Source
The Unreal camera you are rendering
Lists every ShotLink Camera in the running Unreal project. Picking one starts the live link.
Each entry reads as the camera name, then the level, then the project, then the mode Unreal is running in:
ShotLinkCamera – Scene [Examples] [Editor]
In practice
These are simply the cameras you created in Unreal. Give them names that say what they're for — EarthOnly, Normal, Depth — and picking the right one takes a glance instead of a guess.
The level tells you which scene the camera lives in, useful when a project has several. The mode is [Editor] most of the time, but [PIE], [Build] and others work just as well.
Dropdown empty? Switch it to None and back to refresh the list.
Sequence
The range Unreal will render
Binds the comp to a Level Sequence: every frame in After Effects requests that same frame from the sequence, and the layer takes the sequence's length. Leave it on None to work with the live level instead.
In practice
If you've never used Sequencer: it's Unreal's timeline, and with ShotLink it animates the scene — lights, objects, materials — while the camera stays yours in After Effects until you bake it back for the final render.
Think of the layer as the slot your final frames will drop into. At the end of the job you render the shot at full quality out of Unreal through Movie Render Queue and bring those frames back into this comp — for them to land frame-for-frame, the layer has to mirror the sequence exactly.
That's why it won't let you trim it: shorten it by hand and it snaps back. Need it longer? Lengthen the sequence in Unreal and the layer follows.
Swapping the rendered frames in is a manual step today — automating it is on the roadmap.
Baking a camera requires a sequence to be selected.
Realtime Mode
Keep the Unreal view updating continuously
After Effects normally redraws a frame only when something in the comp changes — you move the camera, tweak a parameter, scrub the timeline. With Realtime Mode on, ShotLink keeps refreshing the frame you're parked on, so anything you change in Unreal — a light, a material, an object — appears in your composition without you touching anything in After Effects.
In practice
After Effects caches everything, always. In Realtime Mode that's wasted work — it caches frames that Unreal will overwrite a moment later. Turn off Cache Frames When Idle while you work this way; the picture is already live, there's nothing to pre-render.
For the same reason memory fills up fast, and leaving too little for the rest of the machine causes freezes. Raise RAM reserved for other applications in Edit › Preferences › Memory & Performance before a long session. More in the guide →
Turn Realtime off when you're not looking at the Unreal layer — otherwise it keeps rendering in the background all day.
Origin
Where Unreal's world zero sits in your comp
The 3D point that After Effects treats as Unreal's origin. Use the picker to set it from the comp, or pull it from the scene with Origin from Unreal.
In practice
Unreal scenes often sit thousands of centimetres from world zero. Origin exists so your After Effects camera doesn't have to — put it on the subject you're actually shooting, not on world zero. The AE camera then works in readable numbers, and nulls and 3D text live around the object instead of pointing off a kilometre into the distance.
If the comp already has a 3D track with its own origin, set this to match and the Unreal geometry sits on the plate without hand-fitting.
Reuse a camera move anywhere in the level. The camera animation is relative to the Origin, not to Unreal's world zero — so moving the Origin moves the whole move with it. Animate one fly-through around a building, then set the Origin to another building across the level and the identical move plays out there.
Unit Scale
Pixels per centimetre
Unreal works in centimetres, After Effects in pixels. This is the conversion used whenever positions travel between them — the camera, created nulls, baked animation.
In practice
Leave it at 1 for a straight match between the two worlds: one centimetre in Unreal is one pixel in the comp. Change it only when you want a different scale on purpose. Accepts four decimal places.
Origin from Unreal
Set the origin to where the Unreal camera is standing
Asks the connected scene for its current camera position and writes it into Origin. Useful once you've flown to the part of the level you're shooting: hit Get and the comp's zero lands right there, instead of typing coordinates by hand.
Only active while a Source is connected.
Picked Position
Where on the image you want the null
Click the crosshair next to the parameter, then click the spot in the comp — its position lands here. Unreal works out what's behind that pixel when the null is created.
Null at Position
Turn that point into a 3D null
Creates a null in the comp at the exact spot in the Unreal scene you clicked — depth and surface orientation resolved by the engine, no tracking involved. Parent text, graphics or effects to it and they stay put through any camera move.
In practice
The point has to be something solid. ShotLink traces a ray into the scene, so it lands on geometry with collision — click on particles, atmosphere or an object with collision turned off and nothing happens. The ray reaches about 10 km; beyond that it misses.
If the button does nothing, that's a miss, not a bug — pick a spot on actual geometry.
Transfer from Unreal
Copy the Unreal camera onto your AE camera
Takes the current state of the ShotLink Camera — position, rotation and lens settings — and applies it to the After Effects camera.
In practice
Handy for starting from a framing you already found: fly around the scene in Unreal until the shot looks right, hit Get, and continue animating in After Effects from there.
Only active while a Source is connected.
Bake to Sequencer
Send the AE camera to Unreal as keyframes
Writes your animated After Effects camera into the selected Level Sequence — position, rotation, sensor size and focus, keyed per frame — so Unreal can render the final on its own through Movie Render Queue.
In practice
A new CineCamera is created and bound to the sequence; your ShotLink Camera stays as it is.
Needs a Source and a Sequence selected, and the layer must span the full sequence duration — if something's off, a dialog will tell you why.