These docs describe 1.3, which is in testing. The version on Fab is 1.1: read its docs.

The camera for story-led action adventures: close over the shoulder, held by an operator you can feel, opening out into wide shots on the journey, and running in and out of cutscenes as one unbroken shot.

The camera#

• 1

  Add the camera.

  A Blendable Follow Camera with the Cinematic Action preset: 1.6 metres back on a 72° lens, the character high in the frame.

• 2

  Add the shakes.

  A Blendable Shake beside it, Body left empty. The preset brings the whole camera operator: breathing that rises with the action, a float behind every start and stop, a beat late on every pan, a jolt on a whip.

• 3

  Open it out for the journey.

  A Camera Preset Volume set to Latch with Cinematic Exploration where the world opens up: ten metres back and two and a half up, the character pulling ahead as they move. Another Latch volume brings Cinematic Action back for the next interior.

• 4

  Bind aiming and the shoulder.

  Set Aiming and Toggle Shoulder, as in any third-person game.

The two presets share an aim, a lock-on and the operator, so crossing between them is only the shot changing, not the feel.

Vistas that frame themselves#

A point of interest is the camera noticing something. Place one at a waterfall, a ruin, a city on the horizon:

• Turns To Look eases the view towards it as the player nears, and lets the stick take over when they push away.
• Moves The Camera steps the shot out or up for a better angle.
• Changes The Lens widens or narrows the lens while it holds the shot.
• Focus pulls the lens to it, with the same rack a person would make.

Several can overlap; the camera blends what each asks for by weight, so walking past three of them is one smooth move.

Cutscenes without a cut#

• 1

  Going in.

  Use the Camera Cut track's own Ease In: it already blends from the gameplay camera properly.

• 2

  Coming out.

  Put a Camera Transition section at the end of the sequence. The shot eases from the cinematic camera back to the live gameplay camera, which kept following the player the whole time, so it lands wherever they actually are.

• 3

  Keep the operator.

  A Blendable Shake track plays shakes on the timeline, and a Blendable Effects Scale section sets the handheld to a fixed level: 0 for a locked-off shot, 1 for gameplay's own.

• 4

  Talk.

  A Blendable Look At track bound to two actors frames them both, which is what a conversation needs.

Together they make the "oner": a cutscene that runs into play and back out as one shot. Sequencer has every track.

Set pieces#

• A chase. Push Handheld with Shake_Handheld_RunAndGun under a name like Chase: heavy breathing, a beat late on every pan, hard footfalls. Pop Handheld with the same name when the chase ends, and it crosses back to the preset's operator.
• A reveal. Play Dolly Zoom on the Follow Camera swings the lens wide and back while the camera moves to keep the character the same size, so the world behind seems to rush away.
• A collapse. Shake_World_Earthquake heaves with the world rather than the camera, so it reads as the ground moving whichever way the player looks. Stop it when the quake ends.
• A fight. Cinematic Action lock-on sets the two of you wide apart on the screen, with letterbox bars and a dolly zoom as it takes hold.