Cinematic Spline Tool

The Cinematic Spline Tool is a feature-rich spline-based cinematic camera system for Unreal Engine 5.7. Create stunning in-game cutscenes, flythroughs, and cinematic camera shots without touching Sequencer or complex Blueprints. Draw a spline path and the camera follows it automatically.

Created by StraySpark.

Key Features

Core (v1.0)

• Easy Setup -- No Sequencer or Blueprints required. Draw a spline, press Play.
• Smooth Cinematic Camera -- Professional-quality camera movement along spline paths with configurable interpolation.
• 3 Speed Modes -- Constant speed, duration-based, or custom speed curves with ease-in/out.
• 4 Rotation Modes -- Follow spline tangent, look-at target, fixed rotation, or custom Blueprint override.
• Look-At Targets -- Camera tracks a target actor with smooth rotation interpolation and optional movement prediction.
• FOV Animation -- Animate field of view along the spline path using inline curves.
• Depth of Field Animation -- Animate focus distance and aperture (f-stop) for cinematic bokeh.
• Camera Shake -- Add handheld camera shake effects during playback.
• Spline Chaining -- Chain multiple spline paths into sequences with cut or blend transitions.
• Trigger Volumes -- Auto-play cinematics when the player walks into a trigger area.
• Full Playback Control -- Play, Pause, Stop, Reverse, and Scrub from Blueprints or the editor Details panel.
• Camera Blending -- Smooth blend-in from the player camera and blend-out back to it.
• Editor Preview -- Play, pause, reverse, and scrub the cinematic directly in the editor viewport. No PIE required.
• Spline Presets -- 9 one-click preset shapes with configurable dimensions for rapid prototyping.
• Debug Visualization -- Camera frustums, direction arrows, and look-at lines drawn in the viewport.
• Blueprint-Friendly -- All properties exposed, all functions callable, all events bindable.
• Lightweight -- Tick-based movement with zero overhead when not playing.

New in v2.0

• Camera Collision / Avoidance -- Sphere trace collision avoidance prevents camera clipping through geometry.
• Dolly Zoom (Vertigo Effect) -- True Hitchcock dolly zoom with real-time FOV compensation based on distance.
• Perlin Noise Shake -- Procedural camera shake using Perlin noise (6-axis: positional + rotational).
• Post-Process Animation -- Animate exposure, vignette, bloom, saturation, and chromatic aberration along the path.
• Filmback Presets -- 17 real-world camera sensor presets (ARRI, RED, Sony, Canon, Blackmagic, iPhone, IMAX).
• Camera Confiner -- Constrain camera within a bounding volume or manual box extent.
• Auto-Dolly Tracking -- Camera automatically follows the nearest point on spline to a tracked target.
• Group Framing -- Multi-target FOV adjustment to keep all targets in frame simultaneously.
• Crane / Jib Arm -- Simulate crane arm movement with animated pitch and length curves.
• Priority Camera Switching -- Manager actor for priority-based virtual camera switching with blend transitions.
• Viewport Camera Capture -- Capture editor viewport camera as spline points (editor-only buttons).
• Custom Blend Easing -- 7 blend functions (Linear, EaseIn, EaseOut, EaseInOut, ExpoIn, ExpoOut, Custom Curve).
• Actor Attachment -- Attach spline path to moving actors with optional rotation following.
• Multiplayer Support -- Per-spline player index for split-screen and multiplayer camera control.

v2.0 Feature Summary

Feature	Type	Description
Camera Collision	Component	Sphere trace avoidance from level geometry
Dolly Zoom	PathActor Property	True Vertigo effect with FOV compensation
Perlin Noise Shake	Component	6-axis procedural shake (position + rotation)
Post-Process Animation	PathActor Curves	5 animated post-process curves
Filmback Presets	Utility + Enum	17 real camera sensor sizes
Camera Confiner	Component	Bounding volume camera clamping
Auto-Dolly	Component	Nearest-point target tracking
Group Framing	Component	Multi-target FOV adjustment
Crane Arm	Component	Crane/jib arm simulation
Camera Manager	Actor	Priority-based camera switching
Viewport Capture	Editor Utility	Capture viewport as spline points
Custom Blend Easing	PathActor Property	7 blend easing functions
Actor Attachment	PathActor Property	Attach to moving actors
Multiplayer	PathActor Property	Per-spline player index

Architecture

• Tick-based movement -- Camera position updates every frame via Actor Tick. Zero CPU cost when not playing (tick is disabled).
• CineCameraActor -- A real ACineCameraActor is spawned and managed for proper filmback settings, FOV, aperture, and focus distance.
• Component-based -- All v2.0 features are optional components. Mix and match as needed.
• Ordered Pipeline -- Components execute in a defined order ensuring correct layering (see Component Pipeline).
• Soft references -- Sequence segments use TSoftObjectPtr to avoid hard reference cycles.
• Inline curves -- FRuntimeFloatCurve for all curve properties, editable directly in the Details panel.

Component Pipeline

The PathActor's UpdateCameraPosition() applies optional components in this order:

1. Auto Dolly      - Override progress based on tracking target
2. Base Transform   - CameraController computes spline position + rotation
3. Crane Arm       - Offset camera from spline pivot point
4. Camera Confiner - Clamp position to bounds volume
5. Camera Collision - Sphere trace avoidance from geometry
6. Noise Shake     - Perlin noise offset (applied in camera-local space)
7. Apply to Camera - Set ManagedCineCamera location and rotation
8. FOV / Dolly Zoom / Group Framing - FOV computation and override
9. DOF             - Focus distance and aperture curves
10. Post-Process   - Exposure, vignette, bloom, saturation, chromatic aberration

All components are optional. They are discovered via FindComponentByClass<>() and only execute when their enable flag is true.

Module Structure

Module	Type	Description
CinematicSplineToolRuntime	Runtime	Core gameplay classes (15 headers, 14 sources). Ships with packaged builds.
CinematicSplineToolEditor	Editor	Detail customizations, viewport visualizers, viewport capture (4 headers, 4 sources). Editor only.

Dependencies

• Engine -- Core UE5 functionality
• CinematicCamera -- ACineCameraActor, UCineCameraComponent
• RenderCore -- Post-process settings
• UnrealEd (Editor only) -- Detail customization, component visualizers
• LevelEditor (Editor only) -- Viewport capture utilities

Requirements

• Unreal Engine 5.7
• C++ project (plugin contains C++ modules)
• Windows (developed and tested on Win64)

Next Steps

• Getting Started -- Installation and first spline path
• Camera Modes -- Speed modes, rotation modes, FOV, DOF, dolly zoom, and post-process
• Components -- All optional components in detail
• Examples -- Step-by-step walkthroughs for common scenarios
• API Reference -- Complete class and function reference