Add a sprite mask

To hide parts of sprites, add a sprite mask to the scene. You place a sprite mask at a position in the scene, and the mask shape hides the sprites that overlap with it.

Sprite masks only affect objects that have a Sprite RendererA component that lets you display images as Sprites for use in both 2D and 3D scenes. More info
See in Glossary component.

Note: Sprite masks are different to the mask map texture you add as a secondary texture to control which areas of a sprite receive light.

Limitations

Sprite masks aren’t compatible with the following:

• Scriptable Render Pipeline (SRP) Batcher. If you use a sprite mask, Unity falls back to using dynamic batching. Note: The 2D renderer uses its own dynamic batching system, which isn’t affected by the Dynamic Batching setting in the Player settings window.
• GPU deformation of sprites in 2D animation. If you use a sprite mask, Unity falls back to using CPU deformation.

Add a sprite mask

Follow these steps:

1. In your 2D renderer asset, make sure Depth/Stencil Buffer is enabled.

2. To add a sprite mask to the scene, select GameObject > 2D Object > Sprite Mask.

   The default mask shape is a circle.

3. In the Hierarchy window, select the sprite you want to mask.

4. In the Inspector window of the sprite, set Mask Interaction to Visible Inside Mask or Visible Outside Mask.

5. Make sure the sprite overlaps with the sprite mask.

Change the shape of a mask

To change the shape of a mask, follow these steps:

1. Select the sprite mask GameObject.
2. In the Inspector window, select the Sprite picker (⊙).
3. Select a sprite from the list to use as a mask.

To use a custom shape, create a new sprite with the shape you want to use. Use opaque pixels for the mask shape, and a transparent background for outside the mask.

Set which sprites a mask affects

To change which sprites a mask affects, assign the sprites to sorting layers, then restrict the sprite mask to a range of sorting layers using its Custom Range properties.

For example:

1. Open the Tags and Layers window and create three sorting layers: Back, Middle, and Front.
2. Create three sprites, and set their Sorting Layer properties to the different layers.
3. Select your sprite mask, and in the Inspector window enable Custom Range.
4. Set the front Sorting Layer to Front, and the back Sorting Layer to Back. The sprite mask now only affects the sprites in the Front and Middle sorting layers.

You can also use Sorting Group components to prevent multiple masks from interacting with each other.

Additional resources

• Sprite Mask component reference