Cutscene action

Cutscene topics
Cutscene Cutscene tutorial Cutscene actions Headtracking Play animation Animation list Cutscene effects VFX list Curve editor Cutscene objects Cutscene capture

Cutscene actions are applied to objects by adding them to generic tracks on the timeline.

Not all actions are applicable to all types of objects in a cutscene. The following table shows which actions are available with which objects:

Action	MASTER	Camera	Creature	Placeable	Sound	Light	VFX	Proxy
Active Camera	✓
Adjust For Player Height		✓
Animate Face			✓
Change Visibility			✓	✓		✓	✓	✓
Draw Weapon			✓
Headtracking			✓					✓
Jump to Stage Place			✓	✓				✓
Jump to Stage Camera		✓
Link to Actor		✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Orientation Follows Curve		✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Play Animation		✓	✓	✓			✓	✓
Play Bink Movie	✓
Set Fog	✓
Set Gore			✓
Shake (Orientation)		✓	✓	✓				✓
Shake (Position)		✓	✓	✓				✓
Skip Marker	✓
Snap to Walkmesh		✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Speak Line	✓		✓	✓				✓
Toggle Physics			✓	✓				✓

The camera target object () does not support any actions.

Active Camera

While a cutscene can have many cameras, obviously only one camera can be active at any one time.

The MASTER object has an "Active Camera" track. To switch to a specific camera first move the timeline marker to the point where the camera cut is to take place. Then add a “Switch Camera” action to the track.

The next step is to set which camera the scene is supposed to cut to. In the Object Inspector there is a Camera field. This lists all of the placed cameras. Simply select the desired camera.

Adjust For Player Height

This action is applicable to cameras only, and is only available when a stage is set for the cutscene.

!!Confirm that this action simply move the camera up or down along the vertical axis depending on character height!!

⊟	General
	End Time	The time that the action ends
	Infinite	If true this action extends on forever. It never ends.
	Start Time	The time that the action begins

Animate Face

Applies a FaceFX facial performance to an actor's face. The FaceFX performance is in an FXA file. This action is useful mainly if you want control over a character's facial expression but don't have dialogue for them to say with a "Speak Line" action while doing it.

Facial animations don't play for creatures that haven't had a pose set.

⊟	General
	End Time	The time that the action ends
	Infinite	If true this action extends on forever. It never ends.
	Start Time	The time that the action begins
⊟	Animate Face
	FA Head Movement	Whether the associated FaceFX will move the actor's head. Can be set to face, head, or lips.
	FXA Override	The FXA that will be used to play the FaceFX.
	String ID	The string ID associated with the FaceFX animation.

Change Visibility

Allows actors to be set visible or invisible as the cutscene progresses.

⊟	General
	End Time	The time that the action ends
	Infinite	If true this action extends on forever. It never ends.
	Start Time	The time that the action begins
⊟	Visibility
	Visible	Whether the actor is visible or invisible at this time.

Draw Weapon

Sets whether the actor has its equipped weapons drawn. The main hand and off hand can be set independently.

⊟	General
	End Time	The time that the action ends
	Infinite	If true this action extends on forever. It never ends.
	Start Time	The time that the action begins
⊟	Weapons
	Main Drawn	Whether the actor's main weapon is drawn at this time.
	Off Drawn	Whether the actor's off weapon is drawn at this time.

Headtracking

See Headtracking for more details.

This action causes the actor to turn its head toward a target. Headtracking behavior can be a suprisingly complex problem in some circumstances. There are many competing factors, and it's the type of thing that has to just "look right" but its hard to come up with rules for.

Jump to Stage Place

Only available if the cutscene has its stage property set.

⊟	General
	End Time	The time that the action ends
	Infinite	If true this action extends on forever. It never ends.
	Start Time	The time that the action begins
⊟	Stage Place
	Look At	A stage place to turn the actor's entire body to face. If empty the actor faces the default direction for the place.
	Place Tag	The tag of the place in the stage to jump to.

Jump to Stage Camera

Only available if the cutscene has its stage property set.

⊟	General
	End Time	The time that the action ends
	Infinite	If true this action extends on forever. It never ends.
	Start Time	The time that the action begins
⊟	Stage Camera
	Default Camera	If false the tag is the tag of the stage camera to jump to. If true the tag is the tag of the stage place whose default camera will be used.
	Tag	Normally the tag of the camera in the stage to jump to. If "Default Camera" is true, however, it represents the tag of the place whose default camera will be used.

Link to Actor

⊟	General
	End Time	The time that the action ends
	Infinite	If true this action extends on forever. It never ends.
	Start Time	The time that the action begins
⊟	Link Target
	Actor	The actor to link to.
	Node	The specific node on the actor to link to.
	Use Offset	If false this actor will link directly to the target node. If true it will use the target node as its origin, and its position and orientation keys will be offset from it. When using "Use Offset" you will need to add Bracketing Keys to the actor.

Orientation Follows Curve

While this action is enabled, the orientation of the object is overridden so that it faces "forward" along the object's position curve. For example, a moving arrow will automatically point in the direction of its flight, and a walking man will face in the direction he's moving.

⊟	General
	End Time	The time that the action ends
	Infinite	If true this action extends on forever. It never ends.
	Start Time	The time that the action begins

Play Animation

See play animation for full details.

Playing single animations on objects is very simple — all that needs to be done is a Play Animation action is assigned, and an animation is chosen. There are also more complex options that allow the user to blend two or more animations together.

Play Bink Movie

⊟	General
	End Time	The time that the action ends
	Infinite	If true this action extends on forever. It never ends.
	Start Time	The time that the action begins
⊟	Movie
	Movie	The bink movie (*.bik) to play

Set Fog

⊟	General
	End Time	The time that the action ends
	Infinite	If true this action extends on forever. It never ends.
	Start Time	The time that the action begins
⊟	Fog
	Fog Cap	The maximum amount of fog.
	Fog intensity	The intensity of the fog.
	Fog Max Color	The color of the fog.
	Fog Override Enabled	If true the other properties of this action will override the level's fog settings. If false the fog settings will return to the default for the level.
	Vertical Fog Zenith	The vertical fog zenith.

Set Gore

⊟	General
	End Time	The time that the action ends
	Infinite	If true this action extends on forever. It never ends.
	Start Time	The time that the action begins
⊟	Gore
	Gore

Shake (Orientation)

The Shake (Orientation) action has three curves that can be edited with the curve editor; YawStrength, PitchStrength, and RollStrength.

⊟	General
	End Time	The time that the action ends
	Start Time	The time that the action starts
⊟	Keyable
	Pitch Strength	The amplitude of the noise in pitch
	Roll Strength	The amplitude of the noise in roll
	Yaw Strength	The amplitude of the noise in yaw
⊟	Noise
	Correlated	If true, points on the curve affect their neighbors. This leads to a much more muted noise.
	Frequency	The frequency of the noise. Larger frequencies will lead ot faster change.
	Roughness	Affects how rough fractal noise is. It affects the number of noise layers.
	Seed	The random seed for the noise. Changing this value will give a different set of random noise.
	Type	The type of noise. White noise is pure random noise. Smooth noise uses the frequency to create a relatively smooth random curve. Fractal noise generates multiple levels of noise which makes the noise fairly smooth, but more organic.
⊟	Transition
	Ramp In	During the ramp in time the amplitude of the noise will rise from 0 to the value set. This takes place at the beginning of the action.
	Ramp Out	During the ramp out time the amplitude of the noise will fall from the value set to 0. This takes place at the end of the action.

Shake (Position)

The Shake (Position) action has three curves that can be edited with the curve editor; XStrength, YStrength, and ZStrength.

⊟	General
	End Time	The time that the action ends
	Start Time	The time that the action starts
⊟	Keyable
	X Strength	The amplitude of the noise in the X direction
	Y Strength	The amplitude of the noise in the Y direction
	Z Strength	The amplitude of the noise in Z direction
⊟	Noise
	Correlated	If true, points on the curve affect their neighbors. This leads to a much more muted noise.
	Frequency	The frequency of the noise. Larger frequencies will lead ot faster change.
	Roughness	Affects how rough fractal noise is. It affects the number of noise layers.
	Seed	The random seed for the noise. Changing this value will give a different set of random noise.
	Type	The type of noise. White noise is pure random noise. Smooth noise uses the frequency to create a relatively smooth random curve. Fractal noise generates multiple levels of noise which makes the noise fairly smooth, but more organic.
⊟	Transition
	Ramp In	During the ramp in time the amplitude of the noise will rise from 0 to the value set. This takes place at the beginning of the action.
	Ramp Out	During the ramp out time the amplitude of the noise will fall from the value set to 0. This takes place at the end of the action.

Skip Marker

⊟	General
	End Time	The time that the action ends
	Infinite	If true this action extends on forever. It never ends.
	Start Time	The time that the action begins

Snap to Walkmesh

Forces the object's vertical position to the walkmesh. Useful for moving an object so that it follows the terrain automatically.

⊟	General
	End Time	The time that the action ends
	Infinite	If true this action extends on forever. It never ends.
	Start Time	The time that the action begins

Speak Line

Causes a line of dialogue to be spoken. The line of dialogue is taken from an existing conversation resource and includes text, voice-over, and FaceFX facial performance.

Narration without an in-scene source can be assigned to the MASTER object.

If all of the lines in a cutscene come from a single conversation resource (a common approach to organizing cutscene conversation), you might find it efficient to copy and paste an existing speak line action when adding new lines. This allows you to avoid having to select the same conversation manually for each new line.

⊟	General
	End Time	The time that the action ends
	Infinite	If true this action extends on forever. It never ends.
	Start Time	The time that the action begins
⊟	Speak Line
	FA Head Movement	Whether the associated FaceFX will move the actor's head. Can be set to face, head, or lips.
	No VO In Game	If true the game will not expect VO for this line. Instead it will just display the caption.
	Source Conversation	The conversation that the line comes from.
	Source Line	The line within the source conversation that's to be spoken.
	text	The text that will be spoken.

Toggle Physics

⊟	General
	End Time	The time that the action ends
	Infinite	If true this action extends on forever. It never ends.
	Start Time	The time that the action begins
⊟	Physics Switches
	Cloth	Whether cloth physics should be applied to the object at this time.