Animate GameObjects using Timeline

Objective: Animate the actors, level complete scene using Timeline

Following on from our last post, we start composing the scene by placing the actor, creating a new Timeline removing the default Animation Track and Animator as before.

Our actor has an Animator component and animations already applied with the assets for the project.

We set up the scene to match the Previs guide. Then add an Animation Track to the Timeline and drag the actor component into it. From there we click the hamburger menu in the Animation Track and add animation from clip, selecting the End Level Cutscene animation that goes with this scene.

Next go to Cinemachine, create Virtual Camera and rename it to suit the shot. Line up the shot to match the Previs and move the Virtual Camera into a new CM Virtual Cameras empty object inside the Cutscene object that holds the actor to maintain a clean hierarchy.

Create a second Virtual Camera for the close-up shot and move it into the same folder as the last and set the camera position and shot to match the Previs.

Add the Cinemachine Brain (Main Camera) to the Timeline by dragging the Main Camera into the Timeline. Create two Cinemachine Shots in the Timeline and assign each shot to the Virtual Camera. First shot to the far out camera and the second shot to the close up camera. Set the timing to match where during the animation works best.

Once the shots are ready, we want to set a blend between the shots rather than a snap to so we blend the shots like the previous post and overlap the shots until we feel we have the right balance.

Next we add a the fade in and fade to black described in Timeline and previous post. We add in another image and two buttons for restart and quit and animate them using an Animation Track just like the fade in effect.

In the next post, we will look at lining up Audio and Visuals for Cutscenes in Unity.