Animating 2D Eye Sprite on 3D Mesh

Hi Forum!

I am not sure whether this belongs in the texturing subforum or animation, so I decided to plop this here.

What are a few methods for animation 2D sprite based eyes onto a 3D mesh?

In Unreal, I made use of the decal system, but in Unity, it looks like I am left with either:

1) using a material and either swapping/offsetting

2) making use of the animation timeline (which I'd prefer).

Is it possible to impose a sprite onto a 3D mesh and have its animation controlled via the animator?

I found this video which is offsetting a texture, which I believe to be more efficient than texture swapping? (Someone feel free to correct me.) I'm guessing if this is the most efficient way in Unity, I could set up events in the timeline to cue events on the material.

I'd love to hear what has worked for you.

 

Seems like the easiest to do is offset a texture.

 

Looks like this answered my performance question: Offset UV, instead.