UDK Cameras and Cinematics
Note: You should be familiar with using Kismet and Matinee prior to working with cameras in UDK. Please read the notes on the kismet and matinee page.
Creating Cameras In UDK
Create a camera by using the actor classes browser in UDK. Alternatively you can use the viewport menu, "add camera actor here" at the very bottom of the menu.
Go to kismet and create a matinee sequence. Make sure your camera is selected in the 3D view and go into the matinee sequence. Right click in the empty space at the lower left side of the matinee window and choose "Add new camera group". Give your group a name.
You will see that the group now has a movement track and a FOV track. You can set keys in these tracks using the usual animation methods , and by doing so, you can animate your camera.
Note: When you animate the camera, it's a good idea to animate it in "World Space" (or parented to another object).
Relative mode can cause problems. To Fix this, select the "Movement" track, right click on the track, and choose "world frame" rather than "relative to initial".
To See Through Your Camera and Control Editing And Camera Cuts
To control your cameras, you need to create a director group.
Right click in the black space on the lower left of the matinee window and use "New Director Group".
To create a "cut to the camera", first make sure you are on frame zero, and then click on the director groups track andpush enter to create a key which will activate the camera you want. Ensure you choose the right camera from the drop down list that appears.
You can look through your camera by clicking the director groups camera icon, just to the right of the text "Director Group".
Links:
- Gui gave us a link to a video about working with large UDK sized levels in Maya.
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xl5kJP02K0g
- See here for a useful tutorial on camera animation in UDK:
- http://maiev.net/wordpress/?p=374
- (Do *NOT* convert the images to jpeg as shown in the tutorial, doing so will cause a major quality loss.)