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About UIFX - Motion Blur

Overview​

What?​

UIFX-MotionBlur is a new visual effect for adding motion blur to Unity's UI (uGUI) components, without using the Post Processing Stack package.

Screenshot

Why?​

Adding motion blur can greatly improve the visual quality and professional appearance of fast moving UI components due to perceived smoother animation. This is especially true on large displays (eg video walls, digital signage) and text.

Unity's UI system currently doesn't have any option to render with motion blur.

At CHOCOLATE DINOSAUR we strive to create very smooth and professional motion, so we built this motion blur system to improve the quality of our UI animations and thought we'd make it available to others.

How?​

Just add one of the UIFX-MotionBlur components to your UI component. That's it!

The component will track the full motion of the object (translation, rotation, scale) either at a transform level, or at a per-vertex level. A new mesh is then generated based on the motion and this is rendered in place of the original UI geometry. The effect is only applied when the object is in motion.

Features​

  • Easy to use
  • Highly optimised
  • Cross-platform
  • Built-in/URP/HDRP
  • Source code included
  • Well documented
  • Well supported
  • API documentation
  • Supports TextMeshPro (TMP)
  • Doesn't require Post Processing Stack package
  • Maintains backwards compatibility to Unity 2019.4 (from Unity 6)
  • Upgradable to the full UIFX Bundle asset.
  • The best customer support!
Need a custom feature?

Let us know what you need - we can work with you to make it happen - Contact Chocolate Dinosaur

Usage​

UI elements with fast motion appear smoother with motion blur.

Customer Reviews​

July 2025    ★★★★★    Drag and drop solution! 
Used it in my URP project. Literally a drag and drop solution. Looks great out of the box!  –  icabero0225 
May 2025    ★★★★★    Visually improves any UI 
I purchased that asset so that UI elements feel better when they get animated. Most UIs feel `flat`, `not alive` or `not smooth` enough. Motion blur helps to get that little subtle extra, which avoids that. It is simple, and easy to use, but it visually improves any UI, also mine. For me, it is helpful in any project, by that, I'd never release a game without that asset. It just adds quality to my menus. However, have a look also on other assets by Chocolate Dinosaur. They're doing quite good stuff! (mainly focused on UI / VFX atm).  –  bvonline 
June 2024    ★★★★★    Magic! 
Smooth. When you need it..it's there. Magic! Most folk can't believe the difference this makes.  –  vertexx 

Upgradable to UIFX Bundle​

This asset can later be upgraded to the full UIFX Bundle asset at a reduced cost!

After purchasing this asset, the UIFX Bundle asset price will be discounted by the cost of this asset. So if you paid $30 for this asset, and the UIFX Bundle currently costs $100, then you will only be charaged $70 when you want upgrade.

This upgrade discount will be available as long as both assets are still available on the Unity Asset Store - so you don't have to rush to make a decision.

Note that this upgrade discount only applies for purchases made via the Unity Asset Store, and not during a sale event.

Components​

There are two components with different quality levels - MotionBlurSimple and MotionBlurReal.

While the MotionBlurSimple component is more performant, the MotionBlurReal component has much higher visual quality.

Additionally we include an extra components for TextMeshPro support: MotionBlurSimpleTMP.

General Comparison​

FeatureMotionBlurSimpleMotionBlurReal
Visual QualityMediumHigh
CPU LoadLowLow
GPU LoadLowMedium

Supported Features​

UI Feature        MotionBlurSimpleMotionBlurRealNotes
Components:
    Text✓✓
    Image✓✓
    RawImage✓✓
    Mask✓✓
    Rect Mask 2D✓✓
    CanvasGroup✓✓
    TextMeshPro✓✗See Notes for MotionBlurReal
    Custom✓✓See Notes for MotionBlurReal
Canvas Render Modes:
    Screen-Space Overlay✓✗Coming soon*
    Screen-Space Camera✓✓
    World Space✓✗Coming soon*
World Space Camera Types:
    Orthographic✓✓
    Perspective✓✗
Render Pipelines:
    Built-in✓✓
    URP✓✓
    HDRP✓✓
Effects:
    Shadow✓✓MotionBlurSimple may render with flickering if Shadow effect is applied first
    Outline✓✓MotionBlurSimple may render with flickering if Outline effect is applied first
Colorspaces:
    Gamma✓✓
    Linear✓✓
* We're working on these highly requested features.

Advanced Notes​

Frame-rate Independent Notes​

There is an property FrameRateIndependent which enables frame-rate independent motion blur. This option is enabled by default, and it causes scaling of the motion blur length based on the frame rate. This results in a consistent motion blur length regardless of the frame-rate. This is often desired if motion-blur is meant to be used artistically so that it looks the same at different frame-rates. With this option disabled, the motion-blur will behave more naturally - ie, when the frame-rate is low the motion blur trail will become longer, and when the frame-rate is higher it will become shorter.

UI Effects​

Effects such as Shadow and Outline can be used with either motion blur effects, however for best results they should be applied after the motion blur effect.

Since MotionBlurSimple renders the motion blur quads directly to the UI, any effect (eg Shadow or Outline) that is applied will also be rendered multiple times. This can make using these effects more expensive than MotionBlurReal which only renders a single quad.

Performance​

The UIFX-MotionBlur asset has had several optimisation passes, so we can say with confidence that it is highly performant for what it is doing. That said, there are some considerations that should be made. See the documented performance notes for each component.

Garbage Collection​

Both components have been optimised to reduce garbage generation.

TextMeshPro (TMP) / Custom UI Components​

See the notes for MotionBlurSimple.

See the notes for MotionBlurReal.