Avatar and animations role in Unity

Hi, I'm new in Unity, my questions are:

Why Unity need an avater if I import a model with armature, skinning and with animations?

Can I create animations on armature (not on object) in Unity or I must do that only with other programs (like blender)?

 

Avatars map bones to muscle space to allow for animation retargeting on all humanoid rigs/skeletons -- basically.

Animations need to be created in external animation tools i.e. 3D Max.

 

The job of "map bones to muscle space to allow for animation retargeting on all humanoid rigs/skeletons" is not the job of "skinning" made with vertex weights in external program?
Thank you.

 

No
Skinning (vertex weighting) is assigning weight values to vertices to be controlled by bones.

 

If I'm not wrong, avatar is useful in this situation:
I have an animation (maded by others and based on the internal model of Unity) and I want to apply it on my armature. Then I ask to Unity to map my armature to the model of Unity and so I can use the animation.
In the situation where I have my armature and my animation it is not necessary this mapping.
That's right?

 

Essentially YES however there are certain requirements that have to be met by your character as well as the animation from others. The rigs (bones) should match the (unity) humanoid bone hierarchy.
This is not 100% true - but unless you have a dedicated character setup artist, adhering to the humanoid rig is needed.

 

Ok thank you for your answer and patience

 

Use the blender it will be easier to import things and model them and the rigging of the bodies can be more realastic

 

Thank you jeffthoms321, yes I'm learning blender