The Matinee tool is the driving force behind all the cinematic scenes within the Unreal Engine. It gives users the ability to be the director within your game, giving you control over the camera, the actor's movement, sound, as well as different cuts and animation effects. Think of any moment in an Unreal game where you didn't have direct control over the character, like in a cutscene. Chances are that was done in Matinee. However, Matinee can be used for many other things, which we will discuss at the end of the chapter.

In order to create a Matinee, we will use the (aptly named) Matinee Editor that can be accessed from the toolbar at the top of the screen.