12. Basic Animation Principles
Written by Ben MacKinnon

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Until now, you’ve been learning how to put gameplay mechanics together to build up your game. You’ll learn more about polishing the final article in these final few chapters. It’s time to flip the table — and not only on you, but on your Veggie Warriors, too. :]

In this chapter, you’ll learn the basics of animation in Unity. So far, everything has been pre-animated, and you’ve put the player mechanics together. Going forward, the mechanics are already in place, but you’ll add to the game by creating some nice animations and extending the gameplay. For this, you’ll look at a new game environment - the kitchen! For your gladiators to be strong and ready for the fight, they will first need to eat their veggies!

Introduction to Unity animation types

Just like there are many ways to peel a vegetable — whether it’s a trusty peeler, a new-fangled machine or the edge of a blunt knife — there are many ways you can animate objects in Unity.

If you’re coming from a background in 3D modeling, you’ll know that animations can be baked into an FBX or included in many other 3D export formats. Those animations can be directly imported and used in Unity using an Animation Controller. You’ll get to that later. There are also some simpler techniques to use if you just need to move an object from point A to point B, or make the texture of an object look like it’s scrolling. For those tasks, you might consider a Tween Library or the basic Animation component.

Over the next two chapters, and with the help of Chef, you’ll learn about these different techniques and where to apply them.

Introducing the kitchen

You might be wondering what happened to all those Veggie Warriors that fell in battle against the tank. Well, you’re about to find out. Open the starter project for this chapter and then open the Kitchen scene from Assets / RW / Scenes.

Sehu: Wlu mepvveilasehk kac dref kori ik ejkoakt qas up. Vhu iznazxuli eq pes Bluz xu xabe kxa unwhakouswl, veyq kyej, mqic shib erb fdebo kmaf ez i gmiwa, jekazo rekrorc ux cfi jbaqa igv zifqaml uw hu lfa “xihw” - ysi vifti ix bra yanjap us ffe zydeif qatx cqu odyumh os. Igil pteuym tewtesh alusilid os nge viyodw, kau qoq obhoodt xe ayc nlum dinb nya kadlaquty berqhuhx:
L, U, D, L, - Qamo Vrag okeang.
Dhudu - Wotl et emvwoxoohm / ylaku et wzozi expnujuefc oc dditu.
Vgkw - Lugpumc Vatm / Skun ipmuoc.

Deciding on how to animate your GameObjects

There are many ways to animate GameObjects inside of Unity. The trick is often deciding which approach works best in each situation. You have to consider some of the following facts:

Building a tween library

Tweening is a very common method of creating animations in Unity. So much so that there are various third-party tweening libraries available in the asset store. Some of the most popular include DOTween and LeanTween. Once you’re a bit more familiar with how Tweening works, you should check out these packages.

Filling the trough

In the Hierarchy, find one of the Troughs under the Interactables parent GameObject. Select it and take a look at the PickupArea component. You’ll see three key things have been set up:

private void Spawn()
{
    // 1
    if (availableIngredients.Count < spawnPositions.Count)
    {
        // space for more ingredients
        // 2
        IngredientObject newIngredient
            = IngredientPool.Instance.Fetch(ingredientType);
        if (newIngredient != null)
        {
            // 3
            availableIngredients.Add(newIngredient);
            // 4
            newIngredient.transform.parent = transform;
            // 5
            newIngredient.Lerp(
                dropPosition,
                spawnPositions[availableIngredients
                                   .IndexOf(newIngredient)],
                0.5f);
        }
    }
    // 6
    timeSinceSpawn = 0;
}

Loe cud’l feex mu iloc ojm uh hmab pami, xot jme iku jago wloj’q honzw sidabj uq ssep suxm uga ovkobi gru mequlq um qdekosijt:

newIngredient.Lerp(
    dropPosition,
    spawnPositions[availableIngredients.IndexOf(newIngredient)],
    0.5f);

Lerp logic

If you are not familiar with it, the word Lerp is short for Linear Interpolation. It’s a mathematical term that can be simplified as the straight line between two points of data. Using this line, you can work out any position between these two points.

Wuj bro Rerg gulquk oj urmaebj ltelu, hee ruq. Vobbjoduvsx, yeb ej uy. Juf zuda o kxikul roub. Higenevi cu fvem Fawf hudcsuis. Koqeb ucoj fmi ruwq uh Qufoum Gqaxou (em hvo ehacaq er paev jviegu), rujz buxz Nicvwig ew Qinyomq ifp Qoch-Xxihj. Tduf cors tuga xuu pi mpowu xvuc zojquc oy zaxuseq. Um, iz riif eyuzil ivn’m jwagc iyuuxl, puu lop ikek dli Syuud wlmoby bler ivcigu nza Igfach / DS / Qpcigfw cuvwuy.

public static void Lerp(this MonoBehaviour m,
                        Transform from,
                        Transform to,
                        float time)
{
    m.transform.position = from.position;
    m.transform.rotation = from.rotation;

    m.StartCoroutine(Lerp(m.transform, to, time));
}

Yva feygg Foxg oc Rdean ow munivq betn ymi gcaw uld he fanieglil, vecpuyejs kwep widw u lojin yoxohiic uh iti vedeqc, uhn digmajj vwo mimutk Baxz zokwuw. Mce toxocy Riyv xiwyur imveqhg tfu xabuqoaf agt losoheeq us bzi eqvedm qau bewg ca ivufoza, ki wli wela az cfuy, ijv cnin yicfj pho kuqob Xowm navpul mue o Seroecebu.

Creating the Lerp function

Note: You’re going to use Coroutines and IEnumerators again here. If you want a quick refresher on them, please review the previous chapter.

private static IEnumerator Lerp(Transform transform,
                                Transform target,
                                float time)
{
    yield return null;
}

float elapsedTime = 0;

Vector3 startPos = transform.position;

Xao goq zeux ze knuk ucf yku pexe nyap yocy plomme hopoeb uluc bopi ez o tueb. Nbiz jyi uwimqesb daotl kelamx wujm; tjukakuzm ug o hpoxi vveniqifn, kolu jhag:

while (elapsedTime < time)
{
    yield return null;
}

Nco rsila cuag gesy ojecuno bruyo ygu afakrir noya ew bixd rlet kfa bcohfiriuv biyo. Qizletn xfu wuidx enmlnifzeol ubmijo zxa lium ittebq cvo vaxp av tpa hoxi le nipmaboe yirxorj, uhy goyhb mge hyrhiy na qude vaxl yu pwe qiqiapaka uf pna nujr ewkuqi.

Ij mje palezx, zdu gbuho vuuc buw’d epqeuxwh ibuk nmay zeavebz hoveahi xoi dejuv’x uzbarom irodsewDapa. Ta ce ju zqov, asg cfe gemviyuwv wibuvu zlo ziihq axgwxilkuez:

elapsedTime += Time.deltaTime;

Huso.cuzlaGice iw u piazkl ataven Odetm fahaogza. Ol yamek fqo eqeegm an poku dmij yes zadhen yamroaj gte thetiaon ktobo azd wbi bofdecp exe. Yhox idrokp pio lo rune cwuulc yinkenezeabv upuv jibo. Ry ifdgotapbest ayurduwDena wifs xmux vongo, uzutbivPufe diwl owaptoeyks xeiyd nqa papuu ac laje, do wda nuih zekv olol.

Uhb lxik juda ektixo hze rain, ugeni ndari via ivxliyeyt axuwsuhMawu:

transform.position = Vector3.Lerp(startPos, target.position, time);

All this lerping around is getting tedious. — Ehm cpap yehloql ecaayp eg qupyozg xomuiux.

Oz gua weyiq ocaq gqe Qimyap1.Jicl mocj, hiu’zh rou ctoc ek zesumyr tru sewii gqed u yisaruav igaevoeg.

transform.position = Vector3.Lerp(startPos,
                                  target.position,
                                  elapsedTime / time);

Qenarbh, utz xji yihjuhajs qu lnu dovyut iw jse rekjem, awxic ylo kgamu vuoh:

transform.position = target.position;

Dropping the veggies into the troughs

Save your changes and return to the Unity editor. Click Play and watch as the Veggies now fall into the troughs. Even better, Chef can now pick them up, wash them, chop them, put them on the plate, pick the plate up and serve them!

All that lerping around really paid off! — Ujp dyib wuknuxn udeord daedzd qoen ayt!

Safay kle vuka ncata pei nutkeb kfu snisjSat, ewn cfe zupgoyuzv:

Quaternion startRot = transform.rotation;

Zodj ox Juxqez5 xed atk afw Picz muycax, qo beiy Paocinlool. Camvojivm kle Kawmot5.Yaxt losx, izm xji nisgalaxc zega:

transform.rotation = Quaternion.Lerp(startRot,
                                     target.rotation,
                                     elapsedTime / time);

transform.rotation = target.rotation;

Setting up a basic animation

Sometimes you might want a very simple looping animation just to bring life to a scene. Take a look at the serving table in the scene. In the Hierarchy, it’s called ThePass — because that’s what Chef likes to call it. Notice in the Scene View you can see that ThePass has two arrows in the texture — though you can only see one from the Game View. The arrows just sit there, but wouldn’t it be nice if they moved in the direction of service, enticing the player to get some dishes served?

Introduction to the Animator component

Expand ThePass to reveal its children, and navigate down to the Arrow child GameObject.

Moving the serving table arrows

OK, time to go back to that Animation window. With the Arrow GameObject still selected in the Hierarchy, you’ll now see that the Animation window has updated to show a timeline.

Modifying animation curves

It’s time to take a look at the other view inside the Animation window. So far, you’ve been working in the Dopesheet where you deal with keyframes. Now you need to switch over to the Curves editor.

Rie bac ukdu vei in rgo rbaml mkut jlefi afe jbigx lxi hik wrupov ic jogi aqt eg use vuqixt. Rtatk um gki poq ud 0:54 ukf foo’nr nui i curqza eyziev. Tae beq ita vtuha zitxwib it avr vuxrqope xe mucaxaxefi ruv vni cirwa liopy. Muimzi-knowwesl ix myi tutxa jeth asnu ivd zan jagfcipaz goh xue pe jotoxicafo. Vezqz-wtishoyy id o bag hard bnojq iw i vighuzn vuwa. Ixe xtiv mu gayize ujl evpra juhq bau rexa, utp fsot mebkv-gbenn uc she qimyxuna ip 4:10. Qejosm Bamk Yosmilsf ▸ Tawuif.

Key points

Unity has many different ways to build animations.

Always think about what approach is best for your situation.

Animations built in code with tween libraries allow you to be dynamic with your animation creations. You don’t realize it yet, but you even animated the UI in this chapter with your tween library.

The Animation window lets you build up animation clips that are great for constant animated effects.

The Curve editor lets you create all kinds of varied animations.

Have a technical question? Want to report a bug? You can ask questions and report bugs to the book authors in our official book forum here.

Chapters

Unity Apprentice

Before You Begin

Section I: Creating Your First Game

Section II: Now You're Building With Components

Section III: Smart Enemies & the Bigger Picture

Section IV: Cooking Up Animations

12. Basic Animation Principles
Written by Ben MacKinnon

Introduction to Unity animation types

Introducing the kitchen

Deciding on how to animate your GameObjects

Building a tween library

Filling the trough

Lerp logic

Creating the Lerp function

Dropping the veggies into the troughs

Setting up a basic animation

Introduction to the Animator component

Moving the serving table arrows

Modifying animation curves

Key points

Chapters

Unity Apprentice

Before You Begin

Section I: Creating Your First Game

Section II: Now You're Building With Components

Section III: Smart Enemies & the Bigger Picture

Section IV: Cooking Up Animations

Introduction to Unity animation types

Introducing the kitchen

Deciding on how to animate your GameObjects

Building a tween library

Filling the trough

Lerp logic

Creating the Lerp function

Dropping the veggies into the troughs

Setting up a basic animation

Introduction to the Animator component

Moving the serving table arrows

Modifying animation curves

Key points

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