General Tips

Shortcuts

  • Camera
    • Toggle Camera / Perspective
      • Shift C

Camera

  • Perspective & Camera views
    • When you are animating a camera it can be nice to use a 2 pane view (cam and persp) setup.
    • Pane setup
      • 3dview (top left corner) > layouts > Two Panes (side by side)
      • Set the cine camera view to use Cinematic Viewport
        • When a view is set to use the cinematic viewport you get a menu on the top right to set a number of overlays (grid, crosshair, action safe etc)
    • Cinematic Control
      • On the pane that you will use as a perspective camera, disable allow cinematic control. If we do not do this, when we look throufh camera from the sequencer it will use both views as a cine camera view.
        • 3dview (top left corner) > Allow Cinematic Control: Off

Sequencer

Tips

  • Tips
    • Organize the project using Levels so that multiple people can work on different parts of the project without bottlenecks.
    • Check the streaming state of the levels. Make sure that the levels are streaming (if not you will get a black render)
    • A master sequence, sub-sequence and level sequence is basically the same thing, the difference is how they are used and how they are structured.
      • A master sequence will contain sub-sequences and level sequences
      • A master sequence is a cointainer of shots
    • A clean Master sequence
      • The idea is to keep a master sequence quite clean (and have the complexity such as keyframes, effects etc in sub-sequences) to make it possible for a quick edit at the top level.
    • Keyframe interpolation types (Keyboard shortcuts)
      • 1 - Cubic (Auto)
      • 2 - Cubic (User)
      • 3 - Cubic (break)
      • 4 - Linear
      • 5 - Constant
    • Mocap clips can be blended, and trimmed
    • You can select the Cinematic Vieport through the vieport dropdown at the top left of the 3d viewport
    • Go to Frame - Ctrl G
    • Move Clip - Ctrl M
      • This will bring up a menu where you can specify number of frames to mopve etc
      • This can also be used to move a group of things
    • Move forward 1 frame - Right Arrow
    • Move back 1 frame - Left Arrow
    • Move to start Up arrow
    • Play/Pause - Spacebar
    • NLE shuttle - J K L

Manual setup

Lets do a manual setup of a master sequence and a level sequences from the “bottom up”

  • In the content browser create a folder that will house the sequences
    • You could for instance create a folder called “Cinematics”
    • In that folder we will create a folder called “Sequences”
    • And in this folder we will create folder for our project called “Demo”
  • In the desired folder (in our case “Demo”) RMB click in the content browser Animation > Level Sequence and call it “Master”. This will be our master sequence.
  • Double click the “Master” sequence to open it up in sequencer
  • In the top left corner of the sequencer window LMB click the +TRACK button to open a menu that will allow us to add stuff. Or alternatively RMB click the left part of the sequence window.
    • Select the Shot Track from the menu.
    • On the right hand side of the shot we just added you will se a + button (that when hoovered will turn into +Shot) click this button.
    • From the top of the list select Insert Shot
      • This will pop up a window that propts us to save the assets. The save location that unreal suggests is usually a quite good. Verify that the save location is what you want and select save. Note that the “_01” at the end is used for the take number.
    • Now a shot will be added to the sequencer, and you can jump into the shot sequence by double clicking the shot in the timeline (left hand side) of the sequencer window.
      • Also note that you get a breadcrumb navigation style in the top right part of the sequencer window when tou step into the shot.
  • Add another shot
    • Duplicate
      • We could also duplicate the first shot to create a second shot. This can be good is we want to reuse some of the stuff we set up in the first shot, but change some of the things.
      • Make sure that you are in the master sequence RMB click the shot you want to duplicatye > Duplicate Shot
        • This will promt yopu with a new save location, make sure it is fine and hit save
        • It seems like this will not add a new shot folder but instead add the shot in the same folder as the one we duplicated.
    • New
      • To add a second shot we do not add a second shot track (it will be greyed out in the top left menu)
      • Instead we use the + button on the right hand side of the shot track.
      • This will create a new shot folder for the shot.

Add actors

Static Mesh

  • To add an actor to the level sequence (the shot we just created) select the actor in the vieport and in the selectr the +TRAC in the top left side of the sequencer.
    • This will open up a menu and since the actor was selected in the vieport it will be listed at the top. Note that if nothing was selected we can still use the input field to filter out the asset that we want and add it that way.
    • 13:00 TODO add static mesh + anim + clip blending

Camera

  • Add a Camera
    • Existing
      • If we want to use a camera already existing in the scene we can drag from the world outliner and drop it into pur shot track
      • Or we can select the camera and use the +TRACK button and select the camera that will be in the top of the list (because selected)
    • “Spawnable”
      • If we want to create a new camera and set it as the current camera cut we can use the camera botton found at the top of the left side of the sequencer window
      • This is a “spawnable” camera, which means they will only appear in the world outliner when the sequence is played. You will se a little lightning bolt on the side of it in the world outliner or in the sequencer window.
      • They can be used as test cameras / scout cameras to find certain framings, so that the main camera is not changed.
  • When we add a camera (which ever way) we will get a camera cuts track (that lets us choose which camera to use) and the camera actor.
  • Animate the camera
    • It can be nice to lock the viewport to the cinema camera actor when framing the shot.
      • click the camera icon on the right hand side of the cine camera actor track.
    • When the camera is positioned we can add a keyframe.
      • Click the circle on the Transform section of the cine camera actor. This will set a key for all transforms (we can expand the transform to set for location, rotation and scale individually).
      • If we enable the auto key (found in the top bar of the sequencer) we will automatically get a keyframe when a property is changed.
      • We can also set a keyframe using the key S note that the property also need to be selected.
  • Focus settings
    • Current Camera Settings > Focus settings
  • Camera Cuts
    Lets try out the camera cuts
    • Lets say we have added 2 cameras (real ones or spawnable) and we have animated or framed the shots (so that we can see a diffrence when we swith between them)
    • Click on the camera icon (right hand side) on the camera cuts. This will view the sequence with the camera the camera cuts specifies.
    • Note that we can RMB click on the camera cuts track (In the timeline) > Properties > Camera Binding ID > Select the camera to use. This will set the camera but not create cut.
    • To create a cut move the time slider to a point you want to change the camera and click on the + icon of the camera cuts track, and from the pop up menu select the camera to use.

General

Takes

Takes can be a good way to try things and quickly switch between them

  • Add a take
    • RMB clcik the shot > New Take
    • Double click the take go inside it, cjange some stuff
    • Then we can view it in the amster sequence
    • If we do not like it RMB click Takes > Select the old one

Camera

  • Import camera
    • Lets say we have saved out a camera as a FBX file
      • Look up the docs on how we do this
    • Select the cine camera actor
    • RMB click it > Import and select the fbx file
    • On the ui that pops up disable camera since we already have one and click import
  • Camera Shake/noise
    • 36:30

Curve Editor

  • Uniform zoom - Alt LMB or Scroll wheel
  • Free Zoom - Shift Alt LMB
  • Move constrained Axis - Shift LMB
  • Frame selected - F

Tracks

  • Fade Track
    A fade track can be added to a sequence to fade in and out
    • LMB click the +TRACK > Fade Track
    • Set two keframes
    • set the value to 1 where you want it to be faded to black
  • Event track
    • Adds an event that can be read in blueprints.

Camera Rig

Rail

Lets add a rail rig to a cine camera

  • Add Components
    • Camera
      • Add a Cine Camera Actor
      • Lets call it “my_camera”
    • Rig
      • Add a Camera Rig Rail
      • Lets call it “my_cam_rig_rail”
      • Docs
  • Setup Rig
    • Edit shape
      • Click on the edit points on the rig an adjust position
      • You can use the spline tangent handles to add curvature
      • Note! You can also add additional points to the path RMB click the spline > Add Spline Points Here
    • Add Camera
      • In the Outliner, drag and drop the camera on to the rig to make it a child of the rig
      • Zero out the transforms of the camera
        • Select the camera and click the reset button on the right-most side of the Transform > Location input field
        • This will zero out the transform in relation to its parent
        • Note that you can still offset the camera on the local space of its parent
  • Setup Sequence
    • Create a sequence
      • Navigate to a folder where you want your sequences to be RMB > Cinematics > Level Sequence
      • Lets call it “my_sequence”
      • Double click it to open it up in sequencer
    • Add camera and rig
      • From the outliner drag and drop the camera and the camera rig to the sequencer
    • Add camera transform key
      • Add a key on the first frame of the Transform propery on the CineCameraActor.
        • If we accidentally move the camera this key will ensure that we keep our location and rotation
    • Animate rig rail position
      • Add Current position on Rail track
        • In sequencer, on the camera rig rail track click the + button on the righ-hand side of the track to add “Current position on Rail” track
        • Set the property to 0 on the first frame and set a key
        • Move to the last frame and set the property to 1 (a key should be set automatically, if not set one)
  • Look at
    • We might want to add a look at object
    • Add look at object
      • Add an Actor
        • We will just add a basic actor but you can use various 3d actors as look at objects
      • Lets call it “my_look_at”
    • Setup look at
      • Select the camera
      • Details panel > Current Camera Settings > Lookat Tracking Settings
        • Enable Look at Tracking : On
        • Actor to Track : “my_look_at” (the actor we created earlier as our look at)

Camera Shake

  • Camera Shake
    • Create blueprint
      • Navigate to a folder where you want to save your blueprint
      • RMB > Create Blueprint Class
      • In the Pick Parent Class dialog start typing “shake” in the All Classes text input
        • Select Camera Shake Base and click select
      • Call it “BP_camera_shake_01”
  • Camera Shake Pattern
    • There are various pattern you can use, lets explore some of them
    • Double click the blueprint to open it up
    • Select which pattern to use: Camere Shake Pattern > Root Shake Pattern
    • Perlin Noise Camera Shake Pattern
      • Note!
        • One weird thing with the perlin noise shake pattern is that it seems to have a truly random seed for the noise, which means that an identical camera with the same noise applied will get a unique shake, which is a bad thing, since we usually want to be able to rely on that the resulting position is the same with the same input. (makes it tricky to align things etc)
      • Timing >
        • Duration : 0
          • This will make it last indefinately (the default of 1 will use the shake for 1 second)
      • Rotation >
        • Rotation Amplitude Multiplier : 5 (or whatever)
      • etc…
      • Press Compile & Save
    • Sequence Camera Shake Pattern
      • With this pattern we can setup an animation in a Camera Animation Sequence and use that as an offset for the cam position.
      • What you can do is to generate shake anim in for instance houdini and use this data to set the keyframe data in the camera animation sequence
      • Here is a manual way to get started with using the sequence camera shake pattern
        • In the content browser RMB click > Cinematics > Camera Animation Sequence
        • Go inside the created sequence
        • On the Cine Camera Actor click the add track button and add a Transform track
        • Set some keyframes
      • In the “BP_camera_shake_01” blueprint we created earlier, on the sequence dropdown we select the camera animation sequence we just created.
      • We could do some optional tweaks using the other parameters of the camera shake
      • Press Compile & Save
  • Add to Camera
    • In the sequencer, on the camera actor click the + to add a track > Camera Shake > Select the blueprint we just did

Bake & Export

To be able to export the motion from the camera rig & camera shake we need to bake the animation.

  • Duplicate objects
    • Note
      • It can be nice to keep the original setup if you want to tweak it later.
      • I have also noticed that the cinecamera actor gets unparented from the camera rig on a bake, the camera shake also gets disabled
      • One weird thing is that it seems like the noise of the camera shake gets a different seed if you have to exact copies of the same setup. I would prefer that they were exactly the same.
    • Select the objects you want to export
      • Ctrl + D
  • Bake
    • Select the duplicated objects
    • In the sequencer toolbar click the actions menu (“the wrench”) > Bake Transform
  • Gotcha!
    • One big gotcha here is if you use look at it does not automatically gets disabled on bake. So you need to do that on the camera yourself. If you do not do this the camera shake will not be applied correctly
  • Export
    • With the baked objects selected
    • RMB > Export

Output

OCIO

OCIO in unreal engine docs

  • Enable plugin
    • Enable the plugin OpenColorIO (OCIO)
  • OCIO Configs
  • Create OCIO Configuration Asset
    • In the Content directory create a folder named “ocio” where we will save our ocio configs
    • In the “ocio” folder, RMB Miscellaneous > OpenColorIO Configuration
    • Call it “ocio_01”
  • Edit the config asset
    • Double click the configuration asset to open it up
    • Config > Configuration File:
      • Browse to the config.ocio you just downloaded
      • Note! the docs says that you place a copy of the config.ocio in the content folder of the project:
        • I guess this is to make the project less dependent of external assets
        • Use your computers file explorer to copy the config.ocio (that we downloaded) in the “ocio” folder (we just created)
        • If the “ocio” folder is a direct child of the “Content” folder the path in the “Configuration File” should be:
          • Content/ocio/config.ocio
        • There is also a simple config file that comes with the plugin
          • C:/Program Files/Epic Games/UE_5.1/Engine/Plugins/Compositing/OpenColorIO/Content/OCIO/simple.config.ocio
    • Add Color Spaces
      • Desired Color Spaces > add 2 elements by clicking the + button
      • Set the color spaces to (by clicking on the first down arrow, it can be quite slow, guess it builds the menu dynamically?)
        • Utility > Utility - Linear - sRGB
        • ACES > ACEScg
    • Add Display Views
      • Desired Display Views > add 3 element by clicking the + button
        • ACES > sRGB
        • ACES > Rec.709
        • ACES > Rec.2020
  • Set the View Lut
    • View Mode (Lit by default) > Color Management > OCIO Display >
      • Enable Display : On
      • Select an ICIO Asset > Select the config asset (we created earlier)
      • Set Profiles
        • Color Space
          • Utility - Linear - sRGB
        • Display View
          • ACES - Rec.2020 (or what you need)
  • Rendering
    • Use OCIO in Movie Render Queue
      • In the config add a Settings > Color Output
        • OCIO Configuration >
          • Is Enabled : On
          • Color Configuration >
            • Configuration Source : select the ocio config asset we created earlier
            • Source Color Space : Utility - Linear - sRGB
            • Destination Color Space : ACES > ACEScg

Misc

Blueprint

  • Animate BP variable in sequencer
    • Create a blueprint
    • Add some variable
      • Make it public (click the eye icon)
      • With the variable selected, Details > Variable > Expose to Cinematics
    • Click Class Settings (top of the menubar in the blueprint editor)
      • Blueprint Options > Run Construction Script in Sequencer