Camera Head Bobbing Effect in Unity

The Head bobbing effect is widely used in First-Person Shooter games and plays a key role in increasing player immersion.

In this tutorial, I will be showing how to create a head-bobbing effect in Unity.

Step 1: Set Up Player Controller

First, we need to create a player controller:

• Create a new Game Object (Game Object -> Create Empty) and name it "Player"
• Create new Capsule (Game Object -> 3D Object -> Capsule) and move it inside "Player" Object
• Remove Capsule Collider component from Capsule and change its position to (0, 1, 0)
• Move the Main Camera inside "Player" Object and change its position to (0, 1.64, 0)
• Create a new script, name it "SC_CharacterController" and paste the code below inside it:

SC_CharacterController.cs

using UnityEngine;

[RequireComponent(typeof(CharacterController))]

public class SC_CharacterController : MonoBehaviour
{
    public float speed = 7.5f;
    public float jumpSpeed = 8.0f;
    public float gravity = 20.0f;
    public Camera playerCamera;
    public float lookSpeed = 2.0f;
    public float lookXLimit = 45.0f;

    CharacterController characterController;
    [HideInInspector]
    public Vector3 moveDirection = Vector3.zero;
    Vector2 rotation = Vector2.zero;

    [HideInInspector]
    public bool canMove = true;

    void Start()
    {
        characterController = GetComponent<CharacterController>();
        rotation.y = transform.eulerAngles.y;
    }

    void Update()
    {
        if (characterController.isGrounded)
        {
            // We are grounded, so recalculate move direction based on axes
            Vector3 forward = transform.TransformDirection(Vector3.forward);
            Vector3 right = transform.TransformDirection(Vector3.right);
            float curSpeedX = canMove ? speed * Input.GetAxis("Vertical") : 0;
            float curSpeedY = canMove ? speed * Input.GetAxis("Horizontal") : 0;
            moveDirection = (forward * curSpeedX) + (right * curSpeedY);

            if (Input.GetButton("Jump") && canMove)
            {
                moveDirection.y = jumpSpeed;
            }
        }

        // Apply gravity. Gravity is multiplied by deltaTime twice (once here, and once below
        // when the moveDirection is multiplied by deltaTime). This is because gravity should be applied
        // as an acceleration (ms^-2)
        moveDirection.y -= gravity * Time.deltaTime;

        // Move the controller
        characterController.Move(moveDirection * Time.deltaTime);

        // Player and Camera rotation
        if (canMove)
        {
            rotation.y += Input.GetAxis("Mouse X") * lookSpeed;
            rotation.x += -Input.GetAxis("Mouse Y") * lookSpeed;
            rotation.x = Mathf.Clamp(rotation.x, -lookXLimit, lookXLimit);
            playerCamera.transform.localRotation = Quaternion.Euler(rotation.x, 0, 0);
            transform.eulerAngles = new Vector2(0, rotation.y);
        }
    }
}

• Attach SC_CharacterController script to "Player" Object (You will notice that it also added another component called Character Controller, change its center value to (0, 1, 0))
• Assign the Main Camera to the Player Camera variable in SC_CharacterController

The Player controller is now ready:

Step 2: Add Head Bobbing Effect

Head Bobbing Effect is done with a help of a script and is working by moving the Camera Up and Down when the player is moving.

• Create a new script, name it SC_HeadBobber, and paste the code below inside it:

SC_HeadBobber.cs

using UnityEngine;

public class SC_HeadBobber : MonoBehaviour
{
    public float walkingBobbingSpeed = 14f;
    public float bobbingAmount = 0.05f;
    public SC_CharacterController controller;

    float defaultPosY = 0;
    float timer = 0;

    // Start is called before the first frame update
    void Start()
    {
        defaultPosY = transform.localPosition.y;
    }

    // Update is called once per frame
    void Update()
    {
        if(Mathf.Abs(controller.moveDirection.x) > 0.1f || Mathf.Abs(controller.moveDirection.z) > 0.1f)
        {
            //Player is moving
            timer += Time.deltaTime * walkingBobbingSpeed;
            transform.localPosition = new Vector3(transform.localPosition.x, defaultPosY + Mathf.Sin(timer) * bobbingAmount, transform.localPosition.z);
        }
        else
        {
            //Idle
            timer = 0;
            transform.localPosition = new Vector3(transform.localPosition.x, Mathf.Lerp(transform.localPosition.y, defaultPosY, Time.deltaTime * walkingBobbingSpeed), transform.localPosition.z);
        }
    }
}

• Attach SC_HeadBobber script to the Main Camera
• Assign SC_CharacterController script to "Controller" variable

Finally, press Play to test it, the Camera bobbing should be activated on player movement.