Step-by-step documentation/tutorial

[bluffParticipant]

Hi, is there any documentation or tutorials in english that show the process of taking a character rig from maya, importing it into unity/slate and then adding animations to it (separate individual animations as opposed to one clip that has several pieces to it).

Thanks!

[GavalakisKeymaster]

Hello,

For importing models and animations in Unity, there is a lot of documentation about it in the Unity manual. Basically, you need to import your model and your animations as separate files, with the animation related FBX files having a special suffix “@”.
For example if your model FBX is named “John.fbx”, then you would import separate animations for john by exporting each animation in a separate FBX file named for example “John@Idle.fbx”, “John@Walk.fbx” etc.

Then in Slate, all you have to do is:

– Create an Actor Group for John, by drag and dropping the John gameobject from the Scene Hierarchy tab and into the Slate window.
– Create an “Animator Track” if you are using Unity 5.4 (highly recommended for Slate), or an “Animation Track” if you are using Unity 5.3.
– Add a “Play Animation Clip” action in that track by right clicking on the track.
– Select the Animation Clip you want to play in the inspector of that action clip added in the track.

Let me know if that helps or if you want more information. I will also create a more detailed step-by-step in the documentation as soon as possible.
Cheers.

[bluffParticipant]

Hi and thanks for the quick reply! Should the character be set up on import as “Legacy” “Generic” or “Humanoid” to work with slate in Unity 5.4?

[bluffParticipant]

Additionally, should the animations themselves be tagged as “Legacy” “Generic” or “Humanoid”?

[bluffParticipant]

And if I use an “animator track” instead of an “animation track” does that mean that I can’t have different layer animation tracks in Slate? That’s the feature I find most powerful with your editor.

[GavalakisKeymaster]

Hey,

If you are using the “Animator Track”, both model and animation FBX files should be imported as “Generic” or “Humanoid”.
If you are using the “Animation Track”, both model and animation FBX files should be imported as “Legacy”.

The “Animator Track” does not yet support layering animations on top one another, because Unity itself does not yet support this. As far as I know, Unity will support this when Unity 5.4 is officially released, at which time Slate will also immediately be updated to support this feature as well!

Thanks!

[bluffParticipant]

Awesome! I think 5.4 just had it’s official release last week. Let me know if it’s in there or if you think we’ll have to wait for a future release.

BTW I’m really digging Slate!

[GavalakisKeymaster]

Hey,

Ah, yes. To be honest I didn’t notice they released it 🙂
It seems that the layering feature is not yet there though, so probably will be at a future release. That’s a shame though. Hopefully this will be soon!

Thank you! I am really glad you like Slate 🙂
Cheers!

[bluffParticipant]

Is there a specific named feature that would make this possible? I know some people at Unity so if you let me know the technical term for the feature you’re waiting for, I might be able to ask them.

In the meantime, could you help me troubleshoot the legacy version of animation in Slate? I have a character imported (that will work with mecanim). When I switch the character properties to be “Legacy” and all the animations to be “Legacy”, I can see animation previews of the animations playing on my character, but when I drop them into the timeline in slate and press play, the character just stands there frozen. I’m not getting any errors in the console and the animation clips in the timeline are gray and at the appropriate length so I know that slate is recognizing the correct animations.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

[GavalakisKeymaster]

Hey,

Sure. 🙂 The thing I am waiting for is for Unity to expose the ‘AnimationLayerMixerPlayable’ class which right now is still an internal experimental feature, probably due to the fact that it’s still not fully working yet.

Regarding Legacy animation usage in Slate, after both the model and animations of the model are set to import against “Legacy” in the the “Rig” import settings tab, in Slate they should work with the “Animation Track” correctly. I have tested this with several character from the asset store. Maybe something going on specifically with your character. Is it possible for you to send me the character to check it out and see what can potentially be wrong here?

Thanks in advance!

[mbergoParticipant]

I could really use the steps to do this. I’m a super new user, and struggling thru your documents. Tutorials please.

Create an “Animator Track” if you are using Unity 5.4 (highly recommended for Slate), or an “Animation Track” if you are using Unity 5.3.

[bluffParticipant]

What’s the best way to send you my character and animations so that you can try them out on your end?

Thanks!

[GavalakisKeymaster]

Hey,
Please send the files to support@paradoxnotion.com and I will check them out. 🙂
Thanks.

@mbergo Sorry I missed your post. Can you please clarify what you need help with?
Thanks.

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