For broadcasts, live events, or timing-critical playback, you may find it necessary to trigger different sequences to play at arbitrary times. You can do this using Sequencer Playlists, where you can prepare sequences and trigger them to play during a virtual production session.
This document provides an overview of how to use Sequencer Playlists.
Prerequisites
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Sequencer Playlists is a Plugin that must be enabled prior to use. Navigate in the Unreal Engine menu to Edit > Plugins, locate Playlists in the Virtual Production section, and enable it. You will need to restart the editor afterward.
- Your project already contains some Level Sequences that you can reference in your playlist.
Overview
To start using Sequencer Playlists, navigate to the main Unreal Engine menu and click Window > Virtual Production > Playlists. This will open the Playlists panel.
The Playlists panel contains the following interface:
- The Toolbar, where you can Save, Load, and create new playlists.
- The name of the current playlist and a short description. You can name a playlist by Saving it, and you can edit the description by clicking on the playlist description field.
- Adds a Sequencer item to the playlist. When one is added, you need to specify the Sequence you want to play in the main dropdown menu of the item.
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The Playlist, which displays the list of Sequences added to the playlist. The following properties can also be set on each item:
- Offset, which controls the start and end trim of the Sequence, when played.
- Hold, which holds the first frame of the Sequence until it is played. This is done by creating a second instance of the Sequence with its Time Scale property set to 0.
- Loop, which enables the Sequence to loop when triggered. If looping is enabled, then you must also set the number of times to loop before stopping.
- Play Mode, which enables a more streamlined overlay for your items, making it easier to select Play and Stop for each Sequence.
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Playback Controls, which contains the following buttons:
- Play All: Starts playing all playlist items at the same time.
- Stop All: Stops all playlist items.
- Reset All: Stops all playlist items and re-holds the first frame for any Sequences that have Hold enabled.
Hovering your cursor over a Sequence item also reveals additional buttons and properties.
- Playback Controls, where you can Play, Stop, and Reset this Sequence.
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Settings for this Sequence, which contains the following:
- Playback Controls.
- Playback Speed, which controls the playback rate of the Sequence when triggered.
- Mute, which disables this Sequence from being triggered when clicking Play All. This Sequence can still be triggered directly by clicking Play.
- Remove from Playlist, which deletes this Sequence from the playlist.
Workflow Example
The main purpose of Sequencer Playlists is to add pre-created Sequences to a "playlist" so that you can trigger them to play as Subsequences during the playback or recording of another Sequence. In most cases, this is during recording with Take Recorder.
Create and Populate Playlist
Click the Add (+) Item button to start adding Sequences to your playlist.
Next, assign a Sequence to the item by clicking the dropdown menu and selecting a Sequence.
Continue to add and assign Sequences to your Playlist until you are satisfied with your list.
Trigger Playlist Playback
To trigger the playback of your entire playlist, click Play All. This will open a new pending Sequence, if one was not open already, and play all Sequences indefinitely until you stop the playback. Playlist Subsequences will be stored in a folder called Playlist - (Your Playlist Name).
The most typical use-case for Playlists will be triggering them during a Take Recorder session. During recording, you can trigger your sequences to play at different times by clicking on each Sequence's playback controls. Sequences can be started, stopped, and reset multiple times during the recording and playback process.
You can also enable Play Mode, which will enable a more streamlined overlay for your items, making it easier to select Play and Stop for each Sequence.
Saving and Managing Playlists
You can save Sequence Playlists by either clicking Save, or by opening the Save dropdown menu to clicking Save Playlist As. Saved playlists are stored in the Content Browser as SequencerPlaylist Assets.
Clicking Load will display a list of all playlists in your project. Selecting one will load it as the current playlist.
You can clear your current playlist and start over by clicking Create New Playlist.
