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What is Unreal Engine Sequencer?
Unreal Engine is widely known as the world’s most open and advanced real-time 3d animation or CG creation platform. Unreal Engine provides studios and content creators the freedom and control to create compelling and cutting-edge content through interactive experiences of virtual production.
Unreal Engine Sequencer is a powerful multitrack editor. With this real time editor, users can achieve cinematic quality visuals in real time. It’s, therefore, usually been used for creating and previewing in real time cinematic sequences.
Real time performance not only benefits the playback, it also empowers creators to create as they could immediately seeing results on screen. Unreal Engine Sequencer can render out high quality cinematics and visualizations or even an image sequence for additional offline editing.
However, unlike a traditional video editor, Unreal Engine Sequencer allows for a vast array of data to be added to tracks and worked within this real time editor. Characters props and cameras can be worked with as their own tracks. Designed to be as familiar as traditional offline editing software, sequencer works in very similar ways employing tools and features, such as a scrubbing timeline and editing tools. It works as a live 3d content editor. However, scenes can be exported as video and image sequences. Furthermore, different render passes can also be output via the render movie settings window.
Key benefits of using Unreal Engine Sequencer
Let’s take a look at an overview of this real time editor.
First, we create a sequence. In this case, we’re using a level sequence. Next, let’s enable the cinematic viewport. This will enable cinematic preview as we edit it. We can add cameras to begin placing different angles and views, to lay down shots or takes.
Adjusting things like focus is easy. Tools such as the eyedropper will enable the setting of depth of focus based on the scene sample location. We can even trigger events such as audio or particle effects. Of course, like anything else in unreal engine, we can develop this in infinite directions and expand our project to incorporate anything that Unreal Engine can handle.
One of the other powerful things is that you have got a visibility track, so you can actually segment all the different layers inside of a level so that you can make visibility tracks. So, if you have got different lighting, you can turn lighting on and off for completely different looks and feels, and have whole different environments exposed and unexposed.
The Workflows behind Unreal Engine Sequencer
Sequencer is a tool that is embedded inside of Unreal Engine. Specifically, it is a linear animation workflow tool. And one of the really powerful things is that as a workflow tool, it is being used very extensively now in Hollywood for making all types of experiences, because you can do anything in sort of a linear timeline.
One of the most powerful things about Unreal Engine is that it is a physically-based engine, and all of the cameras are physically-based cameras. If you are familiar with photography, or working in Hollywood with real-world cameras, you will totally understand as you are working inside of Unreal Engine Sequencer.
And there is a couple of different workflows that you can use inside of Unreal Engine Sequencer. You can use a spawnable workflow or a possessable workflow. The difference is that when you are using a possessable workflow, you can place your character inside of the environment. And then this real time editor can actually grab him, and then do whatever you want while it is loaded.
Now, one of the really amazing workflows is that you can have an animator working on these blends in a sub scene, completely separate. If you want to bring in anything inside of Unreal Engine Sequencer, say a new point light, or well, you do not want a new directional light. So, you can go to the tracks button and add a point light. And it’s immediately available to you. And any animatable parameter is now available for you to animate inside of Unreal Engine Sequencer.
Unreal Engine Sequencer is an incredibly powerful tool. It is very simple, very powerful, and from a workflow perspective, you can divide the work across many different animators, many different effects artists, start to layer your cameras.
Conclusion
Real-time technology is changing the way we create and tell stories. Unreal Engine which is widely known as the world’s most open and advanced real-time development platform is the exact solution for real time production. Unreal Engine Sequencer cinematic live editor is an incredibly powerful tool set for creating interactive experiences, visualization walkthroughs and film content.
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Animost – Vietnam 3D Animation Studio
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Consolidated by Animost in collaboration with Branding Simple
Reference Sources:
- Animation World Network: https://www.awn.com/
- Cartoon Brew – Technology: https://www.cartoonbrew.com/tech
- Befores & Afters – Visual effects and animation journalist: https://beforesandafters.com/