My journey becoming a Unity game developer: Game Over Cutscene-Positioning the Full and Overhead shot cameras

Objective: Creating and positioning the Full Shot and Overhead Shot virtual cameras.

Full and Overhead shots created and positioned to be animated.

Start by dragging the Captured Cutscene actors in the Scene View. Position them in the middle of the floor between the second and third columns.

Placed actors for the Game Over Cutscene into the scene.

Create an Empty Game Object name Game_Over_Cutscene which will hold all of the actors, virtual cameras, Canvas to show the fade in and fade out effects, and other game objects that will make up the cutscene. Rename the Captured Cutscene to Actors which will represent the actors performing in the cutscene, and drag the Actors into the Game Over Cutscene.

Game Over Cutscene object created with Actors inside.

When we press the Play button, we will see the animation for the Game Over Cutscene performed. We will use 2 virtual cameras positioned according to the Director’s storyboard to shoot these actors performing the Game Over scene.

Actors performing the game over scene.

Looking at the storyboard of the Director, they want the 1st shot positioned from floor level eyesight with the guards surrounding Darren. The 2nd shot is positioned overhead with Darren in the center of the guards.

Director’s notes for the Captured cutscene.

Create a new virtual camera from Cinemachine->Create Virtual Camera, and name it CM Full Shot.

Virtual camera created and renamed.

To see the grid on the game screen, inside the Cinemachine Virtual Camera component use Composer for Aim. Instead of using the Look At setting to look at one particular character, we will create an empty game object name Full_Shot_LookAt to focus on. Drag Full Shot Look At into the Actors game object inside the Game Over Cutscene object. Then place Full Shot Look At in the Look At setting slot.

Game object used for virtual camera to Look At when animating this scene.

We will place the Full Shot Look At game object between Darren and the guard behind him to keep that position the focal point for the virtual camera to look at.

Full Shot Look At game object positioned for virtual camera to look at.

Inside the CM Full Shot object, we will adjust the Dead and Soft Zones to position the virtual camera to capture the actors according to the zones. We’re not focusing on one character or the Full Shot Look At object, but instead all the characters in this scene. Turn OFF the Center On Activate because we want to shift the Dead Zone just enough to see all the Actors in the scene when we animate this virtual camera. Use the Tracked Object Offset X, Y, and Z axis to move the Dead Zone into a position that captures all of the Actors in the scene according to the Director’s notes.

Full Shot virtual camera positioned using Dead and Soft Zones.

Create a 2nd virtual camera and name it CM OverHead Shot. Make sure the Transform positions are set to zero. Then in Scene View, set the view to look down from above the characters. When the position is set, either press CTRL+SHIFT+F or lock the Inspector and go to GameObject->Align with View.

Over Head Shot virtual camera created and positioned.

Once again to see the Dead and Soft Zone grid, click on the CM OverHead Shot object. Under the Aim setting select Composer, and inside the Actors object drag Darren into the Look At slot. Turn OFF the Center On Activate and adjust the zones to get all of the actors into the Soft Zone view according to the Director’s notes.

Over head shot with Dead and Soft Zones adjusted for the scene.

This is the final position of the OverHead virtual camera shot that we will animate moving towards the ceiling as the Director’s notes described.