Introduction to Timeline in Unity

Timeline in Unity is used to create cut-scenes and other scripted gameplay. This tutorial will cover getting timeline setup for a cut-scene. First you need to open the Timeline window form the Window menu go to Sequencing and select Timeline. It will open in the same panel as your Scene window.

It may be helpful to rearrange your windows so that you can see the Scene, Game, and Timeline windows all at the same time. Create your new timeline and save it in the your timeline folder.

For this project you do not need the Animator that it created for you so you can remove them from your Timeline and Cutscene object. The important component is the Playable Director which will allow us to start and control the cut-scene.

The next step is to add the Cinemachine Brain to the Timeline. This is done by creating a new object in Timeline, selecting Cinemachine.timeline and the Cinemachine Track. Then drag your Main Camera to the new Track. That will set your Cinemachine Brain.

Next change the time segments from Frames to Seconds by changing it in the Gear dropdown in the upper right corner of the Timeline window.

Now you need to add the camera shots to the timeline. Right click in the timeline area and select add Cinemachine Shot. You will then need to add your shot from the hierarchy to the Virtual Camera slot in the Inspector. You can also adjust how long it will stay on each shot by grabbing the end of it and sliding it to the left and right.

If you want you can overlap your shots. This will add a transition where the camera will pan from one location to the other.

Next, it is time to and back in the animation track. Assign Actors to it. Actors already has an Animator in it.

Next, add the animation clip by selecting the three dots to the right of the Animation Track and select Add From Animation Clip. Select your animation clip. Now you can adjust your cameras based off of the animation clip.

Now you can adjust your cameras based off of the animation clip. That will get you started with usingTimeline!

-Chris