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

Open the Rig tab

Review the Animation Type setting

Create a new Avatar asset

Select a Root node

Set the Skin Weights

Optimize the model GameObjects

Creating and applying Avatar Masks

Summary

Create and configure an Avatar asset for a Generic Rig

Rigs are a way of defining the structure of the model being imported and are used to define how animations play. In this tutorial, you’ll learn about Animation Types and create and configure an Avatar asset for a Generic Rig. 

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 > 2.8: Configuring Generic Rigs. 

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

To start configuring rigs, you’ll first need to open the Rigs tab in Unity:


1. In the Project window, go to 2.8 - Configuring Generic Rigs > Models and select the Ellen model.


2. In the Inspector, click the Rig tab (next to the Model tab) to open it. 


The only available setting is the Animation Type. 

If a model has no animation or it’s not intended to be used to play animations, then leave the Animation Type as None. The other options are Legacy, Generic and Humanoid. 

The Inspector for the Ellen model with the Rig tab selected.

Let’s review the three other Animation Types in a little more detail.

Legacy is used to ensure compatibility with versions of Unity before 4.x.

The most common Animation Type setting for animated models is Generic. You should use this Animation Type for most animated models. 

You should use Humanoid Animation Type if the model you’re importing is a character with a humanoid shape and one or more of the following applies:

The model has animations that are intended to be played through another Humanoid model with a different hierarchical structure.

You’re using the model to play animations that are from Humanoid models with a different hierarchical structure.

You want to use the built-in Humanoid features, such as arm and leg IK or target matching.


You’ll explore the Humanoid Rig Type in more detail in 2.9 Configuring Humanoid Rigs.

For this tutorial, set the Animation Type to Generic. 

Now you’ve set the Animation Type to Generic, you’ll see more settings to configure. 

The first setting you’ll see below Animation Type is the Avatar Definition. 

Avatars are an asset representation of the model’s Rig. They take different forms depending on whether the Rig is Generic or Humanoid.

Avatars are required for some animation functionality, such as animation masking. A common practice is to create an Avatar for the model that will be playing the animation and let the models that contain the animation data use it.

1.  Set the Avatar Definition field to Create From This Model.


2.  Select the Apply button to create the new Avatar asset. 

The Inspector for the Ellen model with the Rig tab selected. The Animation Type has been changed from None to Generic revealing two additional properties: Avatar Definition and Skin Weights.

The Ellen model asset in the Project window is expanded showing all the sub-assets including EllenAvatar.

When the Animation Type is set to Generic, the next setting available is the option to select a Root node.

Root nodes are used to define Root Motion in animations. Root Motion is when an animation causes GameObjects to offset from their previous position rather than just moving in absolute terms. 

For example, if a GameObject is animated to move forward on its z-axis, then with Root Motion, the GameObject would continue to move further and further along the z-axis as the animation loops. 

Without Root Motion, whenever the animation loops, the GameObject would return to where it started and then move forward in its z-axis again. The Root node is used as a reference for this Motion.

The appropriate Root Node for the example model is the Ellen_Root GameObject, which is a child of Ellen_Skeleton.

If the Root node is not set to Ellen_Skeleton/Ellen_Root, set it now using the drop-down menu. 

The next setting available is the Skin Weights. 

Models are represented by a triangle mesh, as you explored in 2.3 Model-specific animation import settings. Let’s recap the basics:

Generally, animated models have a skinned mesh. 

Skinning is the process of connecting each vertex of a mesh to one or multiple bones and then giving those bones a weight to affect that vertex. 

In Unity, bones are represented by the Transforms of a model, so each vertex moves with a weighted combination of the Transforms it is skinned to. 


The Skin Weights setting allows you to adjust how many bones a vertex can be skinned to. By default, this is set to 4 bones and it’s recommended you keep it at 4 in most use cases. 

Some advanced users may want to adjust this for performance or accuracy reasons in special cases. In such cases, the Skin Weights setting can be changed from Standard (4 bones) to Custom. This means you can adjust the Max Bones/Vertex and Max Bone Weight settings. 

The Max Bones/Vertex setting allows you to set how many bones should be considered in calculating the position of a vertex. The Max Bone Weight setting allows you to set a minimum Weight a bone must have before it’s considered for the position calculation of a vertex.

You don’t need to change the Skin Weights of your example model from the default.

The final available settings in the Rig tab are about optimizing GameObjects in the model. These settings are important for any models that will be instantiated at any point. 

Normally, the bones of a model are represented by Transforms that are part of GameObjects. Sometimes, however, models can have very complicated hierarchies. This can result in having many GameObjects that are there simply to define the positions of the vertices of a skinned mesh. 

If Optimize GameObjects is enabled, all GameObjects that have no components on them are removed. The Skinned Mesh is then moved directly by the animation. 

Optimizing GameObjects results in a significant performance increase, so you should do it as often as possible. 

Sometimes, it might be necessary to keep a GameObject that would otherwise be removed when you enable Optimize GameObjects. For example, if you have a character who wears changeable armour, you might need to expose the Chest GameObject so that the armour can be attached. To keep the GameObject(s), you need to use the Expose Extra Transforms settings. 

Let’s test this by exposing the chest of the example character model:


1.  In the Inspector, enable Optimize Game Objects.  


2.  Expand the Extra Transforms to Expose foldout.


3.  Expand each node’s foldout to go to Ellen_Skeleton > Ellen_Root > Ellen_Hips > Ellen_Spine > Ellen_Chest. 


5.  Click Apply to save the changes to the Rig. 


6.  Drag the Ellen model from the Project window into the Hierarchy to instantiate it. 


7.  In the Hierarchy, expand the Ellen GameObject to see its children.

The Rig will no longer have any child GameObjects other than Ellen_Body (which has a Skinned Mesh Renderer component) and Ellen_Chest (which you exposed).  

The Inspector for the Ellen model with the Rig tab selected. The Optimize Game Objects property is enabled and highlighted.

The table below the Extra Transforms to Expose foldout showing the Transform hierarchy of the Ellen model with check boxes to the left. The Ellen_Chest Transform is highlighted and is enabled.

The final thing you will consider in this tutorial is Avatar Masks for Generic Avatars.

Avatar Masks are a way of preventing animation data from being written to its binding. They work differently for Humanoid and Generic Avatars, but the overall effect is the same: Transform data is not used from sources that have been masked.

Avatar Masks are assets and can be created in the same way as you would create other assets.

Using the Create menu in the Project window, select Avatar Mask.

Avatar Masks for Generic Avatars have a foldout list of Transforms. You can use this list to  deselect individual Transforms to be masked, or select Transforms you want unmasked. 

You can apply Avatar Masks in two different situations:

To imported Animation Clips during the import process, to stop the animation data of certain Transforms being added to that Animation Clip.

To Animation Layers in an Animator Controller, to prevent animation data of certain Transforms being added to the resultant blend of all the Layers of the Animator Controller. These Avatar Masks must be created as assets but work identically to other Avatar Masks.

You can find out more about importing Animation Clips and Animation Layers in other tutorials in this course. 


Note: It’s important to remember that Avatar Masks only mask Transform data. They do not mask data on the same GameObject as a masked Transform.

The Inspector for the Transform half of an Avatar Mask.

In this tutorial, you’ve explored how to configure generic rigs. You've learned:

When to use each of the three animation types: legacy, generic and humanoid.

That Avatars are an asset representation of a rig and how to create them.

How Root Nodes work in relation to generic rigs.

Reviewed skin weights are learned how to set them for generic rigs.

How to optimize your generic rig models and how to override the removal of GameObjects in the optimization process.

How Avatar masks apply to generic rigs and how to create and apply them.

In the next tutorial, you’ll learn how to configure another type of animation: humanoid rigs.

2.8 Configuring Generic Rigs

1. Overview

2. Before you begin

3. Open the Rig tab

4. Review the Animation Type setting

5. Create a new Avatar asset

6. Select a Root node

7. Set the Skin Weights

8. Optimize the model GameObjects

9. Creating and applying Avatar Masks

10. Summary

Complete this tutorial