Moving Cameras with a Dolly (Game Dev Day 54)

The previous cutscene served its purpose, but to add a more dynamic look to the next cutscene, we’re going to need to use a dolly.

A dolly is essentially a movement path you want a camera to take. You are drawing the path the camera will travel along.

The green track shows the path the camera will take.

This can be used to give sweeping dynamic shots for your cutscene.

Using a dolly for a simple shot.

Using a dolly is straightforward, fortunately. You can create a new dolly by going to Cinemachine>Dolly Track with Camera (Cinemachine can be found for free in the Unity Package database if you do not have it installed).

Creating a new dolly.

Once a dolly is created, you have to find it in your scene. Select it in your Hierarchy and create a new waypoint; it will be far easier to physically locate with a waypoint set.

Create at least one waypoint so you can manipulate the dolly with ease.

Once you have the dolly in the approximate position you want, its time to start editing the track itself. Each waypoint can be physically moved, and each “track” between the waypoints can be curved.

Editing the dolly is done by grabbing each movement tool.

Now the dolly may be in place, but as of right now it has no camera attached. In order to attach a camera set the camera’s body tab to “Tracked Dolly” and then drag the dolly gameobject into the appropriate slot labelled “path” (this camera needs to be a Cinemachine Camera).

How to link the dolly to the camera.

Now the camera is in place, and you can use its viewpoint to make further edits for your shot! Clever usage of a dolly can lead to some incredible cinematic shots, so experiment!