Switch from Third Person Camera to First Person smoothly

Development Programming & Scripting Blueprint
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1

Hi!

I’m using the Third Person Character from the Unreal Template and I have added a camera to have a First Person View:

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To switch the view I have this method:

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But the transition between the cameras is immediately.

How can I do it smoothly?

Thanks!

2

Toggling two Camera components with Set Active is always a hard cut. The player camera manager never gets a blend, it just switches the active component.

Use Set View Target with Blend on the Player Controller, not Set Active.

Quick setup that matches the third-person template:

  1. Leave the spring-arm camera as the pawn’s default view target.
  2. Make the first-person camera its own actor (or a child actor), not just a second Camera component you flip on.
  3. On switch:
    • Get Player Controller → Set View Target with Blend
    • New Target = the FP camera actor
    • Blend Time = 0.25–0.4
    • Blend Func = Cubic (or Ease In Out)
  4. Reverse the same node to go back to the character (the character is the view target for the spring-arm camera).

If you insist on two Camera components on the same pawn: don’t. Set View Target with Blend blends actors, not components. Same-actor component swaps stay instant.

Other option, often nicer for a template character: one camera, lerp the boom.

  • Keep only the spring-arm camera.
  • Timeline 0.3s: Target Arm Length 300 → 0, socket offset to eye height, maybe FOV 90 → 100.
  • At 0 arm length you’re effectively first person without a second camera.

That’s the smoother feel people expect. View-target blend is the one-node fix; boom lerp is the better look.

3

Thanks for your answer, but I can’t find where is set `the pawn’s default view target`.

And also, I have no idea about how to add an actor here:

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4

There is no “default view target” setting. When the controller possesses the character, the pawn itself is the view target. The camera you see is whichever Camera component is auto-active — in the template that is ThirdPersonCamera on CameraBoom. You will not find a checkbox for this.

You also cannot add an actor in that Components list. That panel is only components. FirstPersonCamera under Mesh is still a component on the same pawn, so Set View Target with Blend cannot blend to it. That is why I said not to put the FP camera there.

Two ways, pick one.

A — stay on this pawn, no extra actor (easier with your setup)

Delete the extra FirstPersonCamera or leave it unused. Keep only CameraBoom + ThirdPersonCamera. On switch, Timeline ~0.3s:

  • Set Target Arm Length 300 → 0
  • socket offset up to eye height
  • optional FOV 90 → 100

At arm length 0 you are first person. Reverse the timeline to go back. No view target, no second actor.

B — real blend between two actors

  1. In the level (or spawn at runtime): place a Camera Actor, attach it to the mesh head socket.
  2. Store a reference on the character.
  3. Get Player Controller → Set View Target with Blend → New Target = that camera actor.
  4. Back to third person: same node, New Target = self (the character).

If you want it on the Blueprint: Add → Child Actor, class CameraActor, then Get Child Actor into Set View Target with Blend. Still not “Add Camera” in Components.

For the template character, do A. You already have the boom.