Sequences, Shots, and Takes

When creating cinematic content in Unreal Engine, you can craft more complex Sequences using multiple Sub-Sequences. By adding Sequences as Sub-Sequences to larger level Sequences you can organize larger cinematic content into more performant sections that team members can work on independently. Within a Sequence or Sub-Sequence you can create Shots, or individual camera cuts within your cinematic, similar to other non-linear editors.

Content and game objects can be added to shots, such as Cameras, Characters, and other Actors. They can be trimmed and moved anywhere within its Sequence, enabling a full non-linear editing experience. You can also differentiate shots from one another using the Take System, in order to experiment with different Shots and content without modifying the original shot.

You can use the following document to learn more about using Sequences, Shots, and Takes, to craft cinematic content in Unreal Engine.

Prerequisites

• You have an understanding of Sequencer and its Interface.

Level Sequences

A Level Sequence Actor is the foundational asset used to create cinematic content for games and traditional animation in Unreal Engine. Level Sequences can contain Cameras, Characters and other game objects that you can animate and will be played back during a game or rendered. You can add Sub-Sequences and Shots to a Level Sequence, for more dynamic and complex cinematics.

You can create a new Level Sequence by navigating in the Content Browser to (+) Add > Cinematics > Level Sequence.

You can also create a new Sequence asset pre-configured with shots, by navigating in the menu bar to the Cinematics button, and selecting Add Level Sequence with Shots.

In the new Level Sequence with Shots Settings window, you can set the assets Name, saving location, and the Number of Shots to be added.

Here you can reference a list of the Level Sequence with Shots Settings properties, and a description of their functionality

After setting the new Level Sequence with Shot's settings, the asset will be saved in the assigned location using a folder structure containing the Sub-Sequence Shot assets.

User Interface

When viewing a Level Sequence with Shots, there are two main areas for navigation and interaction.

1. Breadcrumbs

2. Shot Sections

Breadcrumbs

The breadcrumbs area of the toolbar expands when editing a Level Sequence with Shots, it can be used to navigate between your main Level Sequence and its Shots.

Clicking the folder dropdown will display a tree view list containing the Level Sequence and the Shots contained within. Selecting any of these items will open that sequence.

When viewing a Shot or Sub-Sequence, the Sequence's name area will also display the main Level Sequence it is a part of. You can navigate back to the main Level Sequence by selecting it. Within a Sub-Sequence or Shot you can also observe the Viewing Context, or the content from the main Level Sequence that is influencing the Sub-Sequence or Shot content you are viewing.

You can use the Forward and Backward to step through your sequence view history.

Shot Sections

Your Shots are displayed in Sequencer's timeline as Sections. Each Shot Section operates similar to most Sections, and can be moved, trimmed or edited. Double-clicking a shot will open it.

When multiple Shot tracks are being used, Shot Sections placed in the top tracks will be prioritized. This means that if their sections overlap with other sections below, the section range on the top-most tracks will evaluate instead of the bottom tracks.

Shots can also be blended together by clicking and dragging the shots in the timeline to overlap with one another in the same track.

You can adjust the blending between shots by clicking and dragging the handles that are rendered over the shot's thumbnail.

Blending can also be controlled using the Set Weight node in the level sequence's blueprint.

Shots

Shots are individual sequences within a Level Sequence that you can use to create more complex cinematics in Unreal Engine. Each Shot corresponds to its own Sequence asset. It is recommended when setting up cinematic content to add Actors, cameras, and other cinematic components within Shots, that can then be edited as whole sequences in the main Level Sequence.

Creation

You can add Shots to an existing Level Sequence, by navigating in the Sequence Editor to the Tracks (+) button > Shots Track. Then within the Shots Track you can select (+) Shot > Insert Shot, to create a new Level Sequence asset that will be added to your main Level Sequence as a Sub-Sequence Shot.

When selecting Insert Shot, an asset creation dialog window will appear, asking you to save the shot sequence asset to a location in your project. By default, the directory will be relative to the main Level Sequence, and placed in a shot subdirectory if one is defined in your Editor Project Settings.

Alternatively you can add an existing Level Sequence asset as a Shot using (+) Shot, and selecting the Sequence asset you wish to add as a Sub-Sequence Shot.

Shots can also be added by dragging a Level Sequencer asset from the Content Browser to the Shots track in the main Level Sequence's timeline.

Details and Interaction

You can right-click a Shot in the timeline and navigate in the context menu to Properties to see its details.

Here you can reference a list of a Shot's Properties and a description of their functionality:

Right-clicking a shot and navigating to the bottom of the context menu will reveal shot-specific actions.

Here you can reference a list of Shot Actions and their functionality, that you can use when editing Shots in a Level Sequence:

Edit Shot Metadata

You can edit each Take or Shot's Metadata to keep track of changes and leave useful comments. This can be specially useful when multiple users are working on the same scene.

To edit a Shot's Metadata, Right-click on the Shot in the timeline and select Edit Meta Data.

Enter your name, date and time, and your Notes. Close the window.

This information will be displayed as a tooltip when you hover your mouse over the Shot in the Timeline.

Shot Colors

You can color code shots within a root Level Sequence to organize complex cinematics.

To color code a shot, right click the shot and navigate in the context menu to Properties > Color Tint, and set your desired color using the color wheel, RGBA color values, or the eyedropper tool.

Thumbnails

Thumbnails are images that are displayed on the Shot Sections in the Sequencer Timeline to provide a preview image of the shot. Thumbnail images update when zooming in on the timeline in order to show an accurate preview of any specific area of a shot.

You can customize the thumbnail display of a Shot by right-clicking any Shot in the timeline and navigating to the Thumbnails menu.

Here you can reference a list of the Thumbnail properties and a description of their function:

Sequence Context

When a shot is opened from within a Level Sequence, it will be displayed within the context of the Root Level Sequence. This will include elements from that sequence and other neighboring shots in order to provide the full scene context.

When viewing shots from the Level Sequence context, start and end times will be displayed for both the base shot sequence, and the actual trimmed shot. In this example, you can see a shot with both the Start and End times being trimmed in the Root Level Sequence, and how that information is displayed in the shot view.

1. The trimmed area. This is the region that will be played from the Root Level Sequence.

2. The full sequence playable area. This area is being edited out, and will not play.

Conversely, you can also trim the Start and End times within a shot and observe the trimmed region on your shot from the Root Level Sequence.

If Keep Cursor in Playback Range While Scrubbing is disabled from the Playback Menu, then you can further utilize the Root Level Sequence context by scrubbing outside of the bounds of the trimmed area and see the previous or next shots. This is useful when aligning your current shot with the edits of your adjacent shots.

You can disable this context view by enabling Evaluate Sub Sequences In Isolation from Sequencer's Playback Menu. This option is useful if you want to isolate a specific shot sequence from its Root Level Sequence, as any tracks not in this sequence will no longer evaluate alongside the sequence you are currently viewing.

Hierarchical Bias

Due to the nature of the Root Level Sequence, Shot, and Subsequence systems, there may be cases where the same Actor is being referenced by both the shot and the Root Level Seqeunce, which can cause conflicts. Hierarchical Bias can be used to arbitrate which reference of that Actor should be prioritized to evaluate over other sources. This property is found when right-clicking Shots or Sub Sequence, navigating to the Properties menu, and locating Hierarchical Bias.

Increasing the bias number on a source will cause that source to "win", decreasing the number will cause it to "lose", and having equal bias between sources will cause all sources to evaluate together and blend when possible.

The default value for Hierarchical Bias on the top-level (root) sequence is 0, while for subsequences it is 100. This causes shot sources to take precedence over Root Level Seqeunce sources. Bias also compounds for each subseqeunce layer added, so if a shot sequence contained a child Sub Sequence, then it would have a total bias of 200 (100 + 100), causing the deepest level of influence to "win'' by default.

This effect is demonstrated in the image below, where:

1. The root sequence, which has a default bias of 0, and cumulative bias of 0.

2. The first child sequence, which has a default bias of 100, and cumulative bias of 100.

3. The second child sequence, which has a default bias of 100, and cumulative bias of 200.

Bias Example

The following example demonstrates how to utilize Hierarchical Bias values in your sequences.

A Light Actor is placed in a Level, and is referenced by three different sequences:

• The Root Level Sequence references this light, and its color is keyframed to red.

• Within the Root Level Sequence is a Shot, and its color is keyframed to green.

• Within the Shot, is a Sub Sequence, and its color is keyframed to blue.

By default, the Sub Sequnce, and blue light take priority, because it has the largest cumulative bias. For reference, each sequence's bias value is listed below:

• Root Level Sequence = 0

• First child sequence = 100

• Second child sequence = 200 (100 + 100)

If you right-click the Sub Sequence section and lower its hierarchical bias to -50, then that will cause the Shot, and green light to take priority. This is because the Sub Sequence's cumulative bias is now smaller than its parent, causing the green light to have the largest bias.

At this point, each sequence's bias value would be:

• Root Sequence = 0

• First child sequence = 100

• Second child sequence = 50 (100 - 50)

Setting all the bias values to 0 will cause all sequences to evaluate together and the results will be blended. In this example, the red, green, and blue light color values are combined, becoming white.

At this point, each sequence's bias value would be:

• Root Sequence = 0

• First child sequence = 0

• Second child sequence = 0 (0 + 0)

Takes

When creating cinematic content, there may be cases where you want to experiment with your shots without modifying the original shot. Takes can be used to create separate copies of shots, allowing you to edit those copies without disturbing the original.

To create a Take, right-click a shot and select New Take. A new asset window will appear, with the directory pointing to the same folder as the original shot. Click Save to save the new Take.

When a new take is created, the shot will switch to using it instead of the original shot. You can change between the original (Take 1), and other Takes by right-clicking and navigating to the Takes menu. The active take is denoted by a star icon next to the entry.