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- Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
- Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
- Sprache: Englisch
A recipe-based guide to give you practical information on Unity 5.x animation techniques and tools
About This Book
- A straightforward and easy-to-follow format.
- A selection of the most important tasks and problems.
- Carefully organized instructions to solve problems efficiently.
- Clear explanations of what you did.
- Solutions that can be applied to solve real-world problems.
Who This Book Is For
This book is for Unity developers who have some exposure to Unity game development who want to learn the nuances of animation in Unity. Previous knowledge of animation techniques and mecanim is not necessary.
What You Will Learn
- Importing animations to Unity
- Work with different animation assets and components
- Create, visualize, and edit animated creatures
- Animating game cut scenes
- Design character actions and expressions
- Create gameplay by animating characters and environments
- Use animations to drive in-game logic
In Detail
This recipe-based practical guide will show you how to unleash the power of animation in Unity 5.x and make your games visually impeccable. Our primary focus is on showing you tools and techniques to animate not only humanoid biped characters, but also other elements. This includes non-humanoid character animation, game world creation, UI element animation, and other key features such as opening doors, changing lights, transitioning to different scenes, using physics, setting up ragdolls, creating destructible objects and more.
While discussing these topics, the book will focus on mecanim, the Unity 3D animation tool, and how you can use it to perform all these tasks efficiently and quickly. It contains a downloadable Unity project with interactive examples for all the recipes. By the end of this book, you will be confident and self-sufficient in animating your Unity 3D games efficiently.
Style and approach
This practical no-nonsense guide is recipe-based with real-world examples of almost all the techniques mentioned.
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Seitenzahl: 385
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016
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Table of Contents
Unity 5.x Animation Cookbook
Unity 5.x Animation Cookbook
Copyright © 2016 Packt Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.
Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.
Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.
First published: May 2016
Production reference: 1160516
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.
Livery Place
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Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.
ISBN 978-1-78588-391-0
www.packtpub.com
Credits
Author
Maciej Szcześnik
Copy Editor
Sameen Siddiqui
Reviewer
Grzegorz Mazur
Project Coordinator
Bijal Patel
Commissioning Editor
Amarabha Banerjee
Proofreader
Safis Editing
Acquisition Editor
Aaron Lazar
Indexer
Rekha Nair
Content Development Editor
Prashanth G Rao
Production Coordinator
Aparna Bhagat
Technical Editor
Murtaza Tinwala
Cover Work
Aparna Bhagat
About the Author
Maciej Szcześnik is an experienced game designer and Unity developer, specializing in gameplay and combat mechanics. His daily responsibilities include motion capture session planning and coordination, creating animation graphs and state machines, and AI design and implementation.
He started his professional career in 2004 at CD Projekt RED—the company best known for the critically acclaimed The Witcher series. Maciej had key roles in the Witcher games, being lead gameplay designer and lead combat designer. He also worked at 11 bit studios, another well-known Polish game development company, famous for the This War Of Mine game.
Maciej gave three talks at the Game Developers Conference and Game Developers Conference Europe. He is also a lecturer at Warsaw Film School, teaching Unity and technical aspects of animation as part of the game development BA course.
I'd like to thank my wife for her support, Kacper Kwiatkowski and Grzegorz Mazur from Vile Monarch for their reviews, Marek Ziemak and Piotr Tomsiński for inspiring discussions about games and animations, and Michał Pieńkowski and Marcin Iwanek for countless RPG and tabletop game sessions. I'd also like to thank all my friends and former coworkers from 11 bit studios and CD Projekt RED for helping me develop my skills.
About the Reviewer
Grzegorz Mazur is a programmer who graduated in information technology from Warsaw University of Technology. He is currently co-boss and technical director at Vile Monarch. Previously, he worked for 11 bit studios, where he was lead programmer of This War of Mine and Sleepwalker's Journey. He specializes in gameplay and AI programming and is a teacher at Warsaw Film School. He is also an amateur musician and board game enthusiast.
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Preface
This book describes Unity's animation techniques from a designer's point of view. It is focused on achieving interesting gameplay effects and creating game mechanics. Each topic is presented in the form of a short recipe with a list of steps needed to implement the given feature. All the recipes are prepared in the most condensed form—a good basis to build your own solutions on.
This book doesn't cover animating in a 3D package, although you may find some helpful tips regarding Blender 3D in it. A lot of the recipes presented in this book use C# scripting not only for triggering animations, but also for creating interesting motions and effects. If you are a game designer or a Unity developer and would like to know more about what's possible with Unity's animation system, I hope this book will be an interesting read for you. Also, if you have any questions regarding this book or the topics it covers, you can contact me via Twitter (@MaciejSzczesnik). I will be happy to help.
What this book covers
Chapter 1, Working with Animations, describes the tools essential for importing animations from 3D packages. It also covers most of the import settings.
Chapter 2, Working with the Animation View, covers Unity's built-in animation tool, used to animate almost everything apart from characters.
Chapter 3, 2D and User Interface Animation, focuses on animating 2D sprites and UI elements.
Chapter 4, Character Movement, covers different types of movement, using animations and root motion.
Chapter 5, Character Actions and Expressions, is about actions, action points, and facial expressions.
Chapter 6, Handling Combat, covers combat-specific topics, such as using animations for aiming and creating a hit-detection system.
Chapter 7, Special Effects, is not only about particle systems, but also about animating fog, creating wind zones, and even using sound waveforms for animation.
Chapter 8, Animating Cutscenes, describes how to import a cutscene from a 3D package and how to prepare simple cutscenes using Unity's Animation View.
Chapter 9, Physics and Animations, shows how to create ragdolls and break stuff.
Chapter 10, Miscellaneous, is the last chapter and describes a few solutions to common problems—for instance, working with mocap animations in Blender and Unity.
What you need for this book
You need to install Unity 5.x (preferably 5.3 or greater). You also need to have your own animations or download the provided example project. It contains the assets needed to follow each recipe.
Who this book is for
This book is for Unity developers who have some exposure to Unity game development and want to learn the nuances of animation in Unity. Previous knowledge of animation techniques and mecanim is not necessary.
Sections
In this book, you will find several headings that appear frequently (Getting ready, How to do it..., How it works..., There's more..., and See also).
To give clear instructions on how to complete a recipe, use these sections as follows:
Getting ready
This section tells you what to expect in the recipe and describes how to set up any software or any preliminary settings required for the recipe.
How to do it…
This section contains the steps required to follow the recipe.
How it works…
This section usually consists of a detailed explanation of what happened in the previous section.
There's more…
This section consists of additional information about the recipe in order to make you more knowledgeable about the recipe.
See also
This section provides helpful links to other useful information for the recipe.
Conventions
In this book, you will find a number of text styles that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles and an explanation of their meaning.
Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "Simply drag and drop the file to your Assets folder."
A block of code is set as follows:
using UnityEngine; using System.Collections; public class Wave : MonoBehaviour { //The anim variable is used to store the reference //to the Animator component of the character. private Animator anim;New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, for example, in menus or dialog boxes, appear in the text like this: "Go to Assets | Import new asset and choose your FBX file."
Note
Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.
Tip
Tips and tricks appear like this.
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Errata
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Questions
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Chapter 1. Working with Animations
This chapter explains the essentials of working with animations in Unity and covers the following topics:
Introduction
Unity is a great game engine that implements the animate everything philosophy, which allows you to visualize even the most creative gameplay ideas. Through the course of this book, we will learn a variety of recipes that will help you unleash the power of Unity 5.x animation tools and make your games more fun.
In this first chapter, we will get more familiar with using skeletal animations in Unity. It will guide you through the process of importing such animations, editing them, and assigning them to your in game characters. This knowledge is essential for understanding recipes described in further chapters.
Importing skeletal animations
This first recipe shows how to import a skeletal animation from a 3D package. It assumes that you have an animation already prepared. We are going to bring the file to Unity and show where you can adjust the import settings. We will not jump into too much detail for now to make the import process as quick as possible. We will cover all the settings in further recipes.
Getting ready
Most animations are created in external 3D packages such as Maya, 3ds Max, Motion Builder, or Blender 3D. Make sure you have prepared a 3D model with a skeleton, the model is skinned, and you have created at least one animation. You can also download the provided example; open the project in Unity and go to this folder: Chapter 01 Working with animations\Recipe 01 Importing skeletal animations\Sheep Model. You will find an imported FBX file called Sheep.fbx there.
How to do it...
To import a skeletal animation, you need to follow these steps:
Tip
If you are using Blender, you don't have to manually export the file to FBX format. Simply drag and drop the file to your Assets folder. Unity will use Blender FBX exporter in the background. Additionally, you will be able to open the file by double-clicking on it in Unity. After you edit and save it, Unity will reimport it again. It is a very convenient way of editing animations as you don't have to go through the export-import process each time you make a change.
How it works...
Unity uses four different rig configurations:
We will discuss differences between Generic and Humanoid rigs further in the next recipe.
There's more...
Tip
If you are using Blender, make sure to rotate the rig -90 degrees in the X axis, apply the rotation in Blender and then rotate it again, +90 degrees in the X axis. The rotation of the rig in Blender should be: 90 X, 0 Y, and 0 Z. Your model should be facing the -Y axis in Blender (when you change the view to FRONT, you should see the face of your character). Blender and Unity use different axes alignment: in Blender, Z is up and Y is back; in Unity Z, is front and Y is up. This little trick solves the problem. Your model after import should have 0 rotation and should be facing the Z axis. It is important for moving objects (such as characters) and rig configuration. If you don't do this, your model will have -90 X rotation after the import.
Configuring generic and humanoid rigs
This recipe shows how to configure two most frequently used rig types: Generic and Humanoid. We will go through all the available options for both of them.
Getting ready
As previously mentioned, make sure you have prepared two animated characters. One of them should be a humanoid and the other a non-humanoid, a quadruped for instance. You can also download the provided example Unity project and go to the Chapter 01 Working with animations\Recipe 02 Configuring generic and humanoid rigs\Rigs directory.
You will find there three FBX files:
If you are creating your characters from scratch, the bones hierarchy of your humanoid rig is important for Unity to recognize the rig as a humanoid. It should follow this pattern:
HIPS -> SPINE -> CHEST -> NECK -> HEAD HEAD -> EYE (for left and right eyes) HEAD -> JAW HIPS -> UPPER LEG -> LOWER LEG -> FOOT -> TOES (for left and right legs) CHEST -> SHOULDER -> ARM -> FOREARM -> HAND (for left and right hands) HAND -> PROXIMAL -> INTERMEDIATE -> DISTAL (for five fingers in left and right hands)The hip bone is the root bone of the humanoid character. Fingers, shoulders, chest, neck, eyes, jaw, and toes are optional bones. Your humanoid character will work without them.
You should also remember to model the character in a T-POSE. It should face the Z axis in Unity (if your 3D software uses different axis alignment from Unity's like Blender, remember about the -90 and +90 degrees rotation trick shown in the Importing skeletal animations recipe). Hands of the character should be flat, palm down, and parallel to the ground along the X axis. A-POSE characters will also work.
How to do it...
To configure a generic rig you need to follow these steps:
Humanoid rig configuration has a lot more options:
Note
Some quadruped characters can be mistaken by Unity for humanoids. You can find a Quadruped.fbx file in the provided example Unity project. Theoretically, you can set its rig to Humanoid, and Unity will recognize it as valid. This, however, is a mistake—all quadruped characters' rigs should be set to Generic. Setting them as humanoids can cause problems later.
How it works...
Humanoid rig uses more advanced Mecanim features than the Generic rig. You can find the list of such features below:
I highly recommend using Humanoid rigs for all humanoid characters in your game.
There's more...
Creating and assigning an Animator Controller
Animator Controllers are state machines (graphs) responsible for controlling the flow of animations of any animated object in the game. The same Animator Controller asset can be used by multiple objects or characters. Unity will create an independent runtime copy of the asset for each animated object it is assigned to.
Getting ready
As always, you should have a rigged and animated character ready before we start. Import it into Unity, choose the proper rig type, and put it into a scene. You can download the example Unity project and go to the Chapter 01 Working with animations\Recipe 03 Creating and assigning an animator controller directory. There is a scene called Example.unity there. If you open it, you'll find a Sheep character in the Hierarchy. It has an Animator Controller already created and assigned. You can also use the Quadruped.fbx file from the Chapter 01 Working with animations\Recipe 03 Creating and assigning an animator controller\Rigs directory to follow the recipe step by step.
How to do it...
To create and assign an Animator Controller, follow these steps:
How it works...
Every animated object in Unity uses an Animator component and an Animator Controller asset. The component is responsible for playing animations in runtime. It has a number of parameters that we have to set or we can use to tweak the component's functionality:
The Animator Controller asset stores a graph of animations (animation states) and defines the rules of switching between them, blending them, and so on. The controller (asset) is attached to the component's Controller field (the component is attached to a character prefab or a character placed in the scene). Many objects or characters can share the same Animator Controller if they use the same animations (have the same rigs or are humanoid characters).
See also
If you want to learn how to create animation graphs and control their flow, see the next two recipes: Creating animation transitions in Animator Controller and Using parameters to control the animation flow.
Creating animation transitions in Animator Controller
As mentioned previously, Animator Controllers are state machines containing animations (states). Any given character can be in one such state (play one animation) at a time. To switch between states (animations), you need to create state transitions.
Getting ready
Before we start, you should have an animated model placed on a scene with an Animator Controller assigned. You can find such a model in the provided example Unity project. Go to the Chapter 01 Working with animations\Recipe 04 Creating animation transitions in Animator Controller directory. Open the Example.unity file. You will find a Sheep object in the Hierarchy. It has an Animator Controller assigned. You can open it by double-clicking on the Controller field in the Animator component of the Sheep game object.
How to do it...
To create a state transition in an Animator Controller, follow these steps:
How it works...
State transitions define how we can travel through the graph of animations. They are combined with transition conditions based on Animator Controller parameters; we will discuss the parameters in detail in the next recipe: Using parameters to control the animation flow. Each transition has a set of properties we can adjust. Click on the transition (white arrow) to select it. You can find the transition properties in the Inspector tab (make sure to unfold the Settings foldout):
