Unity Character Animation with Mecanim

About This Book

• Create and export models and animation sequences to Unity from 3ds max and Maya
• Prepare character models and animation for games using Mecanim’s rigging tools
• Retarget, adjust, and mix and match motion capture and other animation data
• Write and edit scripts compatible with Mecanim Animation Controllers

Who This Book Is For

If you are a Unity developer looking to get to grips with character animation-specific tools, a 3D software user who is new to Unity, or a beginner game developer who is interested in character animation and interaction, this book is ideal for you.

What You Will Learn

• Acquire efficient techniques to refine and optimize motion capture data
• Retarget animation sequences between different character rigs
• Discover how to rig a humanoid character and export it for use in Unity
• Create dynamic animation sequences from scratch, using keyframe techniques, in two industry standard 3D software packages
• Understand how to set up a complex facial rig for speech
• Construct a ragdoll game object and instantiate it in a game
• Devise Mecanim animation integration for player and AI-driven animation for enemy characters
• Develop command-line applications and explore the key data structures and libraries

In Detail

Game animation for independent developers has taken a giant leap forward with Unity's Mecanim toolset, which streamlines import/export, retargeting, and many other aspects of the character animation workflow.

Unity Character Animation with Mecanim is a great primer for getting to know the nuts and bolts of Mecanim and other character animation-related tools in Unity. This book explores the new set of animation tools introduced to Unity with Mecanim, to replace the older animation component-based system in Unity, which relied heavily on scripting to determine animation sequencing.

This book will provide you with a detailed exploration of the interaction between game development and character animation, and will broaden your understanding of the rich animation toolset within Unity.