Animation

In this section, we will create two objects to be animated. We will go through the basics of the Animation and Mecanim systems in Unity. Then, in order to turn these animations on and off, we will write a very simple script. Since we will cover scripting in a later chapter, this will be a very cursory look at scripting.

In the past year or so, Unity has added a very powerful tool for animating GameObjects and other properties, called Mecanim. Here, we will go over a few basic elements and animate a few objects. For those with little knowledge of how animation works, here are the big concepts in a short primer.

A quick history

In a traditional hand-drawn animation, normally, a collection of frames played at 24 frames per second, so a minute's animation is 1,440 frames. So, extrapolating 20 minutes of animation adds up to 28,800 frames of animation.

Of course, in most cases, this is way too much work for a single artist. So, a lead artist will draw the signature frames. These might be...