Is mecanim included when downloading free Unity?

If it is included, I am having the hardest time figuring out how to access/launch it or use it. Please someone just tell me how to start it up, or if I have to download it separately.

 

It's not a separate download. https://docs.unity3d.com/Documentation/Manual/MecanimAnimationSystem.html

--Eric

 

Mecanim is the same as all other things in Unity, it's just a window. This video will help you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xx21y9eJq1U

 

Thanks guys, sorry I was confused from a youtube video where the person started the tutorial with the animator up, and he had Unity Pro, so the black everything made me think it was a separate program!

 

I don't really get mechanim ... I know it's an animation thing and I see these weird-looking flow chart things but isn't there some basic tutorials or something on how to use it for a simple game? It seems way of the head of beginners and seems kind of intimidating all tied up with advanced animation stuff. How does anyone get into it and understand how to use it?

 

Have you checked out the tutorials and examples scenes? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xx21y9eJq1U

It's pretty straight forward in most cases, lucky C# and javascript is nice and simple.

 

First of all to answer the OP's question, mecanim is included with Unity free version, yes. It is not Unity Pro only, so don't worry about that. If you download Unity free version, mecanim should be there ready to use.

Secondly, I just wanted to say I know exactly where you're coming from imaginaryhuman. Not but a year ago I was working with the "legacy" animation system and wondering why they even rolled out the mecanim system, and how the mecanim system would help me at all -- if it even would.

After learning the legacy system first, and then forcing myself to dig into mecanim, I have a little insight on both systems now. Overall, I find mecanim better for my game -- the main reason being the "optimize game object" check box. This allows me to save a ton of performance on bone transforms and hierarchies and stuff like that. I think the main thing I wanted to say is that the mecanim system, to me, actually seems a little LESS advanced than the legacy system. Simply because it's more graphical, and less tied to programming, in my opinion.



I think they intended mecanim to actually be easier for beginners. Its somewhat like reading a book without illustrations and pictures, and then reading the same book with illustrations and pictures lol. Although I believe there are still a few things mecanim cannot do that the legacy system could. But the Unity devs themselves have been pretty good about trying to ensure mecanim can hold it's own.

One thing I'll mention is that at first I though Mecanim was terrible when I started out using it, simply because I didn't see a way to make things happen programmatically at a specific time during an animation. That was absolutely necessary for me. Then I found out about animation "events" in mecanim. This basically saved the day in regards to mecanim for me. Mecanim events allow you to trigger programming functions at very specific times in the animation!

All in all, mecanim is now a pretty good system. Even if you've learned legacy, I think mecanim can actually save you time in the long run. Instead of programming a transition and transition length etc with legacy, you can do the same thing with a graphical interface and a few clicks in mecanim.

There are some drawbacks to mecanim though. Especially like when you start getting a tangled web of animation states and it starts looking like spider man invaded your animation controller lol.