So, I´m working extensively with sequencer, because my studio only uses Unreal Engine to produce linear content, aka cinematics for documentations on TV etc.
Since I started working with Unreal, I´ve encountered several issues and problems with sequencer I couldn´t yet resolve and since its also really hard to find good sources of information on sequencer, I wanna collect all the issues/questions I have around sequencer in this post, instead of making a bunch of separate posts…
I´ll continue updating this with all the tips and tricks and solutions I can find as well and I invite you to do the same.
1. Keyframe “stuck”.
One of the most annoying default behaviours I couldn´t find a way to fix yet:
When you have “autokey” on and move to a different position to change the keyed value and the previous keyframe is still selected (which it normally is after setting it), you won´t create a keyframe with the new value at the new time location, but instead you´ll change the still selected keyframe.
So, every single time I have to click outside of the keyframes, sometimes multiple times, if sequencer is sluggish already, to deselect the previous keyframe and I lost count how often I ■■■■■■ up some animation without noticing because of this…
2. Prerolling subsequences isn´t working.
I´ve been really happy to figure out how to add “preroll” and “postroll” to stuff like alembic caches.
So, if you´re cache starts later in the sequence or ends early, instead of looping back to the initial keyframe, you can set a preroll or postroll and it will hold the current position of the cache.
Unfortunately that doesn´t seem to work with subsequences.
For example I´m often using sequences created by datasmith importer when importing animated objects and for those the preroll doesn´t seem to work properly: Bevore the sequence starts, it will render out the end of the sequence instead.
3. Adding/editing keyframes for multiple objects.
Another thing I can´t figure out is how to properly add or edit multiple selected objects.
Lets say you have 50 boxes and wanna scale them all up by 5: You select them all and then you can add a transform track for all of them by adding a track for one of them.
But now, if you wanna add a keyframe and change that value in sequencer, only the keyframe for the object where you change the value gets a keyframe or gets its keyframe changed.
I also keep forgetting that you can disable “keybars”, which is on by default and makes selecting multiple keyframes or keyframes of multiple objects a total nightmare, as you´ll keep moving keyframes instead of just selecting them.
4. Keyframe editing is super sluggish
A lot of the time changing any keyframe in the sequencer makes the editor stall for several seconds while updating.
Not sure if thats to be expected due to Unreal being a realtime game engine and evaluation itself is often multitudes faster than what I´m used to from DCCs like 3ds max.
But its still really annoying to work with, especially when the keyframes being edited don´t seem to be a big deal, like simply transforming the object in X/Y/Z or stuff like that.
5. Sequencer becoming super sluggish /crashing with too many tracks
I´ve posted about this multiple times, but never gotten a reply…so, one of the most common uses for datasmith for me is importing particle animation from 3ds max into Unreal Engine.
And while this works great for smaller amounts of particles, I can´t seem to import more than like 2000 particles per sequence.
I can split my export into sets of 2000 and then add multiple subsequences to Unreal, but I can´t go above something like 6000 in total without crashing Unreal.
You can watch the ram max out in task manager for this.
But even with “smaller” numbers like 500 tracks or so, when you try to bulk edit any of these, it stalls the editor for up to an hour.
I´m realizing that this might be a niche usecase and most people do NOT animate hundreds of tracks, but I´d love some fix or workaround …
6. Sequencer not evaluating blueprint keyframes.
I´ve also tried to fix this in various ways and haven´t found a really great way to do this:
So, I have some blueprints where I added boolean switches to make groups of meshes hidden/unhidden in game and those never update in editor.
They render correctly, but half of the reason to include these switches was to make working in editor easier.
There are also other variables I can´t seem to animate this way in sequencer and checking “run constructionscript” is neither feasible (due to performance issues) nor desired (when the to be animated values are set in the event graph rather than the construction script).
I also know you can add event tracks and use the director blueprint, but then I need to set up a new graph each time, rather then using the predefined variables in the blueprint.
And also: These don´t update properly either.
Best workaround so far I´ve found was to simple add a live link component and have the livelink update event in the event graph.