Search Unity

  1. Megacity Metro Demo now available. Download now.
    Dismiss Notice
  2. Unity support for visionOS is now available. Learn more in our blog post.
    Dismiss Notice

How to animate blendshapes or other components with this setup?

Discussion in 'Animation' started by LezCT, Dec 5, 2019.

  1. LezCT

    LezCT

    Joined:
    Nov 15, 2014
    Posts:
    55
    Hi, I'm having trouble animating my characters with a different setup where the original model is parented to the empty object and the original model's animator is moved to the empty object that is now the parent.
    something like this:
    https://imgur.com/a/kUmhoCU

    I think it's a problem with my avatar, but if that's the case, how can i edit my avatar asset to make it animate the components?
     
  2. LezCT

    LezCT

    Joined:
    Nov 15, 2014
    Posts:
    55
    weird, but i think i got it.
    when we animate our component like this, the animation doesn't use the avatar definition but instead using the directory directly from the hierarchy, hence the blendshape or any other component animation are broke/went missing.
    like for example:
    when we animate New Parent / Original Parent / Blendshape
    the animator avatar only looks at the level from the New Parent:
    Original Parent / Blendshape
    Then it triggers the yellow missing object/component.

    The solution is to rename the animation property made from the animation window (press F2 key on the yellow property), and follow the avatar definition instead, by not following the one from the hierarchy window and following the original directory from the avatar definition.
    like for example:
    if the hierarchy from the model/avatar is like
    Original/Parent/Component
    and your new unity rig setup is like
    New Parent/Original Parent/Component
    the animation made from the animation window will follow the new unity rig set up and you will need to rename the animation property very often to match the hierarchy from the avatar asset and to make the animation work. You don't need to deal with this though if your animator doesn't use an avatar definition.

    It's a very cumbersome solution, but it works and worth mentioning because it's been like this since the beginning, where this component animation works as expected on almost everything except when dealing with animator with avatar.
     
    Last edited: Dec 5, 2019