How do I create sky time-lapse sequencer render (with sun, moon and stars moving)?

Development Architectural and Design Visualization
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I’m trying to make a quick 30 sec level sequence video which makes it look like it’s taken over the course of 24hrs. In terms of light and dark, this is fairly easy to do, but I wanted to have the Sun, Moon and Stars visible moving through the sky.

I’ve found tutorial videos about creating day and night cycles, but they’re all ‘in game’ set-ups and don’t appear to work with the level sequencer for renders.

I’ve found a few things on the marketplace (Good Sky, Dynamic Volumetric Sky) which show the sun and moon moving through the sky, but they both have their quirks which makes them not quite right. However with either of them (or the starter content sky options) it doesn’t appear that you can make keyframes for the positioning of the sun or moon in the level sequencer.

Whenever I’ve tried to alter the values that make them move (available in the details panel) in the sequencer, nothing happens when the sequence is played.

You can make the directional light move in the sequencer, and you can link it to the BP_Sky_Sphere - but you need to manually click ‘refresh material’ repeatedly for the sun to match the position of the light

2 Likes
2

I am having the same issue. Have you found any solution?

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Unfortunately I didn’t. I ended up changing the video

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Create a new “simulation” project.

Create a new “simulation blank” level.

Keyframe the SunSky solar time.

Or, migrate what you need from that template to your current project and do the same procedure.

5

Same issue still

6

Can’t you just run a little level blueprint on tick that adds a small increment to the sun sky’s solar time and let that run on its own? Or start it from the sequencer? I have a UI where I can do that. I can run a sequence in the UI. And when this sequence and the sun loop are running the sun sky is visibly changing.

I haven’t tried to record the sequence, but my understanding is that if the sunsky is updated in the scene that should also appear in the sequence. See it as a cutscene in game. Any change that happens in game should get recorded.

Hope that makes sense.