Sequencer - Creating Camera Motion while Moving with Skeletal Mesh

Development Character & Animation
1

Hello,

I am trying to move a vehicle (Skeletal Mesh) at high speed across a landscape while a camera slowly rotates and translates around it- you’ve probably seen this type of sequence in car ads and racing game cinematics.

Just to be clear, this is entirely in Sequencer, so no user input is required/edpected. The camera and vehicle motion are all determined ahead of time.

My first try was to animate the camera doing the type of orbit I needed in Sequencer, then parenting to the vehicle and animating that. The camera path basically exploded, flying all over the place in a confused mess.
Then I created a socket on the Skeletal Mesh and snapped the camera to it. The camera animation seems to work and the camera is parented to the vehicle- but the location of the camera is suddenly miles away from the vehicle and under the terrain.

This second attempt was very close so I feel I must be missing something basic regarding the origin perhaps.

Any help greatly appreciated!
-RC

2

For now I’ve just matched camera translation speed with that of the vehicle - actually starting out behind it, then overtaking it as the camera rotates via curve adjustments in Sequencer.

It works, but when I reuse the vehicle in other shots that required a different sort of camera orbit I’ll need to rebuild that same motion matching which is what I was hoping to avoid.