The Gaze Shader-GIF with lighting effects

The ultimate 2D GIF rendering solution built specifically for Unity and VRChat. It enables flat GIF animations to not only feature a "gaze" effect that automatically faces the player’s perspective, but also blend seamlessly into the lighting and shadows of the 3D world while maintaining extreme performance.

📝 Introduction

🎬 A GIF playback shader for VRChat and Unity!

🛠️ Comes with built-in tools to convert GIFs into texture arrays and sprite sheets.

👀 Easily achieve gaze-tracking effects that follow the player's view (it's totally not stalking you~).

✨ Features rich and highly customizable playback effects.

💡 Compatible with VRC Light Volumes for seamless environmental lighting integration.

🌐 UI supports cn, en & ja

✨ Feature Overview

★ Built-in Converter: 1-click conversion from GIFs to high-quality Texture Arrays or Sprite Sheets. No external software needed.

★ Smart Gaze Tracking: Supports omnidirectional or single-axis tracking with distance sensing. Perfect for dynamic UIs, posters, or creepy horror game stares.

★ True Randomization: 1-click random seeds allow massive numbers of objects sharing a single material to have independent, randomized playback effects.

★ Physical Lighting: Integrates perfectly with VRC Light Volumes. Includes a 1-click normal map generator to give 2D animations 3D depth and specular highlights.

★ Cross-Platform: Provides targeted playback and optimization for both VRChat Avatar accessories and interactive World objects.

📦 Installation & Quick Start

Drag and drop the downloaded file directly into your Unity project's `Assets` window to import it.

> 💡 Sample Scene: > If you want to preview the effects immediately after importing, you can open the following sample scene:

> `Assets/@Luna/gaze gif shader/sample/gaze.unity`

📖 User Manual

🔗 For detailed effects and the user manual, please check out the GitHub page: https://github.com/lunabxgg/The-Gaze-Shader/tree/main

🤝 Attribution

It would be greatly appreciated if you credit this shader in your VRChat world or project. This helps users know they can use avatars with this shader and supports the growth of this asset in the VRChat community!

You can include a message like this in your world's credit board or project documentation:

[This world uses The Gaze Shader for dynamic 2D animations by @咸鱼子Luna.

GitHub: https://github.com/lunabxgg/The-Gaze-Shader]

You're not required to include this message for free/personal use—it's entirely optional. But if you do, thank you for your support!

🛒 Terms of Service

The open-source content in this GitHub repository is for personal, free, non-commercial use only (e.g., used for private VRChat Avatars, or publishing free VRChat Worlds).

⚠️ It is strictly prohibited to use this shader directly or indirectly for any commercial, profit-making activities (including but not limited to: selling commercial 3D models, paid Avatar commissions, or paid scene construction).

If you need to use this system in commercial works or paid projects, please go to BOOTH to purchase a commercial license: [COMMERCIAL USE (STRICTLY PROHIBITED WITHOUT A PAID LICENSE)]

Thank you for using the Gaze Shader! If you have any questions, please contact the author via the social media channels accessible through the logo in the bottom right corner of the shader interface.

Update information

v1.1--2026/4/8

> Added manual Render Queue adjustment slider.

> Improved depth sorting for specific scene setups.

> Default render queue set to 2900.

v1.0--2026/3/3

> The first version