Creating 2D Animations

Hi! I'm new to Unity and have decided to start with a simple project after going through the tutorials available! Since I've only had elementary programming experience I thought I'd just try to create a simple 2D (non)game of my character walking around with a simple AI to begin with and scale from there later if it's successful.

If I'm not mistaken, with 2D sprites I have the options of creating animations by combining and animating slices of parts of a character in a sprite sheet or using a sprite sheet various poses of the the character doing different things. I think the former is a better option for me, given that I wanted to achieve a different kind of animation, such that different parts of the character are movable, for example:



Then I had another idea that would perhaps yield the ideal result that I want (it's sort of like a marionette); instead of creating animation by using a clip, I thought about linking different parts of the character using hinges/springs instead and then apply a loop to move the centre of mass up and down (while restricting the angles of movement for other parts as required).

If that doesn't sound like a silly idea, the one thing that bothers me the most is whether or not creating "animation" this way may be undesirable in terms of using resources and/or how it would compare against using animation clips. Apart from that, I think the major downside to that method is when it comes to executing precise movements such as casting a spell or making the character walk; although, from what I can understand, it does seem to save a lot of work when compared against creating clips for each character.

It would be fantastic if I could get some second opinions on this before I dive into making the artwork, since they would differ slightly depending on which method I use. Thank you very much in advance and many apologies if I'm getting some technical terms wrong!

 

Start with prototyping the setup with no/minimal art. Don't waste time creating the artwork (my favorite part also) if the animation process you decide upon isn't set in stone yet.
Do some experimenting and you'll come up with the answer you are searching for.
And please update when you've come to a solution you decide to use.

Related story - Around the time mecanim was released (before knowing anything about retargeting) I animated a complete animation set without knowing exactly what was required. The results didn't work as expected because I didn't know what I needed to know before jumping into the art.

 

I see! Thank you very much for your advice! I actually haven't had the time to sit down to the artwork since I asked that question (unfortunately) and have only been using what little spare time I hae to work on snippets of code for my first attempt at making a game. xD

I'll (try my best to remember to) update this thread when I have come up with a solution! Thank you very much again!