2.1 The Animation window: features and settings

2.2 Editing Animation Clips

2.3 Model-specific animation import settings

2.4 Cutting imported Animation Clips

2.5 Setting the Root Motion of imported Animation Clips

2.6 Finishing an Animation Clip: additional settings

2.7 Creating and configuring Animation Events

2.8 Configuring Generic Rigs

2.9 Configuring Humanoid Rigs

In this learning project, you'll explore how to work with Assets as you create animations using the Unity Animation systems.

Working with Assets

1.1 Welcome to the course

1.2 Core concepts: animation data

1.3 Core concepts: animation blending

3.1 Introduction to the Animator component

3.2 Introduction to animation blending

3.3 Creating and configuring Animator States

3.4 Creating and configuring Blend Trees

3.5 Creating and configuring Transitions

3.6 Creating a State Machine

3.7 Creating and configuring Animator Layers

4.1 Introduction to general animation scripting

4.2 Introduction to Humanoid-specific animation scripting

Introduction to 3D Animation Systems Assets

Review the core concepts underlying Unity's 3D animation systems, and explore practical examples provided in the course Unity project.

Course overview and core concepts

In this learning project, you'll get to know the Animator as you explore animation blending, State Machines and Animation Layers. 

By the end of the project, you'll have completed a comprehensive overview of Unity's 3D Animation Systems

The Animator

In this final learning project, you'll review the basics of general and Humanoid-specific animation scripting.

Introduction to animation scripting

In this course, you'll explore the fundamentals of Unity’s 3D animation systems. You will:

Review the core concepts for the animation systems in Unity

Connect those core concepts to the functionality of the Unity Editor

Apply your learning through creating and modifying simple animations

Review key principles of scripting for animation


By the end of this course, you'll be able to:

Confidently use Unity's 3D animation systems to create basic in-game (or in-app) animations for your own projects

Begin to create custom animation scripts, if you have relevant C# scripting experience for Unity.


This course is for intermediate and confident beginner users of Unity. It will help you develop your understanding of the animation systems in Unity, but will be of limited use to learners who want to create cinematic animations for media experiences or game cutscenes. 

To get the most out of the course, you’ll need basic coding experience in Unity. This will help inform your understanding of the complexity of different animations scripting scenarios.

Introduction to 3D Animation Systems

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Overview

Before you begin

Configure the Mirror setting 

Enable the Additive Reference Pose setting 

Adding curves

Editing curves

Additional import guidance

Summary

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In this tutorial, you’ll review various additional settings that are useful for animating both Humanoid and Generic Rigs. 

In Setting the Root Motion of imported Animation Clips, you explored various settings that apply to the example humanoid run Animation Clip. 

In this tutorial, you’ll review some additional settings that are useful for animating both humanoid and generic rigs.

This tutorial uses the Introduction to 3D Animation Systems Unity project. If you haven't already done so, download this before continuing.

2.  In the Project window, go to Assets > 2.6 Finishing Imported Animation Clips. 

All the assets you need for this tutorial will be in this folder. 

The first setting you’re going to review in this tutorial is the Mirror setting. This particular setting is exclusively for humanoid rigged animation.



When enabled, the Mirror setting flips the animation on the YZ plane down the character’s middle. Since this flips both the pose and the Root Motion, you can use it for making a left turn into a right turn, for example.

The Mirror setting is also useful when you can’t get a decent starting pose with your desired leg planted, but can with the other leg. 

1.  In the Inspector, configure the Cycle Offset with the opposite pose.


The settings near the bottom of the Animation Clip’s settings. The Mirror property is called out.

The cycle offset property is adjusted until the left leg is planted with the right knee passing it. The mirror property is enabled, flipping the character such that the character’s right leg is planted with the left leg passing.

The last animation setting before the foldouts controls whether or not Unity should use an Additive Reference Pose. 

With a normal animation, the values of the Animation Curves overwrite the default values for each of their bindings. By using Additive Animation, you can build on and make alterations to any existing animation. 

For example, you might have animations of a character leaning in various directions. You might choose to add these leans to a normal running animation to emphasize turning. 

Since Additive Animation is added to an existing animation, it’s stored as deltas from a Reference Pose. Deltas are small differences or changes. In the case of the leaning example, the Reference Pose would be a straight torso. The animation data would be the difference between a straight torso and the current frame’s lean.

The process to make an animation be treated as Additive Animation is: 

1.  In the Inspector, enable Additive Reference Pose. 


2.  Select the frame number that should serve as the reference pose.



Note: You’re not going to treat the example for this tutorial as Additive Animation. You’ll explore Additive Animation more in 3.7 Creating and configuring Animation Layers.

The Additive Reference Pose and Pose Frame properties.

When Animation Clips are imported, their curves are locked and will appear as read-only. However, as part of the import process, more curves can be added so you can edit them. These curves can be used to store data that can vary over the course of the animation and should not be confused with the standard Animation Curves you have used when creating and editing Animation Clips.  

Curves can be created and edited under the Curves foldout near the bottom of the animation importer. 

1.  Select the Add (+) button under the Curves foldout. 


2.  Name the curve, so its value can be found at runtime. 


3.  Make sure the associated Animator Controller has a parameter with the same name as your curve. 

If you’ve done this correctly, the parameter in the Animator Controller will automatically have its value set to the value of the new curve when the Animation Clip containing the curve is playing.

It is important to note that the curves added to Animation Clips in this way do not take Cycle Offset into account. Instead, they play in-time with your original cut of the animation before applying any Cycle Offset. 

This means that if you want to use the Preview pane to help you set the values for the curve (for example, if the curve is to represent the IK weights for foot falls), then you should:

1. Temporarily set the Cycle Offset back to 0.

3.  Reset the Cycle Offset to your desired value. 

The Curves foldout is expanded to show a plus/add button.

The Curves foldout is expanded and a new Curve has been added.

You can edit curves using the Curve Editor as normal. To open the Curve Editor, click on the image of the curve to the right of the curve’s name (which will be visible when the foldout is expanded). 

You can also edit them in time with the animation by using the keyframe buttons. To do this:


1. Click on the preview timeline bar (at the top of the preview pane) to scrub the animation.


2. Click the New Keyframe button to create a new keyframe.


3. Set the value for the keyframe in the value field. You can move between keyframes by using the left and right arrows. 


Tip: Don’t forget to set the Cycle Offset back to 0 if you want to use the preview, and then set it back to your desired value afterwards. 

The mouse pointer left-clicks on the image of the curve under the Curves foldout. This opens a new Curve Editor window.

The mouse pointer drags the preview pane’s playhead to position the playhead on the curve preview. The mouse pointer clicks the Add Keyframe button and then sets the value to 1. This changes the curve preview from a straight line to a bell shaped curve. The mouse pointer clicks the next and previous keyframe buttons to change the currently previewed frame in the preview pane.

Unity supports Animation Events on imported animations. You can explore Animation Events in more detail in 2.7 Creating Animation Events.

It is possible to only use some of the Transforms in the model’s hierarchy when you import its Animation Clips. 

This process works in a similar way to Avatar Masking, but it’s used on a per-clip basis and doesn’t require an asset. You should use these settings if you only need to use part of an animation. You’ll explore Avatar Masking in more detail in 2.9 Configuring Humanoid Rigs.

Under the Motion Tab, you can select an override for the Root Motion node you selected as part of the rig. You’ll explore overriding Root Motion in more detail in 2.8 Configuring Generic Rigs.

The Import Messages foldout does not contain any settings. Instead, it contains information about things that may have changed due to the import process. If your animation looks different in Unity than it does in the digital content creation (DCC) software where it was created, check the import messages for information on why that might be.

In this tutorial, you’ve reviewed various additional settings that are useful for animating both Humanoid and Generic Rigs. You explored:

How to use Additive Reference Poses and how to configure an animation as an Additive Pose.

2.6 Finishing an Animation Clip: additional settings

1. Overview

2. Before you begin

3. Configure the Mirror setting

4. Enable the Additive Reference Pose setting

5. Adding curves

6. Editing curves

7. Additional import guidance

8. Summary

Complete this tutorial