Working with Previsualisation Elements for Unity Cutscenes
At least as I understand it (as it relates to game development), working with previsualisation elements generally entails turning storyboards or director’s notes into scenes, environments, or cutscenes. These sketches and/or notes give us an idea of the kinds of shots we’ll need to compose in Unity, as well as some of the timings and movements required.
Creating these cutscenes will most likely require the work of 3D modellers and animators to prepare animated models to be imported and used in Unity. As developers, our work will be more in ‘blocking the scene’ (placing the actors and props accordingly), composing the shots (most likely using the Cinemachine package’s virtual cameras to position the main camera correctly), and getting the overall sequence, timings, and movements correct (particularly any movements the camera need to make, such as panning or zooming).
As mentioned in the previous article, the Cinemachine Timeline offers a great way of plotting out and scheduling audio, animations, and camera transitions in particular, and if the director’s notes specify the timings they’d like (e.g. ‘camera lingers over [the character’s] shoulder for 3 seconds’) then the Timeline makes it very easy for us to deliver cutscenes according to such specifications.
We can then organise these cutscenes, including the props, actors, virtual cameras, and even canvases, under a GameObject in the hierarchy. We can then activate and deactivate these accordingly, for instance when the player character enters a certain area, triggering the desired cutscene.
