Greetings to you from the Epic Cinematics Team! Today we’re launching the first of our tutorials on using Matinee – our dedicated cinematics tool in Unreal Engine 4. Through the production of 11 game titles and numerous visual demos at Epic, we’ve shaped the design and function of Matinee and it has progressed into the mature tool it is today. It’s simple enough to handle basic animation and object paths, yet very powerful in creating complex scenes such as Elemental or Infiltrator. The best part is that Matinee isn’t an add-on. It’s available right now, in UE4!
There’s a lot covered in this first introduction of the tool, but it should be just enough to get you started. First we’ll teach you some basics about the Matinee interface and how it works. You’ll then learn how to connect objects to Matinee, animate their movement over time, and view everything through a cinematic camera. Finally, we’ll show you how to view and play the sequence through connections in Blueprint.
We’re just scratching the surface with this tutorial and our team has much to share from years of working with Matinee. We’ll follow up very soon with some additional tips and tricks we’ve used along the way. Plus, there’s already a lot of great reference for Matinee in the Unreal Engine 4 Documentation: https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/Matinee/index.html
And remember, if you have any specific questions about Matinee, head over to the UE4 forums or hit me up on Twitter at @MediaSig. The Epic Cinematics Team and others are here to help and provide answers. Enjoy the tutorial and we look forward to your feedback!