Lesson 3.3 - Don't Just Stand There

1. Explore the player’s animations

In order to get this character moving their arms and legs, we need to explore the Animation Controller.

Double-click on the Player’s Animation Controller, then explore the different Layers, double-clicking on States to see their animations and Transitions to see their conditions

2. Make the player start off at a run

Now that we’re more comfortable with the animation controller, we can tweak some variables and settings to make the player look like they’re really running.

1. In the Parameters tab, change the Speed_f variable to 1.0

1. Right-click on Run_Static > Set as Layer Default State

1. Single-click the the Run_Static state and adjust the Speed value in the inspector to match the speed of the background

3. Set up a jump animation

The running animation looks good, but very odd when the player leaps over obstacles. Next up, we need to add a jumping animation that puts a real spring in their step.

1. In PlayerController.cs, declare a new private Animator playerAnim;

1. In Start(), set playerAnim = GetComponent<Animator>();

1. In the if-statement for when the player jumps, trigger the jump:
   playerAnim.SetTrigger(“Jump_trig”);

4. Adjust the jump animation

The running animation plays, but it’s not perfect yet, we should tweak some of our character’s physics-related variables to get this looking just right.

1. In the Animator window, click on the Running_Jump state, then in the inspector and reduce its Speed value to slow down the animation

1. Adjust the player’s mass, jump force, and gravity modifier to get your jump just right

5. Set up a falling animation

The running and jumping animations look great, but there’s one more state that the character should have an animation for. Instead of continuing to sprint when it collides with an object, the character should fall over as if it has been knocked out.

1. In the condition that player collides with Obstacle, set the Death bool to true

1. In the same if-statement, set the DeathType integer to 1
   

6. Keep player from unconscious jumping

Everything is working perfectly, but there’s one small disturbing bug to fix: the player can jump from an unconscious position, making it look like the character is being defibrillated.

1. To prevent the player from jumping while unconscious, add && !gameOver to the jump condition
   

7. Lesson Recap

New Functionality:

• The player starts the scene with a fast-paced running animation

• When the player jumps, there is a jumping animation

• When the player crashes, the player falls over

New Concepts and Skills:

• Animation Controllers

• Animation States, Layers, and Transitions

• Animation parameters

• Animation programming

• SetTrigger(), SetBool(), SetInt()

• Not (!) operator

Next Lesson:

• We’ll really polish this game up to make it look nice using particles and sound effects!