CineOperator — Camera Operator Simulation

Requirements

• Unity 6.3 (6000.3) or newer.
• Render pipelines: Built-in and URP. The samples are verified in both; sample materials follow the project's pipeline automatically. HDRP is untested.
• No required packages. Optional, compiled only when installed: Universal RP 14+ (rendered depth of field), Timeline 1.6+ (shot-list tracks), Cinemachine 3.0+ (operator and handheld for Cinemachine cameras, and a bridge that runs a whole CineOperator camera inside a Brain).

What is in the package

• 24 components, 8 shareable style profiles (ScriptableObjects) and 12 built-in preset sets.
• 147 runtime scripts and 44 editor scripts, all in Polynest.CineOperator.* namespaces; 20 assembly definitions.
• Full C# source code. No DLLs, no native plugins, no third-party code.
• 20 demo scenes (one per feature, each with an on-screen panel), a basic sample scene, and Timeline and Cinemachine demo scenes as separate packages to import when those packages are installed.
• 759 automated tests (EditMode and PlayMode), compiled only when the Test Framework package is present.
• Documentation in the package: README, Getting Started, a module-by-module reference and an architecture guide.

Engineering

• Deterministic and frame-rate independent: the same seed and the same input produce the same shot at 30 or 240 fps (human timing is simulated in fixed 1/240 s substeps).
• Zero per-frame GC allocations in the camera pipeline, verified by automated allocation tests.
• Non-destructive: a camera moved by a parent, a script or another tool is adopted, never fought; NaN and infinity are rejected before anything reaches the Transform.
• A staged pipeline (Rig, Lens, Aim, Perturbation, Finalize) you can extend with your own modules.
• Works with both input systems; the demo panels use IMGUI.
• Editor tooling: a Camera Director window, custom inspectors with presets and Scene-view gizmos, undoable set-up menus, and an Animation Clip exporter for recorded takes.

Platforms

• Pure C#: no platform-specific code. Built and run as a Windows standalone (Mono) player during verification; other platforms are not specifically tested.

Your camera should look like a person is holding it.

Scripted cameras are perfect, and that is what gives them away. CineOperator replaces mathematically exact tracking with a simulated camera crew. The operator reacts a beat late, pans with the weight of a fluid head, lets the subject drift inside the frame, anticipates, overshoots and corrects — the way real footage feels.

Around the operator stands the rest of the crew: hands on the camera, a lens chosen in millimetres, a focus puller who sometimes misjudges a distance, grips pushing a dolly, a crane arm that flexes, a Steadicam that floats.

You direct. Tell the camera who to film and how the crew works — Reference, Cinema, Documentary, Action or Amateur — and call the shots: a dolly zoom, a crash zoom, a whip pan, a rack focus. Record the take you like and replay it exactly, or lay the whole shot list out on a Timeline.

The crew

• Camera operator — reaction time, dead zone, anticipation, overshoot and correction on a simulated fluid head.
• Handheld — body sway, breathing, hand tremor and the inertia of the camera's weight, from a phone to a heavy cinema package.
• Lens — focal length in millimetres on Full Frame, Super 35, APS-C, Micro Four Thirds or a custom sensor.
• Hand zoom — a person on the zoom ring: late, weighty, a touch past the mark and back.
• Focus and focus puller — follow focus and depth of field computed in diopters; pulled by a motor, or by a person who judges distances by eye.
• Composition — rule of thirds, headroom, eye line, lead room and shot sizes, reached through the lens.
• Rigs — a dolly on a track, a crane, a Steadicam, each moved by a simulated grip or operator.
• Film moves — dolly zoom, crash zoom, whip pan and rack focus.
• Takes — record what the camera did, replay it exactly, blend in and out, export it as an Animation Clip.

Directing

• Crew styles — one choice styles every module of a camera at once, in the editor or at runtime: CineCrew.Apply(camera, CineCrewStyle.Documentary).
• Camera Director window — every camera in your scenes, what it is made of, what is wrong with it (with one-click fixes), and cut / film moves / takes while the game runs.
• Timeline (optional) — take, shot and film-move tracks; scrub the playhead and the recorded shot scrubs with it.
• Cinemachine 3 (optional) — the operator as a Cinemachine Rotation Control and the handheld as its noise, or a whole CineOperator camera running inside a Cinemachine Brain.
• URP depth of field (optional) — the simulated focus rendered with URP's Bokeh depth of field.

Built for production

• Deterministic and frame-rate independent: the same shot at 30 or 240 fps, the same take every time with the same seed.
• Zero per-frame allocations in the camera pipeline.
• Non-destructive: a camera moved by a parent or a script is adopted, not fought. NaN-safe throughout.
• A modular, staged pipeline you can extend with your own modules. Full C# source, namespaces and assembly definitions.
• No required dependencies. The Timeline, Cinemachine and URP integrations compile only when those packages are installed.
• 750+ automated EditMode and PlayMode tests ship with the package.
• 20 demo scenes — one per feature, each with an on-screen panel explaining what to look for — plus Timeline and Cinemachine demo scenes.

Technical details

• Unity 6.3 (6000.3) or newer.
• Render pipelines: Built-in ✓, URP ✓ (rendered depth of field needs URP 14+). HDRP: not tested.
• Optional packages: Timeline 1.6+, Cinemachine 3.0+, Universal RP 14+.
• Full C# source code; runtime, editor, integration, sample and test assemblies (assembly definitions).
• Demo panels use IMGUI and work with either input system.
• Pure C#, no native plugins. Verified in the Editor on Windows and in a Windows standalone (Mono) build.
• Documentation: README, Getting Started, Modules reference and Architecture guide (in the package).