One of the awesome features in UDK is the Matinee editor – It is super easy to use and very intuitive. I have found that the Matinee editor in UE4 is pretty unstable. I’d like to start this post in order to get the ball rolling on some odd problems.
Duplicating a matinee actor in the viewport with alt+drag will corrupt the current level. The editor will remain functional until it is rebooted.
Moving a matinee from one level to another will corrupt the current level. The editor will remain functional until it is rebooted.
There is no way to move the contents of a matinee in local space (relative to the matinee icon). All keyframes seem to be made in world space.
Adjusting the length of the matinee (red tick mark at the bottom of the matinee screen) while using the snap button (magnet at the top of the screen) will cause the matinee to snap to 0.00. There is no way to accurately snap the length of the matinee to any given time.
Matinees are not able to be placed in class blueprints. They only seem to be placed in the Level Blueprint.
If you need screen caps or other information on these bugs just let me know
I was fixing the duplicated matinees as I went – I was hoping to apply the same general movement track to multiple objects, so my workflow was to make a matinee, duplicate it, then hook a new actor up to the duplicated matinee.
Is there any info on the sequencer? What is this awesomeness you speak of?
Regarding the first two corruption issues: Referencing the same object in more than one matinee’s can cause problems, so that might be the issue you are seeing with duplicating it in the same level. And are you fixing the referenced objects in the matinee actor after you place Matinee into the other level?
Also Matinee working with Level BP only isn’t a bug. It’s just a limitation of Matinee. You’ll have to wait for Sequencer for more flexibility.
It is still some months away from release so not much is known about it really. It will be used in class blueprints as well and have more functionality though. You can see a screenshot of its interface here:
I have assigned a technician to look into the first two issues you have mentioned. I do have some information about the other problems that you have pointed out:
There is no way to move the contents
of a matinee in local space (relative
to the matinee icon). All keyframes
seem to be made in world space.
This is correct, it is a limitation of how matinee works with UE4 currently.
Adjusting the length of the matinee
(red tick mark at the bottom of the
matinee screen) while using the snap
button (magnet at the top of the
screen) will cause the matinee to snap
to 0.00. There is no way to accurately
snap the length of the matinee to any
given time.
This is a known issue. I have personally bugged this issue and assigned it to a developer before. It has unfortunately not been fixed yet.
Matinees are not able to be placed in
class blueprints. They only seem to be
placed in the Level Blueprint.
This is a limitation as said. I apologize for any inconvenience that has caused you.
We are currently working very hard on getting Sequencer ready for release. It will solve many of the issues that you describe here.
I just had a couple other question for the first 2 issues that you are having with Matinee. What version of the Editor are you currently running off of? Also, Can you provide any repro steps that I could follow on how set up the first 2 issues?
I have attempted the first issue and have been unsuccessful. I created a matinee and duplicated the matinee by Alt+Dragging. I then saved the level and reopened it an was able to work in the level just fine. If I am missing any steps, please let me know.
crate a new 1st person blueprint project (did not include starter content)
crate a new matinee
place a TemplateCube_Rounded in the world
add a new empty group in matinee with the cube selected. this will change the cube to moveable
add a new movement track to the empty group
add a few keys to the movement track so the box moves around the scene
close matinee and save the level (ctrl+s)
click the matinee actor, hold alt+drag to duplicate
drag a new TemplateCube_Rounded into the world
open the duplicated matinee
right click on the empty group and navigate to actors → TemplateCube_Rounded → replace actor
close matinee and save the level (ctrl+s)
close unreal
open unreal 4.2.0 and open the project
a black crash report should appear. after digging through the log, it looks like the duplicated matinee is the culprit.
I reproduced these steps in v4.3.0 and it looks like the level is no longer corrupted. Instead, the second matinee ceases to function. I can see the second cube moving when I scrub through the matinee, but it will not move when I tell the matinee to play when the level loads (event begin play → play → matineeActor / matineeActor_2).
Looks like I am running out of reply space, so I’ll write up new repro steps for the other issue in a second post.
Thanks for the reproduction steps for this issue. When setting this up in 4.2, I saw and instant crash when loading the level after replicating the Matinee. I tested this in 4.3 and may have found a way to fix your issue. When you open the duplicated the matinee and add a new TemplateCube to the level, be sure to have the Cube as movable and not static. Also, when changing the actor in the level, have the actor selected in the view-port and select ‘Replace Group Actors with Selected Actors’. Also be sure that the matinee details has ‘Play on Level Load’ checked
Give this a shot and let me know if this helps. Have a great day!
Is there a way to specify a mesh’s movable mode? UE4 alerts me that the mesh has been changed to movable when I add it to the matinee, but I could not find that option int he mesh’s properties or a “replace with” function.
