Sequencer

The Sequencer turns a story cinematic into a multi-track timeline. Tracks key camera rigs and cuts, object transforms and visibility, animation clips, audio, script events, story actions, subtitles, post looks, time of day and weather, and nested shots. Sequences play in the editor and in exported games, and you can scrub them in the viewport without pressing Play.

A sequence is a cinematic: the same item that Story uses, with tracks added.

Create a sequence

1. Open Window → Story · dialogues, quests, cinematics and select the Cinematics tab.
2. Create a cinematic, or click New from template to start from a ready-made camera move.
3. Fly the editor camera to a shot and click Key from view to add a camera key at the playhead.
4. Click + Track and choose a track type. Transform, Visibility and Animation tracks target the selected object, or the player when nothing is selected.
5. Scrub the timeline to preview. Turn on Pilot viewport to look through the cinematic camera while you scrub.
6. Select a key on the timeline to edit its values in the inspector. Drag a key to move it.

Keys snap to the sequence’s frame rate as you drag them.

Sequence settings

Setting	Description	Default
Title	Shown in the editor	New cinematic
Id	Used by play_cinematic and play_sequence	—
Duration (s)	Length; the sequence runs on past it if keys or events are later	6
Frames per second	Key snapping and the frame counter	30
Playback speed	Speed multiplier	1
Blend in (s)	Glide from the gameplay camera into the first shot	0
Blend back (s)	Glide back to the gameplay camera at the end	0.8
Loop playback	Play again until stopped; Use loop range limits it to Loop from – Loop to	Off
Anchor	An object whose position and heading the camera keys and moves follow. World space uses world coordinates	World space
Letterbox	Black bars during playback	On
Skippable	The player can skip it	On
Hide HUD	Hides the HUD during playback	On
On end	Rhai code run when the sequence ends or is skipped	Empty

Tracks

Track	Keys
Camera	A camera rig: position, look-at target, field of view, depth of field, roll and shake
CameraCuts	Which Camera track is live from each key, with an optional blend time
Transform	Position, rotation and scale of a named object, or player
Visibility	Shows or hides a named object
Animation	Clips a character plays, with looping and a duration
Audio	Sounds or music with volume, duration and fades
Event	Sends an event to every script and/or runs a Rhai snippet
Actions	Story actions such as move, place, fade, shake and starting a dialogue
Subtitles	Lines with a speaker, text and duration
Post	Fade to colour, exposure, vignette, saturation, contrast and temperature
Environment	Time of day and weather changes
Shots	Other sequences placed on this timeline

Each track has Mute and Lock. Muted tracks are skipped by playback; locked tracks cannot be edited on the timeline, although commands still change them.

Easing and curves

Camera, Transform, Post and Environment keys set how the value arrives at the key:

Ease	Behaviour
Linear	Constant rate
Smooth	Eases in and out (default)
EaseIn, EaseOut	Accelerates or decelerates
Cut	Jumps straight to the key
Curve	A custom cubic Bézier [x1, y1, x2, y2], edited in the curve view

Camera keys

Field	Unit	Range	Default
Position, target	Metres	—	—
Field of view	Degrees (vertical)	5 to 150	45
Focus distance	Metres that stay sharp; 0 turns depth of field off	0 to 10,000	0
Aperture	f-stops; smaller blurs more	0.1 to 64	—
Roll	Degrees	−360 to 360	0
Shake	Hand-held amount, 0 is steady	0 to 10	0

Set from view replaces the selected key with the editor camera.

Camera blending

A CameraCuts key names a Camera track by ID. With a blend of 0 it cuts; with a positive blend (up to 10 s) it blends from the previous camera over that time. Use several Camera tracks and one CameraCuts track to edit between shots.

Audio keys

Field	Description	Default
Sound	A sound name or cue; see Audio	—
Volume	Linear, 0 to 2	1
Duration	Seconds the sound is held before it stops	4
Fade in, fade out	Seconds	0
Music	Shows the key as a music clip	Off

Event keys

An Event key emits an event, by default named cue, with a JSON data object. The engine adds sequence and time to the data. Scripts receive it with on(name, |data| ...) or the on_event hook. A key can also run a Rhai snippet.

Environment keys

Set time of day keys an hour from 0 to 24. Hours interpolate forward between keys and wrap past midnight. A key can also change the weather, over a transition time that defaults to 2 seconds.

Shots

A Shots key plays another sequence on this timeline, with an offset into it, a duration (0 plays the rest), a speed and optional looping. Shots nest up to 4 levels deep.

Templates

New from template creates a complete sequence around a point:

Template	Shot
orbit_reveal	The camera circles the subject once while rising, fading in from black
dolly_push_in	A slow push towards the subject with a narrowing lens and focus pulled onto it
two_shot_dialogue	A wide establishing shot and over-the-shoulder shots of two speakers, cut on each line
flyover	A high sweeping pass over the area, descending gently, with the light warming over time

Templates use a radius of 6 m and a duration of 8 s unless you set them.

Play a sequence

Function	Description
play_cinematic(id), play_sequence(id)	Plays a sequence
stop_cinematic()	Stops the playing sequence
cinematic_playing()	Whether a sequence is playing

The world-script hook on_cinematic_end(id) runs when a sequence finishes.

fn on_key(key) {
    if key == "G" {
        play_sequence("gate_opens");
    }
}

fn on_cinematic_end(id) {
    if id == "gate_opens" {
        print("Back to gameplay");
    }
}

Limits

Limit	Value
Tracks per sequence	64
Keys per track	1,024
Key times	0 to 600 s
Shot nesting	4 levels

Automate it

Command	Purpose
sequence.get	Lists sequences and templates, or returns one sequence’s tracks
sequence.template	Creates a sequence from a template
sequence.track_upsert, sequence.track_remove	Creates, replaces or removes a track
sequence.key_upsert, sequence.key_remove	Adds, replaces or removes a key by zero-based index
sequence.sample	Evaluates a sequence at a time without playing it

Each edit is one undo step, and invalid references are rejected. Create an orbit around a point, then check the camera two seconds in:

feather-cli --connect .feather-session.json command sequence.template \
  --json '{"id":"tower_reveal","template":"orbit_reveal","center":[0,4,0],"radius":10,"duration":8}'

feather-cli --connect .feather-session.json command sequence.sample \
  --json '{"id":"tower_reveal","time":2}'

See Agents & automation for connecting a live session.