Use this skill when working with Sequencer, LevelSequence, cutscene, cinematic, camera, movie scene, sequencer event, or Movie Render Queue in Unreal Engine. See references/sequencer-patterns.md for dialogue cutscene, in-game camera, and scripted event patterns. For animation playback, see ue-animat

UE Sequencer and Cinematics Target engine: UE 5.8 . APIs below are verified against the 5.8 headers; older forms are listed under "Deprecated — do not use". Sequencer spans three runtime modules plus a plugin. MovieScene holds the data model and the player base class, MovieSceneTracks holds the concrete track and section types, LevelSequence holds the asset, actor, player and director, and CinematicCamera holds the cine camera and camera rigs. Offline rendering lives in the Movie Render Queue plugin ( MovieRenderPipelineCore for runtime, MovieRenderPipelineEditor for the editor queue UI); it is disabled by default and must be enabled in the .uproject . Context Read .agents/ue project context.md if it exists (module names, conventions, enabled plugins, GAS/networking setup). Do not stop if it is missing. Identify the area from the request and the codebase. Ask only when two plausible readings would produce different code. Request is about… Go to Which modules to add to Build.cs [Build.cs Modules]( buildcs modules) What C++ can do at runtime vs editor only [Runtime vs Editor]( runtime vs editor) Starting, stopping, seeking, looping a sequence [Playing a Level Sequence]( playing a level sequence) Pointing sequence tracks at gameplay actors [Binding Actors at Runtime]( binding actors at runtime) Calling C++ from a key on the timeline [Sequencer Event Tracks]( sequencer event tracks) Tracks, sections, sub sequences, frame math [MovieScene Data Model]( moviescene data model) Cine camera setup, focus, rails and cranes [Cine Cameras and Camera Rigs]( cine cameras and camera rigs) Rendering frames or video to disk [Movie Render Graph]( movie render graph) Full worked cutscene, multiplayer and rig examples [Sequencer runtime patterns](references/sequencer patterns.md) Build.cs Modules Runtime vs Editor Authoring a sequence is an editor operation. Shipping game code plays and re binds sequences; it does not build them. Task API Availability Play, stop, seek, set play rate UMovieSceneSequencePlayer Runtime Override which actors a binding resolves to ALevelSequenceActor::SetBinding Runtime Read tracks, bindings, frame rates UMovieScene getters, UMovieSceneSequence::GetMovieScene Runtime Call C++ from the timeline ULevelSequenceDirector subclass Runtime Queue and run a render UMoviePipelineQueueEngineSubsystem ( UEngineSubsystem ) Runtime Add actors, cameras, spawnables to a sequence ULevelSequenceEditorSubsystem ( UEditorSubsystem ) Editor only Scripted track/section creation and keying UMovieSceneSequenceExtensions (Runtime module of the Beta SequencerScripting plugin) Editor scripting — mutates assets Register a custom track editor ISequencerModule::RegisterTrackEditor Editor only Drive the Movie Render Queue window UMoviePipelineQueueSubsystem ( UEditorSubsystem ) Editor only UMovieScene::AddTrack and UMovieSceneSubTrack::AddSequence do compile into runtime builds, but they mutate the sequence asset. Call them only from editor tooling or commandlets — a cooked ULevelSequence must not be edited in a shipped game. Playing a Level Sequence From a placed ALevelSequenceActor Useful ALevelSequenceActor members: PlaybackSettings , LevelSequenceAsset , BindingOverrides , DefaultInstanceData , bOverrideInstanceData , bReplicatePlayback , GetSequence() , SetSequence() , SetReplicatePlayback() . Auto play is PlaybackSettings.bAutoPlay ; the actor's own bAutoPlay field no longer exists. AReplicatedLevelSequenceActor is a subclass that is always net relevant. Spawning a player at runtime Playback control EUpdatePositionMethod is Play , Jump or Scrub . FMovieSceneSequencePlaybackParams has constructors taking FFrameTime , float seconds, an FString marked frame name, or an FTimecode . Delegates OnFinished fires only when playback ends naturally (a natural end fires OnStop too); an explicit Stop() fires only OnStop . Bind before Play() . Binding Actors at Runtime A possessable resolves to an actor that already exists in the level. A spawnable is created and destroyed by the sequence itself. Possessables outlive the sequence; spawnables do not. Runtime overrides apply to possessables. Tag the object binding in the Sequencer editor (right click the binding, then Tags), and override by tag from C++ — tags survive re binding, GUIDs do not. FMovieSceneObjectBindingID keeps its guid and sequence id private. Read them with GetGuid() , GetRelativeSequenceID() and IsFixedBinding() ; move an ID across a sub sequence hierarchy with ResolveToFixed() , then ConvertToRelative() on the resulting UE::MovieScene::FFixedObjectBindingID ( ConvertToRelative is not a member of FMovieSceneObjectBindingID , MovieSceneObjectBindingID.h:113 160,341 ). Never assign the fields directly. Relocating a whole sequence ALevelSequenceActor implements IMovieScenePlaybackClient::GetInstanceData . Set bOverrideInstanceData and supply a UDefaultLevelSequenceInstanceData to offset every absolute transform section, so one authored cutscene can play anywhere in the world. Sequencer Event Tracks An event key does not call a loose global function. FMovieSceneEvent stores a compiled UFunction pointer, and the evaluation system calls it on the sequence's director instance — an object of the class in ULevelSequence::DirectorClass , which derives from ULevelSequenceDirector . The UFUNCTION must therefore be a member of a ULevelSequenceDirector subclass or of its Director Blueprint. Rules the engine enforces: MovieSceneEvent.h:70 — the endpoint takes no parameters, or exactly one pass by value object/interface parameter , and returns nothing. When the event track sits under an object binding, the bound object arrives as that single parameter. On a root track, a parameterless endpoint runs once on the director; an endpoint with the object parameter runs once per global event context ( MovieSceneEventSystems.cpp:206 213 ). ULevelSequencePlayer::GetEventContexts returns the persistent level's ALevelScriptActor plus one per streaming level — not the UWorld . In a non game world (the Sequencer preview), the event is skipped unless the UFUNCTION carries CallInEditor . To attach it: open the Level Sequence, open its Director Blueprint from the Sequencer toolbar, and reparent that Blueprint to UMyCinematicDirector (Class Settings, Parent Class). Sequencer compiles the Blueprint into ULevelSequence::DirectorClass ; one director instance is created per sequence during evaluation, and ULevelSequenceDirector::Player points at the owning player. ULevelSequenceDirector also exposes GetBoundObject , GetBoundActor , GetBoundActors , GetSequence , GetCurrentTime , GetRootSequenceTime and a BlueprintImplementableEvent OnCreated . The track classes involved are UMovieSceneEventTrack (with bFireEventsWhenForwards ), UMovieSceneEventTriggerSection for one shot keys and UMovieSceneEventRepeaterSection for a key that fires on every pass. Seeking with EUpdatePositionMethod::Jump skips every event in between; use PlayTo when the events must fire. MovieScene Data Model Track class ( MovieSceneTracks ) Animates UMovieScene3DTransformTrack Actor and component transforms UMovieSceneSkeletalAnimationTrack Skeletal mesh animation UMovieSceneCameraCutTrack Which camera the viewport uses UMovieSceneEventTrack Director function calls UMovieSceneAudioTrack Sound assets UMovieSceneFadeTrack Screen fade UMovieScenePropertyTrack Base class for property animation UMovieScenePropertyTrack subclasses drive a named UPROPERTY marked Interp : UMovieSceneFloatTrack produces UMovieSceneFloatSection , which stores an FMovieSceneFloatChannel ; UMovieSceneBoolTrack and UMovieSceneColorTrack follow the same shape. UMovieSceneSubTrack and UMovieSceneSubSection live in MovieScene , not MovieSceneTracks . Sub section offsets and durations are in tick resolution frames, not display rate frames. UE::MovieScene::DiscreteSize , DiscreteInclusiveLower and DiscreteExclusiveUpper in MovieSceneTimeHelpers.h turn a TRange<FFrameNumber into frame counts. Cine Cameras and Camera Rigs This section covers cameras a sequence drives. Gameplay cameras, camera modifiers, camera shakes and view target blending belong to ue gameplay cameras . CurrentFocusDistance and CurrentHorizontalFOV are read only; query the field of view with GetHorizontalFieldOfView() and GetVerticalFieldOfView() . Presets go through SetFilmbackPresetByName , SetLensPresetByName and SetCropPresetByName . Attach a camera to a rig and key the rig's Interp properties in Sequencer instead of hand animating the camera transform: Both rigs override GetDefaultAttachComponent() , so attaching the camera as a child puts it on the correct mount. Movie Render Graph Movie Render Graph is production ready in 5.8 and is the path to prefer for new work. A UMovieGraphConfig is a node graph of UMovieGraphNode subclasses ( UMovieGraphSettingNode for settings, UMovieGraphRenderPassNode for passes, UMovieGraphGlobalOutputSettingNode for resolution and output paths); UMovieGraphPipeline executes it through Initialize(UMoviePipelineExecutorJob , const FMovieGraphInitConfig&) . Runtime rendering goes through UMoviePipelineQueueEngineSubsystem , a UEngineSubsystem in MovieRenderPipelineCore . The editor facing UMoviePipelineQueueSubsystem is a UEditorSubsystem in MovieRenderPipelineEditor and cannot be referenced from runtime code — doing so breaks a packaged build. AllocateJob clears the queue, so it renders exactly one job; for a batch call GetQueue() AllocateNewJob(UMoviePipelineExecutorJob::StaticClass()) per job and then RenderQueueWithExecutor(UMoviePipelineInProcessExecutor::StaticClass()) . Custom executors subclass UMoviePipelineExecutorBase (override Execute Implementation and IsRendering Implementation ) or UMoviePipelineLinearExecutorBase , which already walks the queue and leaves Start(const UMoviePipelineExecutorJob ) to you. Render layers are a world feature: UMovieGraphRenderLayerSubsystem is a UWorldSubsystem reached with UMovieGraphRenderLayerSubsystem::GetFromWorld(World) , holding UMovieGraphRenderLayer objects. Add modifiers with UMovieGraphRenderLayer::AddLayerModifier(UMovieGraphModifierBase ) , read them with GetLayerModifiers() (Blueprint only — not exported from the MinimalAPI class, Graph/MovieGraphRenderLayerSubsystem.h:1216 ), drop them with RemoveLayerModifier() , and switch layers with SetActiveRenderLayerByName or ClearActiveRenderLayer . Legacy Movie Render Queue — still shipped and supported, but not the default for new graphs. UMoviePipeline is the executing object, configured by a UMoviePipelinePrimaryConfig holding UMoviePipelineSetting objects, reached with FindOrAddSettingByClass / FindSettingByClass . UMoviePipelineOutputSetting lives in MovieRenderPipelineCore ( OutputDirectory , FileNameFormat , OutputResolution , bUseCustomFrameRate , OutputFrameRate , ZeroPadFrameNumbers ); the passes and containers ( UMoviePipelineDeferredPassBase , UMoviePipelineImageSequenceOutput PNG , UMoviePipelineImageSequenceOutput EXR ) live in MovieRenderPipelineRenderPasses , which must be added to Build.cs separately. A job is either graph configured ( SetGraphPreset , IsUsingGraphConfiguration() ) or legacy configured ( SetConfiguration , IsUsingBasicConfiguration() ) — never both. DaySequence (Experimental in 5.8) builds on MovieScene for time of day; it is a separate asset type and the APIs above do not transfer to it unchanged.

ue-sequencer-cinematics