Camera events1.3
Footsteps, landings, jumps and anything you name. The pawn fires the built-in events by itself, anything can send one, and shake layers answer them.
A camera event is a moment the camera should react to: a footstep, a landing, a gunshot. Events are how shakes react without anyone calling them. A layer set to play Every time an event happens waits for its event, so the timing lives wherever the moment happens and the motion lives in the shake, where you can tune it on its own.
The events#
| Event | Means | Comes with |
|---|---|---|
| Any footstep, Left footstep, Right footstep | a foot landing, from the stride or from an animation | |
| Landing | touching down after a fall | how hard, as its strength |
| Jump | leaving the ground upwards | |
| Crouching, Standing up | the capsule changing height | |
| Burst | a burst of speed: a dash, a boost | a direction |
| Jolt (fighting momentum) | a hard reversal or a sudden stop | |
| Whip pan | the camera snapping round quickly | |
| FOV punch | a brief widening of the view: a blink, a reach | a length |
| Rumble | a short knock, from Play Micro Shake or the feedback interface | a side |
| Named event | anything you name and send yourself | whatever you send with it |
Every event has a strength, 0 to 1 for most. A layer can follow it with the Strength of the event driver, so a soft landing plays less of the landing layer than a hard one. An event with a direction pushes any layer set to From the event along it, and one with a length stretches any layer with Event Sets The Length ticked to fit.
The ones the pawn fires itself#
Events on the pawn's Blendable Shake has a switch for each built-in event it fires by itself, with the thresholds that decide when:
| Switch | Fires | Tuned by |
|---|---|---|
| Landings | Landing on touchdown | Landing Counts From (cm/s) ignores slower ones. Landing Full At (cm/s) is a full-strength landing: keep it near your jump speed so an ordinary jump reads. Landing Strength Curve shapes it |
| Jumps | Jump on takeoff | Jump Counts From (cm/s) tells a jump from walking off a ledge. Wind-Up (s) holds it a moment, so a layer driven by the jump charge has time to show |
| Footsteps | footsteps from the stride | the component's Stride |
| Crouch And Stand | Crouching and Standing up | |
| Jolts | Jolt when the character fights their own momentum hard | Jolt Counts From (G), Jolt Full At (G) and a Jolt Cooldown (s), so wrestling the controls doesn't machine-gun the camera |
| Whip Pans | Whip pan when the camera's turning changes suddenly | Whip Counts From (deg/s²), Whip Full At (deg/s²) and a Whip Cooldown (s) |
A landing is sized from the fastest part of the fall. Anything that deliberately slows a fall, a glide or a ledge catch, should call Clear Landing Impact, or the camera still plays the crash.
For a landing, jump or footstep you script yourself, Notify Landed, Notify Jump and Trigger Footstep fire them as if the character had done it. Set Jump Charge, sent every frame while a jump winds up, and Release Jump do the same for a charged jump.
Sending your own#
| From | How |
|---|---|
| Blueprint or C++ | Send Camera Event with a name, a strength and a direction. Fire Camera Event fires a built-in one |
| An animation | the Blendable Camera Event notify, with the event, its name, a strength, a direction in the character's frame, and a length for an event that has one |
| A footstep in an animation | the Blendable Footstep notify. Tick Footsteps From Anim Notifies under Stride to time the stride from them |
| A knock in an animation | the Blendable Micro Shake notify, which fires Rumble |
| A Shake Volume | Camera Event under On Enter or On Exit |
| A hook | the Fire A Camera Event action, on a Rig, a point of interest or a Lock-On Preset. Away From The Target points the push away from what you're locked on to |
The notify is the one to reach for in animation work. A sword landing, a foot slamming down in a takedown, a door hitting its stop: put the motion in a shake layer that plays on a named event, and the timing on the montage, where it belongs.
What answers them#
- A shake layer with Plays set to Every time an event happens, When set to the event, and Event Name for a named one. It plays in whichever shake it's in, as long as that shake is running: a Body shake, a Rig's handheld, or one you played.
- Event Shakes on the pawn's Blendable Shake, which plays a shake asset whenever an event happens. Each entry has When, Event Name, the Shake, a Scale multiplied by the event's own strength, and Ignore Below for events too weak to bother with. It's the quick way to reuse a shake you already have.
- Lock-on effects with the same name, on the Lock-On Preset framing the lock. See lock-on moves and effects.
- On Camera Event on Blendable Shake, which fires for every event, built in or sent. Hang controller rumble, audio or UI off it when they want the same moments as the camera.
- On Footstep on Blendable Shake, which fires every footstep with the foot, speed, surface and location. Footstep audio belongs there.