A fully integrated cinematic intro, intermission, and stinger transition system for my Twitch stream, built around an original Unreal Engine 5 environment and choreographed through a custom OBS automation pipeline. The entire system is designed to fire at the press of a single Stream Deck button, letting me trigger broadcast-grade transitions mid-stream without breaking flow.

-The Environment-

All cinematics are rendered from an original UE5 scene, a stylized alpine range inspired by the Central Oregon Cascades, lit by a vibrant aurora and an atmospheric weather treatment. The scene was authored as a single hero environment, then framed and rendered out as a library of cinematic clips that serve as the visual backbone for every transition, idle screen, and intermission state in the broadcast.

-Stream Layouts-

Each of the four stream layouts is composited over a five-minute looping sequence of the aurora subtly shifting across the screen, with twinkling and shooting stars threaded through the sky. On top of that, a stylized frosted glass treatment is applied to the layout panels, driven by a set of layout masks authored in Photoshop and finished in After Effects. The subtle motion of the aurora behind the layout reads through the glass panels and borders, giving the static layout a dynamic, living quality that shifts seamlessly throughout the stream without ever drawing focus from the content.

-Intro Sequence-

The intro features a custom music visualizer powered by the Waveform OBS plugin, reacting in real time to a dedicated audio source. Currently playing track info is pulled from the Spotify API via the Tuna plugin and composited into the visualizer as a live text source, so the intro reflects whatever music is playing at stream start.

-Stinger Transitions-

Twelve unique stinger transitions cover every combination of my four stream layouts. Each stinger depicts the outgoing layout collapsing into a set of glass panels that mask the underlying content, then shrink, reshuffle, and expand to form the incoming layout, preserving spatial continuity between scenes rather than cutting away to an unrelated transition.

-Sequence Architecture-

Twelve additional cinematic sequences handle transitions between the four layouts and the intro/intermission states, for a complete transition matrix. Transitions between layouts and cinematics are bridged by dedicated in/out sequences — outbound cinematics end framed on the sky, and inbound cinematics start framed on the sky, creating a consistent visual handoff point. This lets the system cut back to a layout cleanly at any moment, regardless of the cinematic state. The full system is mapped in a Miro transition table that diagrams every sequence, its source media, and how scenes route through one another.

-OBS Automation Pipeline-

The system is driven by three coordinated layers:

Elgato Stream Deck: Multi-action buttons handle the bulk of the timing, with a series of pause events sequenced inside each action to fire scene swaps, source toggles, and downstream triggers at exactly the right beats

Transition Table plugin: Automatically plays the correct transition video file based on the source/destination scene pair

Advanced Scene Switcher: Choreographs music pause/resume, source visibility and mute states, and volume fade curves across every transition

A button press kicks off the multi-action chain on the Stream Deck, which triggers the scene change, which the Transition Table resolves into the correct stinger, which in turn cues the Advanced Scene Switcher to handle audio and source state so every transition lands cleanly with synchronized visuals, music, and overlay behavior.

-Future Development-
The next phase of this project moves the entire system off of pre-rendered video files and onto a live UE5 feed from a second PC. Instead of playing back baked clips, the cinematics and transitions will be choreographed in real time inside Unreal, with the second PC sending a continuous feed into OBS where the stream layouts are composited on top.

This shift unlocks two major capabilities. First, it opens the door to Twitch API integration: subscriptions, follows, donations, and other live events can be wired directly into the UE5 scene to trigger reactive moments within the cinematic itself, so the environment responds to what's actually happening in the stream. Second, it fully offloads the rendering load to the second PC, freeing the main PC to deliver clean performance on whatever game is being played without sharing GPU headroom with the broadcast visuals.

The same OBS automation pipeline driving the current system carries over: the Stream Deck, Transition Table, and Advanced Scene Switcher logic stays intact, just with a live source replacing the video files as the layer underneath.

Tools
Unreal Engine 5, OBS Studio, After Effects, Photoshop, 3DS Max, Speedtree, Waveform, Tuna, Transition Table, Advanced Scene Switcher, Elgato Stream Deck, Miro