textures into the input list.
- Click
Add Operation. - Add operations such as
Contrast,Gradient Mapper,Threshold, orChannel Pack. - Check the original/result preview.
- Choose output settings.
- Click
Process All Textures.
Tip
For most grayscale masks, noise textures, dissolve maps, flow maps, and packed channels, use Content Type: Data Linear.
Clean up a grayscale mask
Recommended stack:
Levels -> Contrast -> Threshold
Recommended output settings:
Content Type: Data Linear
Generate Mip Maps: Off
Force Uncompressed: On
Good for dissolve masks, smoke masks, impact masks, stylized noise masks, and other grayscale VFX data textures.
Push mask contrast
Recommended operation:
Contrast / Origin Push
Useful settings:
Source Value: LuminanceRGB
RGB Single Source: On
Origin: Adjust depending on the mask
Push Mode: Smoothstep, Smootherstep, or LogisticSCurve
Origin is the main artistic control. Move it to decide which value range gets pushed toward dark or bright.
Turn grayscale into a vibrant VFX texture
Recommended stack:
Contrast -> Gradient Mapper
Recommended Gradient Mapper settings:
Source Value: LuminanceRGB
Map Mode: Unity Gradient or HSV Curves
Write RGB: On
Preserve Original Alpha: On
Use Unity Gradient for quick hand-authored color ramps.
Use HSV Curves when you want hue, saturation, and brightness to vary independently across the grayscale input.
Make alpha from grayscale
Recommended operation:
Channel Pack
Settings:
Source Value: LuminanceRGB
Destination Channels: A only
This is useful when you have a grayscale image and want to turn it into an alpha mask.
Edit packed RGB masks
For packed mask textures where R, G, B, and A store different data, turn off:
RGB Single Source
Then enable only the channel you want to modify.
Example:
Edit only Red channel
Keep Green, Blue, and Alpha untouched
| Texture type | Recommended content type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Mask | Data Linear | Values should not be color corrected |
| Noise | Data Linear | Best for dissolve, distortion, erosion, and procedural masks |
| Packed R/G/B/A | Data Linear | Each channel stores data |
| Flow / height / utility maps | Data Linear | Treat as data, not visible color |
| Final colorful texture | Color sRGB | Use when sampled as visible color |
| High precision texture | EXR + Data Linear | Helps avoid 8-bit banding |
Warning
Overwrite mode is destructive. Use version control or duplicate important textures first.
PNG vs EXR
Use PNG when:
You want small, simple 8-bit textures
You are working with normal masks or preview textures
You do not need HDR or high precision
Use EXR when:
You need high precision
You want to avoid gradient banding
You need HDR-style values
You are storing data that should not be quantized to 8-bit
Show operation descriptions
Pushes texture values around an origin point using a curve.
Useful for mask contrast, dissolve shapes, smoke density, magic effects, stylized ramps, and texture cleanup.
Maps grayscale input into color.
Modes:
Unity Gradient: easiest mode for hand-authored color rampsRGBA Curves: red, green, blue, and alpha curves over grayscale inputHSV Curves: hue, saturation, value, and alpha curves over grayscale input
HSV Curves are especially useful for colorful VFX because hue, saturation, and brightness can be controlled separately.
Inverts selected channels.
Useful for reversing masks or flipping black/white texture data.
Remaps input range, gamma, and output range.
Useful for normalizing masks, increasing contrast, or correcting weak grayscale textures.
Converts soft grayscale values into hard or feathered masks.
Useful for dissolve masks, stylized cutoffs, and binary mask cleanup.
Converts smooth values into discrete steps.
Useful for stylized VFX, toon effects, stepped gradients, and banded masks.
Applies a simple tint based on source intensity.
For more advanced color variation, use Gradient Mapper.
Copies a source value into selected destination channels.
Useful for packing grayscale masks into R, G, B, or A channels.
Scans selected channels and remaps their actual minimum and maximum values to 0-1.
Useful when a mask looks too flat or does not use the full value range.
Applies a simple blur to selected channels.
Useful for softening masks.
Expands bright areas of a mask.
Useful for growing alpha masks, expanding impact shapes, and fixing thin mask edges.
Shrinks bright areas of a mask.
Useful for tightening masks, removing small bright noise, and cleaning edges.
My grayscale texture gets purple or green artifacts
Enable:
RGB Single Source
This uses one grayscale source value for RGB instead of processing R, G, and B separately.
This matters because many grayscale textures are not perfectly identical across RGB channels after import, compression, filtering, or color-space conversion. Nonlinear operations can exaggerate tiny channel differences into visible color artifacts.
For packed RGB masks, disable RGB Single Source.
Unity says Git is not installed
The Git URL install method requires Git.
Use the ZIP or .tgz installation method instead.
The output looks blurry or shifted
Try these settings:
Content Type: Data Linear
Generate Mip Maps: Off
Force Uncompressed: On
Filter Mode: Point or Bilinear
For final visible color textures, use Color sRGB.
For masks and data textures, use Data Linear.
- Processing is CPU-based, so very large textures or big batches can be slow.
- PNG output is 8-bit and can show banding in smooth gradients. Use EXR for high precision or HDR-style data.
- The curve editor is designed for quick editing. Unity's built-in curve fields are still available for more precise curve editing.
Possible future improvements:
- More example presets
- Backup option for overwrite mode
- Better curve editor controls
- Compute-shader acceleration for large textures
- Import/export operation stacks
- More VFX-specific filters
- Optional preview histogram
- Better documentation with example textures
Bug reports, feature ideas, and workflow suggestions are welcome.
Development Information
This repository is structured as a Unity Package Manager package.
Expected package layout:
VFXTextureLab/
package.json
README.md
CHANGELOG.md
LICENSE.md
Editor/
VFXTextureLab.Editor.asmdef
VFXTextureLab.cs
VFXTextureLabPreset.cs
Documentation~/
Samples~/
.github/
readme/
Contrast.gif
GradientMapping.gif
Workflow.gif
To test locally, add the package to a Unity project using:
Window > Package Manager > + > Add package from disk
Then select this repository's package.json.
MIT License.
You can use this tool in personal, educational, and commercial projects.