Composing A Scene in Unity for Cutscenes

Objective: learn how to use Cinemachine to create camera shots for cutscenes.

We can download Cinemachine from the package manager, and once it’s setup in the project, we can create virtual cameras using the Cinemachine menu at the top.

We can move a virtual camera around the scene, and the game view will match with what the camera is pointing at.

Ctrl-Shift-F will move the selected camera to match whatever is visible in the scene view. To easily move this virtual camera into the proper place, we can just look generally at the area we want to view, then use this hotkey.

For this cutscene, we want to move this camera so that it captures these characters according to this storyboard.

After adjusting the rotation and position of the camera, we can put the camera into the proper position to roughly match the above picture.

We’ll also want another virtual camera to capture the action from the other side of the desk.

We can switch between these shots by selecting a virtual camera and clicking the “solo” button.

This works by using this component that was automatically added to the scenes main camera. The main camera will momentarily match whichever virtual camera is selected, allowing us to adjust it or use it for the cutscene.