Almost every modern game features cinematic moments, and if you are using Unreal Engine, creating them is surprisingly straightforward thanks to the Sequencer tool. When I first tried this, I assumed I would need a background in film editing, but the logic is highly visual and intuitive. In this guide, I will walk you through how to build a cut scene from scratch, step by step.
How to create a level sequence?
The first step to building any cinematic is generating a Level Sequence. Simply right-click inside your Content Browser, navigate to the Cinematics section, and select Level Sequence.
This action opens the Sequencer, Unreal Engine’s built-in video editor. This is your main workspace where you will arrange and piece together your entire cut scene.
Prepare your cameras
Before you can edit anything, you need cameras to shoot your scene. If you search for cameras in the Place Actors panel, you will notice two main options:
- Normal Camera
- Cine Camera Actor: This provides advanced cinematic features like custom zoom and focus pulls.
In my own setup, I simply dropped two normal cameras into the level to keep things manageable.
To get them into your timeline, select one of the cameras, click the plus icon next to the Track button in the Sequencer, and choose Actor to Sequencer. When you click on your selected camera in the list, it automatically drops into the timeline as a shot. Do the same for your second camera. You can easily trim or extend the duration by dragging the edges of the shot.
How to add camera movement?
A completely static camera rarely looks engaging. The standard way to add motion is through keyframe animation.
Expand your camera track and locate the Transform track. Click the small circle icon to drop a keyframe. Move forward to a different frame—I usually jump to frame 30. Reposition and rotate your camera in the viewport, then click that keyframe icon again. Your camera will now travel smoothly between those two points.
I wasted an hour before realizing my animations felt robotic because I ignored the Curve Editor. Opening that tool lets you adjust the animation curves for a much more natural, ease-in and ease-out feel. Also, you can click the camera icon next to the Camera Cut track to see exactly what your final cut scene looks like through the lens.
Use a camera rig rail for smooth motion
Relying only on keyframes can sometimes result in stuttery turns. For sweeping, cinematic pans, a Camera Rig Rail provides much smoother transitions. Think of it like placing your camera on a physical dolly track in a real studio.
Search for Camera Rig Rail in the Place Actors panel and drop it into your level. In the Outliner, drag your camera directly under the rig. Make sure to zero out all the location axes of your camera. The setup froze on me once during this step because I clicked wildly while the engine was calculating a massive environment, so just give it a second to snap into place.
When you select the Rig Rail, you will see a white spline line with a square at the end. To shape your track, select an outer point, hold the Alt key, and drag the Gizmo to add new points. You adjust the sharpness of the turns using the spline handles.
To animate this motion:
- Add the Rig Rail to your Sequencer.
- Click the plus icon next to the Camera Rig track and select Current Position on Rail.
- Value 0 is the start of the track, and 1 is the very end.
- Add keyframes just like you did on the transform track to dictate the speed.
If you want the camera to physically turn with the track, select the rail in the Outliner and enable Lock Orientation to Rail in the Details panel.
How to add characters and animations?
With our cameras moving, it is time to bring some life into the scene. Drop your character into the level, select it, and add it to the Sequencer.
Right-click the character’s track and select Convert to Spawnable. After doing this, delete the character from your main level. I initially got this wrong and left the original actor in the scene, resulting in two overlapping models that completely broke my playback. The spawnable feature allows the Sequencer to generate and remove the character dynamically. I usually have mine spawn right at frame 0.
To make them move, expand the character dropdown and use the Transform track just like you did with the camera. However, sliding a static model looks terrible. Click the plus icon next to the character track, open the Animation menu, and pick an animation. This generates a new track that you can drag to adjust the timing, and you can even blend multiple animations together by overlapping them.
Trigger events and add audio
You can use an Event track to fire off specific Blueprint logic at precise moments during your cinematic.
Create an event track, drop a keyframe, and double-click it. This opens the Sequence Director, where you can plug in any custom event—like spawning a cube at a specific second.
You can also layer sound effects by adding an Audio track. In my project, I tied a heavy thud sound effect to play exactly when that cube spawns.
For smooth visual transitions, use a Fade track. It controls screen visibility, where 0 means the screen is fully visible and 1 means it is entirely black. Keyframing these values gives you professional fade-ins and fade-outs at the start or end of your cinematic.
How to trigger the cut scene via Blueprints?
For players to actually see your work in-game, you need to activate it through a Blueprint. I created a simple cut scene overlap Blueprint equipped with a trigger box so the scene plays when the player enters a specific area.
- Create a variable and set its type to Level Sequence.
- Check the Instance Editable box.
- Drag the variable into your Event Graph.
- Search for and add a Create Level Sequence Player node, connecting your variable to its input.
- Drag from the Return Value and add a Play node.
It didn’t work on my first attempt because I forgot to check the Instance Editable box, which meant I couldn’t assign my specific cut scene to the trigger box in the main level editor. Once I ticked that box, I just selected my sequence from the dropdown, and everything ran perfectly.
Conclusion
Working with the Sequencer is highly rewarding once you get the hang of the interface. By layering camera rigs, character animations, event triggers, and audio, you can produce highly engaging cinematics that elevate the quality of your entire game.
