Search Unity

  1. Megacity Metro Demo now available. Download now.
    Dismiss Notice
  2. Unity support for visionOS is now available. Learn more in our blog post.
    Dismiss Notice

Cinema Director [RELEASED]

Discussion in 'Assets and Asset Store' started by harrington, Jul 21, 2014.

  1. harrington

    harrington

    Joined:
    Jul 10, 2012
    Posts:
    43
    Looks cool, I like the cartoon aesthetic. I'm not sure the scale of the project, but it would be interesting to have the "backdrop" be static like a real play.
     
  2. Ludo97

    Ludo97

    Joined:
    Dec 9, 2015
    Posts:
    121
    Hello, for the kinematics , it is possible to use MotionBuilder and then take the stage and film with CinemaDirector for the kinematic sequence ?

    How to trigger a cinematic sequence when my player has arrived somewhere and then regain control of the player ?
     
  3. DanoG

    DanoG

    Joined:
    Dec 13, 2013
    Posts:
    97
    hi Ludo - can you please clarify what you mean by Kinematic sequence? This can mean many things. If you email us - support@cinema-suite.com we can open a discussion about what you are looking to achieve.

    Thanks!
     
  4. jdraper3

    jdraper3

    Joined:
    May 28, 2015
    Posts:
    117
    Bought this asset a while back and haven't had a chance to test it out until now, but I'm having a problem.

    With the latest version of the asset and the latest stable Unity, I get massive CPU usage with the director window open. Unity slows to a crawl (1fps in the editor) and I can barely even move the director window (if I drag, it might pop into the new position 3 seconds later). Once I close the director window, everything is fine. I've tried creating shots first then opening the director, opening the director and creating a shot from there (which takes about 10 seconds), but no luck no matter what I try. Any ideas?

    PS: There are no errors or warnings in the console either.
     
  5. harrington

    harrington

    Joined:
    Jul 10, 2012
    Posts:
    43
    Can you let me know the version numbers for both Director and Unity? I do not think we have had complaints about this before, so I would like to re-create it if possible. We do have to re-draw the window, so it is possible to lower the refresh rate. Here is something you can try: Open DirectorWindow.cs, find a variable called FRAME_LIMITER on line 60. Update the value from 1 / 60 to something like 1 / 10. Let me know if that improves anything.
     
  6. jdraper3

    jdraper3

    Joined:
    May 28, 2015
    Posts:
    117
    Cinema Diector version is 1.4.4.0
    Unity version is 5.3.2f1

    This issue seems to have resolved itself - opened the project today and everything is normal. If it happens again, I will try to narrow down what the trigger might be. Thanks!
     
  7. magique

    magique

    Joined:
    May 2, 2014
    Posts:
    4,030
    Was Playmaker support ever added? I would be interested in a way to trigger cutscenes from Playmaker.
     
  8. casperjeff

    casperjeff

    Joined:
    Apr 13, 2013
    Posts:
    333
    AHHHG.
    Love the product so far...has saved me countless hours of hand writing code to script events/
    Running into issue I don't see anyone else having, however - trying to use 'Enable Behavior" in a MultiActor track group. Any time I go to see/edit the options to pick a behavior/component, I get an editor error
    I can steer around the issue by using a bunch of different Actor Tracks instead ..but that is painful.
    I am using the latest version of the asset.
    Any help would be appreciated!!
     
  9. DanoG

    DanoG

    Joined:
    Dec 13, 2013
    Posts:
    97
  10. magique

    magique

    Joined:
    May 2, 2014
    Posts:
    4,030
  11. BLourenco

    BLourenco

    Joined:
    Apr 4, 2014
    Posts:
    5
    Hey Casperjeff,

    I was able to recreate the bug you described and will be looking into a fix.

    - Brandon (a new member of the Cinema Suite team)
     
  12. ksam2

    ksam2

    Joined:
    Apr 28, 2012
    Posts:
    1,079
    I'm new with this asset. before I start I have a question. my game based on dialogue selection choice and what I need is to stop the cutscene and resume it again after selecting a dialogue, so can I resume Cutscenes with a condition?
     
  13. Tiny-Tree

    Tiny-Tree

    Joined:
    Dec 26, 2012
    Posts:
    1,314
    a simple way to do this is split your cutscene and resume from where you want
     
  14. Carpe-Denius

    Carpe-Denius

    Joined:
    May 17, 2013
    Posts:
    842
    Is it possible to insert negative rotational values?
     
  15. EpicIndustries

    EpicIndustries

    Joined:
    Sep 28, 2014
    Posts:
    32
    Hi there. Great asset, it's working really nicely for us.

    I have a couple of questions:

    1) Is it possible to set the rotation of a transform without using a curve? I see Transform > Set Position but not Set Rotation (just a look at, but I'd rather set an exact rotation). For now I just have a curve with the same begin and end values, but that's a bit fiddly.

    2) Is there any way in code I can check if a cut scene has completed?

    3) Is there any way to start a cut scene running in code? Currently I just enable the game object which contains the cut scene with a trigger on start when I want to play it.

    Thanks!
     
  16. jdraper3

    jdraper3

    Joined:
    May 28, 2015
    Posts:
    117
    There isn't anything out of the box (at least not that I've ever seen) but you can do it really easily by adding a custom action:

    Code (csharp):
    1. using UnityEngine;
    2. namespace CinemaDirector
    3. {
    4.     /// <summary>
    5.     /// Sets the object's rotation.
    6.     /// </summary>
    7.     [CutsceneItemAttribute("Transform", "Set Rotation", CutsceneItemGenre.ActorItem)]
    8.     public class SetRotationEvent : CinemaActorEvent
    9.     {
    10.         public Vector3 Rotation;
    11.         public override void Trigger(GameObject actor)
    12.         {
    13.             if (actor != null)
    14.             {
    15.                 actor.transform.eulerAngles = Rotation;
    16.             }
    17.         }
    18.         public override void Reverse(GameObject actor)
    19.         {
    20.         }
    21.     }
    22. }
     
  17. BLourenco

    BLourenco

    Joined:
    Apr 4, 2014
    Posts:
    5
    We have a CutsceneFinished event that you can subscribe to:

    Code (csharp):
    1.  
    2. using UnityEngine;
    3. using CinemaDirector;
    4. using System.Collections;
    5.  
    6. public class TestCutsceneFinished : MonoBehaviour {
    7.  
    8.     public Cutscene cs;
    9.  
    10.     void Start () {
    11.        cs.CutsceneFinished += Test;
    12.     }
    13.  
    14.     void Test(object sender, CutsceneEventArgs e)
    15.     {
    16.         Debug.Log("Cutscene Finished.");
    17.     }
    18. }
    19.  
    If you have a reference to the cutscene, you should be able to simply call the Play() function on it.
     
  18. EpicIndustries

    EpicIndustries

    Joined:
    Sep 28, 2014
    Posts:
    32
    I figured out #2 on my own in the end. That's the perfect solution thanks! Too many assets just have some sort of "isPlaying" attribute which you have to poll. Loving the subscriber model.


    I didn't know custom actions existed, this asset just got even better, thanks!
     
  19. Simmo76

    Simmo76

    Joined:
    Oct 17, 2012
    Posts:
    31
    Hi all,

    I'm new to Cinema Suite - but I use Jasper Stocker's camera path tool for a lot of my current work. I have 2 questions:

    1. Is there a simple way to integrate CameraPath with Cinema Director?
    2. Are there any similar tools available in Cinema Suite?

    Any help would be appreciated.

    Thanks!
     
    Last edited: Jun 5, 2016
  20. BLourenco

    BLourenco

    Joined:
    Apr 4, 2014
    Posts:
    5
    I answered your post on our forums, but I'll copy/paste my answer here as well:

    Not sure how simple/complex it would be to integrate Cinema Director with CameraPath, but you can smoothly move and rotate your cameras using curve clips. It doesn't show the path in the scene though, unfortunately. That being said, we have been wanting to implement something like this into Director, so you may see it in future versions.
     
  21. shwa

    shwa

    Joined:
    Apr 9, 2012
    Posts:
    461
    Hi,

    Does CD now allow for camera waypoints to be dropped into a scene?

    Meaning, drop points in 3d space for the camera to follow?
    Imo, would be very useful.

    There was talk of this potentially being implemented about a year or two ago.

    thanks.
     
  22. Hash-Buoy

    Hash-Buoy

    Joined:
    Jan 4, 2014
    Posts:
    33
    Hey,

    I need to call some script functions from the timeline.
    For example unity's animation clip events , where you add an event and then select the script function.
    Is this possible ?? Else is there any work around to get this done.
    It will be very helpful.

    Thanks.
     
  23. lloydsummers

    lloydsummers

    Joined:
    May 17, 2013
    Posts:
    350
    Posting this here to hopefully help the next person.

    Symptoms:
    Install Cinema Director
    Open the Director - everything is normal
    Add a Cutscene, the Director scene can't be closed, stays blank, and you see the following error in the Console:
    ReflectionTypeLoadException: The classes in the module cannot be loaded.

    ReflectionTypeLoadException: The classes in the module cannot be loaded.
    System.Reflection.Assembly.GetTypes () (at /Users/builduser/buildslave/mono/build/mcs/class/corlib/System.Reflection/Assembly.cs:371)
    CinemaSuite.Common.ReflectionHelper.GetTypes (System.Reflection.Assembly assembly) (at Assets/Cinema Suite/Cinema Director/System/Common/Reflection/ReflectionHelper.cs:67)
    CinemaDirector.DirectorRuntimeHelper.GetAllSubTypes (System.Type ParentType) (at Assets/Cinema Suite/Cinema Director/System/Runtime/Helpers/DirectorRuntimeHelper.cs:125)
    CinemaDirector.DirectorRuntimeHelper.GetAllowedTrackTypes (CinemaDirector.TrackGroup trackGroup) (at Assets/Cinema Suite/Cinema Director/System/Runtime/Helpers/DirectorRuntimeHelper.cs:36)
    CinemaDirector.TrackGroup.GetAllowedTrackTypes () (at Assets/Cinema Suite/Cinema Director/System/Runtime/TrackGroups/Base/TrackGroup.cs:211)
    CinemaDirector.TrackGroup.GetTracks () (at Assets/Cinema Suite/Cinema Director/System/Runtime/TrackGroups/Base/TrackGroup.cs:185)
    DirectorHelper.CreateWrapper (CinemaDirector.Cutscene cutscene) (at Assets/Cinema Suite/Cinema Director/System/Editor/Utility/DirectorHelper.cs:239)
    DirectorHelper.UpdateWrapper (CinemaDirector.Cutscene cutscene, .CutsceneWrapper wrapper) (at Assets/Cinema Suite/Cinema Director/System/Editor/Utility/DirectorHelper.cs:20)
    DirectorWindow.OnGUI () (at Assets/Cinema Suite/Cinema Director/System/Editor/DirectorWindow.cs:314)
    System.Reflection.MonoMethod.Invoke (System.Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, System.Reflection.Binder binder, System.Object[] parameters, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture) (at /Users/builduser/buildslave/mono/build/mcs/class/corlib/System.Reflection/MonoMethod.cs:222)

    Cause
    Cinema Director goes through your project, selects every EXE and DLL. It then assumes the file is an assembly, and loads it as such and does not validate if the load was successful. It will continually try to these assemblies if an error occurs in the process. And without a try/catch instated, it 'crashes' during the creation of the pane - and therefore prevents the user from interacting with it.

    Quick Fix
    The lazy fix, is to add a simple debug command to ReflectionHelper.cs before the reference error. In my case, I added Debug.Log(assembly.FullName); to around line 67ish.

    This will show you whatever EXE or DLL it is trying to load as an assembly, and on the failed one, the next line will be the exception error. The reason the DLL could be inaccessible is anything really, including not meant to run on the editor. It will need to be deleted or an exception added. You may be able to change the assembly build targets, or switch from .NET Subset to .NET - but for me, I don't want to move off the Subset for builds.

    Assets known to cause this are uRecord, and I've heard uSequence. HipFilters seems fine.

    You will also need to monitor your errors on every platform you support that leverages the plugin.

    Better Fix
    Go into the beginning of ReflectionHelper.cs, and add a check the assembly after you try to load it, instead of just assuming it will load. And adding a simple try/catch to let the Director window finish coming up (and be appropriately closed) when an error occurs.

    Cheers.
     
    Last edited: Sep 9, 2016
  24. CSSupport

    CSSupport

    Joined:
    Dec 9, 2014
    Posts:
    6
    Thanks for the report, we'll look into it.
     
  25. lloydsummers

    lloydsummers

    Joined:
    May 17, 2013
    Posts:
    350
    Also, just an FYI, the MoCap tool was preventing me from doing builds. Something about the zlib dll trying to be included in the package. I've removed MoCap from my project for now.
     
  26. hopeful

    hopeful

    Joined:
    Nov 20, 2013
    Posts:
    5,676
    Not sure, but it is possible this is a DLL that can be marked as editor only, and thus not influence your build? Seems to me I've seen that note in other threads about other plugins.
     
  27. lloydsummers

    lloydsummers

    Joined:
    May 17, 2013
    Posts:
    350
    You should be able to, assuming that more dependencies don't pop-up. But I'm working on a tight deadline right now and I just don't have time to monkey around with it :) The package appears to compile after the error occurs, but the exe won't launch, which isn't something I've seen before, and the only error message is about the MoCap lib.

    Just easier to caution people to delete it for now in case they hit the same. Most folks keep the mocap tool in a separate project for mocap - it came into the project with the Cinema Suite.
     
  28. magique

    magique

    Joined:
    May 2, 2014
    Posts:
    4,030
    I tried posting this in the official forums, but no one has even viewed my issue yet so I'm trying in here. Maybe someone knows how this is supposed to work. Here goes:

    I am having the most difficult time working with curves. All I want to do is move the position of an object in the scene, but the Curves editor refuses to let me set key frames to the positions I want. I want an object to start at -500 X and move to 500 X, but whenever I enter -500 it just reverts to 0. It's like the curves system assumes that the starting key frame can't be less than 0. Is there any way to get this to work?
     
  29. lloydsummers

    lloydsummers

    Joined:
    May 17, 2013
    Posts:
    350
    I had the same problem. It doesn't allow values below 0. And I can't find a way to swing a curve "the other direction".

    For example, if you rotate something from 10 to 340 --- the tool will always take the long way around. And I can find no way to override it. With standard Unity animations, you can change the direction of the curve to fix those or enter negative values to identify the rotation direction of the curve.

    I didn't check the input method for the Positions, but it makes sense it does the same. For some reason the tool is clamping at 0.
     
  30. magique

    magique

    Joined:
    May 2, 2014
    Posts:
    4,030
    I finally got it to work. There are Auto Resize fields below the transform that can be set to the min and max of the curve. However, it doesn't always work. It's very finicky. It seems to work better if you begin with the object already at a negative position and then setting those resize values seems to stick. Still, it's a bit strange. I would think having the Auto resize button on would make it automatically change the range if you entered a negative value.
     
  31. kashiftasneem

    kashiftasneem

    Joined:
    Aug 24, 2012
    Posts:
    16
    Facing

    and

    on Unity 5.4.1p2 and Cinema Director v1.4.5.2 when running on a iOS device.
     
  32. lloydsummers

    lloydsummers

    Joined:
    May 17, 2013
    Posts:
    350
    For what it is worth, and no offense to the developer. But the Director tool is extremely, extremely, extremely buggy and prone to crashing... I'd go as far as to say its unusable.

    It crashes when you add tracks. It crashes when you remove tracks. It only allows you to make very short tracks. If you do remove tracks without crashing, it leaves icon artifacts on screen. It doesn't allow you to control things like rotations and negative values. It does less than the built in Animation tools from Unity. It sometimes messes up and is at the wrong spot in the animation sequence, and if you stop a scene before it finishes, it often doesn't reset positions of objects in the world.

    I've now spent over a week trying to get a very brief sequence to play properly, and I'm now considering just scrubbing this tool and using only Unity's animation toolset.

    Just some hesitations, but I'd seriously consider if you really want this tool before buying.
     
    Last edited: Oct 2, 2016
  33. Ramsdal

    Ramsdal

    Joined:
    Oct 18, 2013
    Posts:
    251
    Do not like the sound of that, I used it in unity 4.x at some point with fine results. I do hope that it has not been abandoned and is littered with errors in Unity5...
     
  34. magique

    magique

    Joined:
    May 2, 2014
    Posts:
    4,030
    I'm also having some serious issues with the tool. I'm new to using this asset, but it's been giving me extremely erratic results. The sequences don't always run properly and sometimes ends up with objects in halfway states or not starting at all. One thing that is definitely a major bug is that you can't pause Unity in the middle of a cutscene and then resume the cutscene after unpausing Unity. Cinema Director does not pause correctly and is unable to resume properly when Unity is unpaused.

    Not being able to repeatedly get the correct results is a serious problem. I can't ship a game that may or may not run a custscene correctly depending on the time of day or whatever reason Cinema Director decides. I think one of its problem must have to do with improper delta time usage. As my title scene cutscene is playing I am also asynchronously loading the first game scene. Occasionally Unity has little hiccups and causes lag during the loading. I observed that when one of these moments of lag occurred, that's precisely when the cutscene glitched and didn't properly complete an animation track. The state of one of my actors was never completed and got stuck in an in-between state. Since there was a definite Unity lag glitch, this would indicate to me that Cinema Director is unable to handle time properly. Since CD is also unable to pause/resume properly, this also points to this issue.
     
  35. harrington

    harrington

    Joined:
    Jul 10, 2012
    Posts:
    43
    Thanks for bringing this up. I will take a look. It is not supposed to be included if it is in an Editor folder, but things may have changed.
     
  36. harrington

    harrington

    Joined:
    Jul 10, 2012
    Posts:
    43
    I wasn't aware that you could not enter a negative value to start a clip. I will take a look into this for you. Sorry that you are facing these issues.
     
  37. harrington

    harrington

    Joined:
    Jul 10, 2012
    Posts:
    43
    This could be because an Actor Track does not have an Actor assigned. This still shouldn't cause an error. Can you provide any more details?
     
  38. harrington

    harrington

    Joined:
    Jul 10, 2012
    Posts:
    43
    I am very sorry that you are having all these issues. If you can please provide any specific details about whats causing these crashes, I will take a look and release a fix. You can even email me directly adrian@cinema-suite.com - Honestly, customer happiness is my biggest concern, so I look forward to helping resolve the issues.
     
  39. harrington

    harrington

    Joined:
    Jul 10, 2012
    Posts:
    43
    Thanks for your feedback. Sorry you are having issues. CD does use Unity's time, so if there are hiccups with Unity it will carry over to CD. If you can provide a specific case with some more details, I will look into a solution.

    As for pausing Unity, do you mean the in-editor pause button? It wouldn't exist in the released game, so any pause that takes place in game should also pause the cutscene playback. I will look into a solution for pausing in-editor.
     
  40. magique

    magique

    Joined:
    May 2, 2014
    Posts:
    4,030
    I realize if Unity hiccups then CD will as well, but that's not the issue. For example, I have a 3D sword that flies into the scene and stops behind some 3D text. But once when the scene lagged, the sword simply stopped about 3/4 into the fly-in and never completed. This is not how I would expect it to behave. If there was a moment of lag then I would expect the sword to momentarily freeze, but then slam into it's final position. But in this case it never completed. It skips over it. Maybe this is exactly what would be expected, but it's certainly not desirable. What I think must be happening is that you are going by a strict Time from Unity and matching to specific events on a Timeline. So if there is a lag then an entire section of cutscene could be skipped, which would leave those objects in a bad state. What I think should be happening is that no part of the cutscene timeline should ever be skipped, but if there is a discrepancy in Unity Time and the position on the cutscene timeline then it should adapt by play a section faster so that it can catch up. If there is the possibility that events can be skipped then it's unreliable.

    Yes, I mean the Unity editor pausing. It's true that it won't exist in the game, but it is essential for debugging a cutscene. So a solution would be appreciated.
     
  41. alteredmatter

    alteredmatter

    Joined:
    Sep 14, 2016
    Posts:
    26
    Hi, we're looking into buying the asset, but we would be building games for consoles such as Xbox One or Playstation 4, in addition to pc/mac. I've been looking around but haven't found any comment about its compatibility with these platforms. Is it compatible? And in case it's not, is support coming in the near future? Thanks!
     
  42. magique

    magique

    Joined:
    May 2, 2014
    Posts:
    4,030
    I'm personally not aware if it's compatible, but just consider that I posted a message just before yours on October 14th and have yet to receive a comment back from the author. I was using this for the Wii U, but ripped it out because of the issue I reported and no indication it was going to be addressed.
     
  43. anilo

    anilo

    Joined:
    Feb 7, 2013
    Posts:
    31
    How can I make videos like you create them for your youtube tutorial videos?

    Also, I am looking for a beginner tutorial, something that walks me through things step-by-step for a simple cutscene.
     
  44. bianchengxiaobei

    bianchengxiaobei

    Joined:
    May 21, 2017
    Posts:
    5
    Hi!
    I hava a question.
    Does cutscene can make a prefab?
    I want to dynamic loading the cutscene rather than in hierarchy.
    when I try make it to prefab,but when I run,some data has failed dependencies
     
  45. CSSupport

    CSSupport

    Joined:
    Dec 9, 2014
    Posts:
    6
    Yes Cinema Director does support these platforms.
     
  46. CSSupport

    CSSupport

    Joined:
    Dec 9, 2014
    Posts:
    6
    Cinema Director is gameobject based. Creating prefabs from Cinema Director game objects in the cutscene hierarchy may definitely cause issues. If there is something specific you are looking to do, please email us support@cinema-suite.com and we can help you out!
     
  47. CSSupport

    CSSupport

    Joined:
    Dec 9, 2014
    Posts:
    6
    Just a quick post in regards to euler angles and supporting beyond 360 degree rotation in the curve editor. Because of a change Unity had made to their API in version 5.4 and above, this broke the functionality in our curve editor and we were not able to fix the issue. After going back and forth with Unity, they have re-added the support into Unity 2017.

    Cinema Director in Unity 2017 will now re-support rotating objects beyond 360 degrees using the curve editor.
     
  48. EnigmaFactory

    EnigmaFactory

    Joined:
    Dec 10, 2011
    Posts:
    98
    Hey all! So I purchased Cinema Suite and have intention to use cinema director for my cutscenes and such. Now that Unity has it's Timeline, can someone compare and contrast them for me? I'm not sure which to use at this point.
     
  49. churi24

    churi24

    Joined:
    Sep 17, 2013
    Posts:
    98
    I was using Timeline but we encounter a lot of problems, one was inestability. Sometimes the timeline delete the playables without any reason. I was using 2017.1.0f3 maybe the inestablity in the newer versions doesn't exist. By the other hand on the timelines you dont have events until the mid of 2018, and here you have a lot of functionality. Both support cinemachine, and cinema director support "Behaviour designer". I think Cinema Director is a great solution.
    .
     
  50. dinaloraven234

    dinaloraven234

    Joined:
    Dec 20, 2018
    Posts:
    141
    Hi is it possible to create a cut scene while in play mode?