2D multi-environment overlapping effect (Camera-based, perhaps)

Hey there,

I am working on a 2D game that deals with a "multiple scenes intertwined" scenario and I'm trying to achieve a very particular camera usage that I'm not really sure how to approach. Here's the deal:

Our game consists of a world populated by cards that contain characters and/or scenes. Those cards act as characters you can interact with, as seen in the first attachment,



Then, once you come across a card-character, you will be able to "enter its domain" in order to solve their particular problem. At that precise moment, the size of the card expands, as seen in the second attachment,



As the card boundaries get bigger and bigger, they will eventually reach the borders of the screen, so you will be fully transported into that character's "world" until you solve their situation and are able to be back again (third attachment),



Any ideas on how should I work on this? I am guessing that this is a matter of cameras setup, rendered in different layers, but I am not completely sure due to the card boundaries expansion effect, which is a bit tricky. Maybe this could be achieved with a RenderTexture, but I have an interest in knowing if there could be some tool or setup inside Unity that I could use to explore this avenue.


Thanks in advance!

 

Hm now I'm thinking that maybe this could be achieved easily via a stencil. I'll try that for now.