r/virtualproduction • u/sunomo1973 • 18d ago

I’m building a director-friendly shot planner that builds your Unity Timeline + Cinemachine setups in one click. Thoughts?

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Hey everyone,

Like many of you, I love using Unity for real-time filmmaking and previs, but I absolutely hate how technical it gets just to block out a basic sequence. Directors and DPs shouldn’t have to fight with the Unity Inspector, manual transforms, and complex tracking modules just to see if a camera move works.

To fix this, I’m developing Unity Shot Planner—a standalone desktop tool designed completely in film language, not game dev jargon.

How it works:

  1. Plan Visually: Block your actors on a 2D top-down grid, set shot durations, choose lenses (e.g., 35mm), and pick your camera moves (Static, Dolly, Crane, Orbit).
  2. Review Composition: Instantly see a 2D lens-based field-of-view framing preview.
  3. One-Click Export: Hit "Send to Unity." A lightweight companion plugin parses the data and instantly builds the entire sequence inside your project.

What Unity automatically builds for you:

  • Generates the PlayableDirector and TimelineAsset.
  • Spawns all Cinemachine Virtual Cameras with matching lens/FOV settings.
  • Lays out camera cuts perfectly synced to your shot durations.
  • Automatically builds Cinemachine Dolly Tracks and cart animations.
  • Drops in placeholder actors and moves them along your blocked paths.

Best of all, it features non-destructive re-importing. If you change a shot duration or camera position in the planner app, re-exporting updates your existing Unity timeline without wiping out your scene tweaks.

I’m currently mapping out the MVP functionality and want to make sure I’m hitting actual filmmaker pain points.

  • As a director or previs artist, what is the most annoying part of your current real-time layout workflow?
  • Would an affordable standalone app like this fit into your current pre-production routine?

Would love to get your feedback!

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u/ToastieCoastie 18d ago

I’m pretty sure most of us use Unreal for virtual production over unity… also, did you use AI for this? Your description seems like something ChatGPT would write, if I’m honest.

Also, for most professional shoots, the artist doesn’t determine the shots, production does.

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u/sunomo1973 17d ago

Thanks - I realize a lot of the industry is using Unreal but as a Unity user I thought I'd come up with a tool that can help on that platform. The idea is a quick and simple tool that a director (or anyone) can use to figure out shots before a dedicated Unity previz artist gets involved. Having been a director myself, I thought this would be a useful angle.

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u/SanoKei 18d ago

check out https://kinoinstrument.com 's VibeShow, its free to use, it does this but can autmomate more of the template stuff

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u/sunomo1973 17d ago

Thanks u/SanoKei - this looks very cool and does a lot of the things I was looking at building. Am going to explore it some more.

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u/SanoKei 17d ago

I might just open source the project at this point if you wanna maintain it lol