Director

Tab: Director — Live virtual cameras · Plugin: Cinematic Lab

Everything on this tab runs at game time — PIE and packaged builds — not just in the editor viewport. Spawn a virtual camera, give it a subject, and it keeps that subject framed while the game runs. By default it also takes over the player’s view on Play, with no Level Blueprint wiring.

The Director tab: virtual camera list, framing controls, coverage generator and Auto-Director.

Virtual cameras

Action	What it does
+ Spawn Virtual Camera	Spawn a Cine Camera at the viewport with a virtual-camera component attached
Add to Selected Camera	Attach a virtual-camera component to a Cine Camera Actor you already have
Pilot	Lock the viewport to that camera to see through it
Remove	Remove the virtual-camera component — the Cine Camera Actor stays

The list shows every virtual camera with its P# — its Camera Director priority. Higher wins at runtime. The footer reads <n> virtual camera(s) — selected: <name>.

A spawned virtual camera with its subject set and priority shown.

Giving a camera a subject

Set Subject = Selected Actor frames the actor currently selected in the level. It must be a non-camera actor.

That alone makes the camera aim at the subject. Two additions change how it behaves:

• Add Follow. The camera also follows the subject’s position, not just its aim. Adds a. Follow component, configurable under Configuration.
• Player Orbit. Turns it into a third-person player camera. The follow switches to Orbit and. an Enhanced-Input control is added, so in PIE the player steers yaw and pitch with the mouse and zooms with the wheel, auto-recentering after idle. Sensitivity, limits and recenter behaviour live on the Orbit Player Control component, where you can also assign your own Input Action and Mapping Context for gamepad.

Framing

A rule-of-thirds picker: Center, Top-Left, Top-Right, Bottom-Left, Bottom-Right.

Live preview

Flat (composition) renders a clean composition view with no eye adaptation, atmosphere or bloom. Off gives the full lit render. Use flat when you are judging framing rather than look.

Coverage generator

Select one or two actors in the level, then Generate Coverage from Selection spawns the standard coverage set as ready-framed Cine Cameras: Master, over-the-shoulder, singles and a 2-shot — six angles.

Angles that need a second subject are skipped when only one actor is selected. The result line reports how many were actually generated (Generated N coverage camera(s)) rather than implying you got all six.

Generating coverage for two actors: master, over-the-shoulder, close-up and two-shot cameras.

Cutting to the single on the first actor.

Composition presets

Save Current as Preset saves the selected camera’s composition — not its subject — as a reusable preset. Applying one sets the composition on the selected camera and leaves its subject unchanged.

That separation is the point: a preset is a way of framing, not a specific shot.

Auto-Director

An actor that cuts between your virtual cameras during PIE. Two modes:

Cloud (occlusion cuts)

The current shot holds while its camera has a clear line to its subject, and cuts to the first unblocked camera when the view is occluded.

Probe radius and minimum hold time live on the EQLabs Auto-Director component. Reorder its Shots list to express preference — the “first unblocked camera” is first in that order.

Timed (auto cycle)

Holds each camera for its duration, advances down the list, and wraps. Hold times live on the component.

Both buttons create or refill the level’s Auto-Director with every virtual camera, so adding cameras and clicking again picks them up. Remove deletes the Auto-Director actor; the cameras keep their own priorities.

The status line reads Auto-Director: <mode> - <n> shots — or, when there is none, “No Auto-Director in this level. Create one to cut between your cameras automatically in PIE.”

The Auto-Director created in Cloud mode with several virtual cameras.

Notes

• This is a runtime feature. Virtual cameras, follow, orbit and the Auto-Director are driven by the CinematicLabRuntime module and work in a packaged build, not only in the editor.
• Priority and order do different jobs. P# decides which camera wins when several are active at once; the Auto-Director’s Shots order decides which it cuts to.
• Removing the component keeps the camera. Clicking Remove on a virtual camera strips the virtual-camera behaviour and leaves the Cine Camera Actor in the level.
• Virtual cameras can be captured into a shot’s Look State from the Shot Manager tab, so restoring a shot can put it back on its framing.