I wanted to finish this Takeover with something I get asked a lot: how do I set up my characters in Unity? So here is how to create, rig and animate simple characters all in Unity! I threw together a cute robot for this occasion 🤖
It’s easy to create simple characters with basic primitives. Probuilder is useful too! For this character I used 4 models that I duplicated, scaled, rotated around to create this cute robot. It helps to think about animation at this step!
Once the model is done, I create empty gameobjects, and place them where the joints would rotate. These are the objects that will get animated, it’s important to name them correctly for animation! Using front/side views helps with precise placement.
The next step is creating constraints by parenting objects together! For humanoids it's common to start from the pelvis, and work your way to the limbs. For example: Body > UpperLeg_R > LowerLeg_R > Foot_R
Then, link the visual objects in the right parent.
After a few tweaks, you’ll have a character with controls that should be easy to animate! Note that for most characters, animation is mostly about rotation. Double check the placements of your “controllers objects”, make sure there are no duplicate names.
Now it’s ready for the fun part: animation! Create an animator, add an animation clip, add keys and have fun😁 This is a vast subject, the best way to get better at it is to practice!
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Game development can be difficult, but there are ways to increase your learning process 10x. Here are some things you can do to maximize your learning potential 🧵
⌛ You can speed up in the scene view camera! That way you can adjust the speed and avoid missing the objects you are trying to zoom into. You can also Right Click and scroll the scroll wheel on the mouse to change the speed more easily! (1/7)
You can press “F” when you select an object in the Scene View to focus on it. You can press Shift+F to focus and zoom in to the object! (2/7)
When importing pixel art, make sure to pay attention to the resolution of your art.
Ideally, the size should be base 2, for example, 16x16,32x32,64x64,128x128, however, it is not necessary. Make sure it is a PNG with a transparent background. Tiles by @KenneyNL. (1/8)
In the import settings, select Sprite and then set the PPU (Pixels Per Unit) to the size of your pixel resolution. For example for a 64x64 image, you will put in 64. This is important for the pixels to be scaled correctly. (2/8)
Thank you again for a great takeover ♥ Make sure to give Joyce's website a visit, we've also compiled all the tips below so you can find them in one place 😊