Cinematic Assistant

Cinematic Assistant adds a cinematic mode to World of Warcraft, in which it takes control of the camera and moves it according to your commands.

Features

It offers several simple features, which can be used together to achieve a broad set of creative shots:

• Rotate camera around the character or object at a predetermined speed.
• Save up to 4 camera positions and transition to them manually or on a timer.
• Change rotation speed when transitioning to a camera position.
• Control how quickly and smoothly the game moves between saved camera positions.
• Automatically hide game UI, NPC/character names, or even your character model while in cinematic mode.

Tip: Best effects can be achieved by combining Camera Assistant with native game mechanics:

• Flying in with your character model hidden for broad panoramic shots.
• Use priest's [Mind Vision] ability to focus the camera on NPCs or other characters.
• Use hunter's [Eagle Eye] or shaman's [Far Sight] to achieve vantage points inaccessible to characters or as a glorified selfie stick :)

Usage

TL;DR: /ca to open options → Configure Cinematic Mode parameters → "Update Macros" to create control macros → Drag CA_* macros to an action bar → Click CA_Orbit to toggle Cinematic Mode → Click CA_View_* to switch preset camera views (or while holding a modifier key to save the current view).

You can configure Cinematic Mode behavior using addon settings in Options → Addons → Cinematic Assistant (or use /ca for quick access).

Addon options consist of three sections: basic cinematic mode settings, camera transition parameters, and activation parameters for each camera view.

Basic Settings

These determine camera behavior immediately upon entering cinematic mode:

• "Hide UI" automatically hides WoW UI (panels, nameplates, windows, etc.) when entering Cinematic Mode.
• "Hide All Names" also hides NPC and character names.
• "Hide Player" disables rendering of the player model, useful for recording scenes without being present in them. This setting only affects your player model—other NPCs, players, and pets remain visible. It is purely local and does not hide you from other players.
• "Initial Rotation Period" controls how quickly the camera rotates around the player in cinematic mode. Setting it to 0 disables rotation. Any other value sets the number of seconds per full rotation (smaller values mean faster rotation).

Transition Parameters

These control how quickly the camera moves between saved positions. By default, transitions are quick, but slower movements can look better when recording videos:

• "Yaw Speed" controls how quickly the camera rotates around the vertical axis.
• "Zoom Speed" controls how quickly the camera zooms in and out.
• "Max and Min Transition Time" limits the total time the camera takes to move to a new position. This can be useful if yaw and zoom speed controls alone don't achieve the desired effect.

Warning: Do not exit the game while in cinematic mode if you change transition parameters! The addon overrides several CVars to achieve the effect and restores original values when leaving cinematic mode. However, if you exit the game, the overridden parameters will be saved as default.

Camera Views

Each of the Red, Green, Blue, and Purple camera view sections control automatic transitions to saved positions (the color is just a naming convention—functionally, all views are equivalent):

• "Use" enables automatic camera transition to this view. Disabled views will be skipped in the activation sequence but can still be triggered manually.
• "Wait Before" sets the number of seconds to wait before activating the view.
  Example: If two views have "Wait Before" values of 5 and 7, the first will activate at 5s, and the second at 12s into Cinematic Mode.
• "Rotation Period" functions like "Initial Rotation Period" but applies only after transitioning to this view.

Macros

In addition to settings, a set of macros is required to control the camera in Cinematic Mode. After installing or updating the addon, click "Update Macros" in the settings to generate the following macros (if the button is greyed out, the macros are already up to date):

• CA_Orbit (/run CinematicAssistant:Orbit()) — toggles between regular game mode and Cinematic Mode.
• CA_View_Red (/run CinematicAssistant:View(2)) — pressing without modifiers activates the Red camera view.
  • Holding Ctrl, Alt, or Shift saves the current position as Red.
  • Can be used to preview and set up camera positions outside Cinematic Mode or manually trigger them.
• CA_View_Green (/run CinematicAssistant:View(3)) — same as CA_View_Red, but for the Green camera view.
• CA_View_Blue (/run CinematicAssistant:View(4)) — same as CA_View_Red, but for the Blue camera view.
• CA_View_Purple (/run CinematicAssistant:View(5)) — same as CA_View_Red, but for the Purple camera view.

Tip: Feel free to edit the macros, adding commands to trigger emotes, cast spells, or create other effects. If you make a mistake, return to settings and click "Update Macros" to reset everything.

Place the macros on an action bar with convenient keybinds for easy access. Blizzard UI's main action bar paging function is quite handy for this!

At this point, you are all set! Trigger the CA_Orbit macro and explore what Cinematic Assistant can do for you!