How to use a Dolly Track in Unity

Using Cinemachine dolly track

In this article we review how we moved our virtual camera along a dolly track.

Composing the Scene

We started off by setting up the virtual camera’s. Below are the director notes.

Dolly shot

Overhead shot

Create Dolly Track

Cinemachine (toolbar) > Dolly Camera with Track

This creates a virtual camera and a dolly track game object in the Hierarchy.

The dolly track is hard to find in the inspector so it is recommended to create some points first from the Inspector.

Now if we double click the dolly track in the Hierarchy, we can see it clearly in the Scene view. The 0 is the first way point the 1 is the second waypoint.

Move the entire track to where the cutscene is prepared and modify the dolly track from the scene view.

Linking the Dolly Track to a Virtual Camera

If you using the virtual camera that was created at the same time as the dolly track you can skip this step. When you want to link your dolly track to an existing virtual camera follow these steps.

Select Virtual Camera in Hierarchy > Body > Tracked Dolly (Dropdown)
Drag dolly track game object into > Path

Animate the Virtual Camera along the Dolly Track

Timeline > Add > Animation track > Drag in Dolly shot virtual camera > Create Animator
Hit Record button > Select Virtual Camera > Body > Path Position: 0
Move timeline slider to next point you want your keyframe > Select Virtual Camera > Body > Path Position: 1
Stop Record Button

Dolly Track Result

Bonus: Make Dolly smoother when using Look At

When using Look At and a dead zone the camera may move a bit jerky. The camera moves around a lot and is constantly adjusting when the target is out of the dead zone. To make the dolly shot smoother you can set the dead zone to zero to get a smoother shot.