Title: Question about Camera Animation Workflow for Gameplay Skills

Development Character & Animation
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1

Hello. I am using Unreal Engine 5.6.1.

I have a question about the optimal workflow for applying custom camera animations, created by an animator, to various skill animations used during gameplay.

1. Objective

During gameplay, when a character uses a skill, I want to apply camera animations (e.g., Transform, FOV) created by our animator in a DCC tool like Maya/Max in real-time.

This needs to be part of an interactive gameplay system, not just a simple cutscene.

2. Core Problem

I have confirmed that it’s possible to achieve this using Level Sequencer. However, creating and managing a separate Level Sequence asset for every single skill animation seems highly inefficient and unscalable.

I have a fundamental concern that this approach is too heavyweight for a gameplay system.

3. Specific Questions

Based on these concerns, I would like to ask the following:

I would like to confirm if it is a viable workflow to import camera transform data directly from an animation FBX file and use it as part of a UAnimSequence.

In the case of camera transform data imported via a Level Sequence, I’m wondering if there is a feature to ‘extract’ or save only the camera track information as a separate, reusable data asset.

The core of my question is: “For implementing a large number of camera animations for a real-time gameplay skill system, what is the most efficient and scalable data management workflow, other than creating a Level Sequence for each skill?”

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

2

Hey there,

For most things in the engine that aren’t skeletal meshes, if you want to animate them moving in some way, you would use Sequencer. That said, there is an experimental plugin that can make the setup easier for you. The Engine Camera Plugin gives you tools to trigger camera sequence assets (assets that hold just the camera and its animation that you can import from a Maya FBX directly onto it) externally from the level sequence system, with some helpful parameters like playing it in camera space or world space.

Once you enable the plugin, in Blueprint, you will look for the engine cameras subsystem as a node in BP, and then you can run sequences there. If you combine this with choosers, you get a scalable approach to the problem you’re facing.

Another option is that you could, theoretically, export curve data for your camera from Maya and store it in a UAnimSequence for the characters that will run it. Then, during playback, you would need to map the output of your curve data to your camera. This is not something that exists in the engine today, and you would have to build it.

“This needs to be part of an interactive gameplay system, not just a simple cutscene.” - If you’re indicating quicktime-style events here, then no matter the approach you take, you will need to do more work to handle timing adjustments and branch of camera based on success or fail.

Hopefully, this can help you get you where you’re looking to go,

Dustin

3

Thanks again for the great explanation, it was perfectly clear. I’ve decided to follow your advice and use the Engine Camera Plugin with Choosers.

However, I’m not sure how to get started with the setup. Could you point me to any official documentation or good tutorials you’d recommend? I’m mainly looking to understand the basic workflow: importing the camera animation from a DCC tool, setting up a Chooser to select it, and then triggering it from Blueprint.

Any guidance would be a huge help. Thank you!

4

Unfortunately, we don’t have any documentation for this as it’s an extraction of the new Gameplay Camera system and very small. That said I can give some pointers at how to get started.

Accessing the subsystem to do things:

Once you enable the plugin, you will be able to get access to the Engine Camera Subsystem. From there you have a few convience functions in BP that allow you to initiate Play and Stopping camera animations.

[Image Removed]

For the playing of camera animation, you’ll also notice a parameters pin. In there, you’ll find some typical play settings but also what space you’re playing the animation in as well as the option for a UserDefined space.

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For the most part I expect you’ll be using the camera space, but just in case, it’s good to know about.

For assets to play you’ll create a CineCameraSequence

[Image Removed]This is a template asset that comes preloaded with a camera.

From here you can right click on the cinematic camera in the sequence and import an FBX sequence.

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Once imported, you’ll be able to save and then use that asset in your field. You can also store these in a chooser because choosers allow for any output type.

These are building blocks so you’ll need to come up with your system to drive this, but you should be able to do everything you need. If you decide that you need more functionality, you should be able to extend the plugin, or spin off your own to add that functionality.

Hope this helps,

Dustin