Getting Started

Living Art Studio brings static 2D artwork to life. A single shader hosts a catalogue of GPU effects (fire, water, magic, sun rays, sheen, custom flows, and more) driven by a multi-channel mask atlas. The package includes a complete in-editor painting tool for authoring those masks and effects settings, so you can decide exactly where and how each effect appears with a brush.

Installation

  1. Import Living Art Studio from the Unity Asset Store, or add it locally via Window → Package Manager → + → Add package from disk and select Packages/com.kobapps.livingart/package.json.
  2. The package installs under Packages/com.kobapps.livingart. No files are placed at the project root.
  3. Render pipeline. The package ships with three shaders, one for each supported render target (UGUI, SpriteRenderer, and MeshRenderer). Every shader contains both a URP SubShader and a Built-in fallback, which allows the same material to render correctly under either pipeline. Unity selects the appropriate variant automatically.
  4. Minimum Unity version. 2022.3 LTS. The package has been tested on 6000.4.0f1.

Folder layout

After installation, the package contents are organized as follows. Shaders are located in Runtime/Shaders, alongside their shared HLSL include files. The built-in effect ScriptableObjects are stored in Runtime/Data/Defaults. The editor implementation is divided across several folders: Editor/Window contains the window shell and session state, Editor/Painting contains the brush, undo stack, and mask serialization logic, Editor/Canvas contains the paint canvas and on-canvas handles, Editor/Inspectors contains the channel list and parameter panel, and Editor/Materials contains the new-material factory and picker. Sample scenes are stored in Samples~ and become visible in the project only after they are imported via the Package Manager.

Quick Start

  1. Open the window from Tools → Living Art Studio → Open Studio Window.
  2. Create a material. When the active tab is empty, the canvas area presents quick-create buttons for the three supported render targets: UI, Sprite, and Mesh.
  3. Assign source artwork by dragging a Texture asset onto the editor, or by selecting one through the browse button.
  4. Activate a channel by clicking the activation toggle on the left of a row in the Channels list (for example, Fire). New materials begin with all channels disabled, so each effect is enabled explicitly when required.
  5. Paint the regions where the effect should render. Brush size, softness, and opacity controls are located in the right sidebar.
  6. Save the material with Ctrl/Cmd + S, or with the toolbar's Save button. The save operation writes both the material and its companion mask file. For an unsaved draft, the first save will prompt for a destination folder.

Once these steps are complete, all effect parameters can be adjusted live in the right sidebar.

The Welcome Window

The first time you import the package, a Welcome window pops up automatically. You can reopen it any time from Tools → Living Art Studio → Welcome. It's the fastest way to get oriented and pull in everything you need to start painting.

  • Open Studio Window — opens the main editing window where you paint masks and tweak effects.
  • Import Sample Scenes — opens the Package Manager so you can import the bundled demo scenes (cards, promotional art, mesh / sprite / UI targets). Add them to Build Settings (File → Build Settings → Add Open Scenes) to use the in-scene navigation menu.
Welcome window with quick-action buttons
  • Copy Noise & Effect Textures To Project — copies the shipped noise and effect texture library into your project so you can browse and assign them from your own materials without dipping into the package folder.
  • Open User Manual — opens this manual (the bundled PDF) in your default viewer.

The window is safe to close and reopen — it doesn't track which buttons you've already used, so you can come back to it later to import samples or refresh the texture library.