Making Your Unity UI Come Alive with Videos

Intro:

In my previous games, I’ve always used images and buttons to create the Level/Mission selection menu. But this time, I wanted players to feel the game was more alive instead of staring at static pictures. That’s when I thought — why not add videos?
Each selection button could play a short looping clip of that level or mission, giving players a glimpse of what’s ahead before they dive in. This not only makes the UI more dynamic but also helps players connect with the game world earlier.

Pre-requisites:

• Have your videos ready and imported into Unity.
• Make sure they don’t have blank frames at the start or end (for smooth looping).

Steps (Method 1: RawImage + VideoPlayer + RenderTexture):

1. Import your videos into the Unity Project.

2. Create a RenderTexture for each video:
   a) Right-click in the Project window → Create → Rendering → Render Texture.
   b) Set Dimension to 2D.
   c) Adjust the size based on your aspect ratio (I used 640x360 for 16:9).
   d) Other settings are optional — check Unity docs if you want to tweak.

3. Inside your Canvas, create a Raw Image:
   a) Right-click in the Hierarchy → UI → Raw Image.
   b) Set its Width/Height (I matched my RenderTexture size).
   c) Assign the RenderTexture you created to the Raw Image’s Texture
   field.

4. Add a Video Player:
   a) Right-click the Raw Image in the Hierarchy → Video → Video Player.
   b) Set Source to Video Clip.
   c) Assign the video you imported.
   d) Enable Play On Awake and Loop (if you want looping).
   e) Set Render Mode to Render Texture and assign the RenderTexture you created.
   f) Adjust settings like playback speed, mute, or volume as needed.

And that’s it — you’ve added video to your UI.

Why This Approach?

This RawImage + RenderTexture + VideoPlayer setup is reliable and works well for menus, previews, or even background animations. It keeps your UI flexible, since you can use multiple videos across different slots or buttons.
There are other approaches too — such as directly assigning a video to a material or using Unity’s UI Toolkit (if you’re on newer versions). But for most UI menus, this method strikes the right balance of simplicity and control.

Key Takeaway:

Adding videos to your Unity UI isn’t complicated. With a simple RenderTexture setup, you can replace static images with dynamic clips that make your menus feel alive and give players a preview of what’s coming.