Android Unity Game Development Blog: Making Flashing Materials

Problem:

I’d like to make the material of a GameObject in Unity appear as though it’s flashing. Should be able to add this to any GameObject with a MeshRenderer.

Solution:

We’r going to make a Class that we can attach to any GameObject with a MeshRenderer. This Class will take the existing colour of the material as its starting color, then increase and decrease the alpha to make a flashing effect.

Here is the code. It’s all pretty self explanitory, if you’d like more info, pop a comment and I’l attempt to answer your question(s).:

using UnityEngine;
public class FlashingMeshRenderer : MonoBehaviour
{
    public float FlashSpeed;
    public float MaxAlpha;
    public float MinAlpha;
    private Material material;
    private bool increase;
    private Color startColor;
    void Start()
    {
        material = GetComponent<MeshRenderer>().material;
        startColor = material.color;
    }
    void Update()
    {
        Color color = material.color;
        
        float fade = increase ? 
            color.a + (FlashSpeed * Time.deltaTime) : 
            color.a - (FlashSpeed * Time.deltaTime);
        material.color = 
        new Color(startColor.r, startColor.g, startColor.b, fade);
        
        if (fade >= MaxAlpha)
        {
            increase = false;
        }
        if (fade < MinAlpha)
        {
            increase = true;
        }
    }
}