Character Animation 2D tracks

Rairun

Could anyone who got these working share an explanation and maybe screenshots of your setup? The manual says that "if the character is moved using an Animation track, the character’s root object must be moved - not the sprite child", but my character didn't even have an animator on the root object, only on the sprite child. When I added an animator to the root object (leaving everything else the way it was), I was able to add it as an animation track and move the object, but the walk animation didn't play.

ChrisIceBox

So you now have two Animators - one on the root, another on the sprite child?

That should work - AC should pick up on the sprite child's animator as the one to control for the standard animations. Does the character continue to animate when not in the Timeline?

The track works by playing animation based on the root object's change in position/rotation, and must span the whole period you want the automatic animation to play.

Best to share some screenshots of your Timeline, the root Inspector, and the sprite child. Nothing sounds wrong from your description, so it may be some minor detail.

AC and Unity versions, too, please.

Rairun

Root inspector:

Sprite child:

Timeline:

When I run the timeline, the idle_r animation plays fine, then the root object transform also works just fine (but the walk animation doesn't play), and then the walk_r animation under the sprite track also works.

The character animates perfectly in normal gameplay when the timeline is not running.

Unity 2019.3.15f1
AC 1.71.8

ChrisIceBox

Unassign the Controller asset from the root object's Animator - I'm assuming that all the animations affect the Sprite Renderer on the same object, not the child.

Try muting or removing the third track in your Timeline. As the Rosa_Idle_R animation is set to play infinitely after it ends, I suspect it's overriding the effects of the Character Animation 2D track.

Rairun

Thanks, Chris! Changing the animation extrapolation option did the trick.

I've just noticed, though, that despite the fact that the timeline takes control of movement/animation throughout its duration, the Character Animation 2D track doesn't remain in control of the direction the character is facing. For example, while the timeline moves the root object to the right, the Character Animation 2D track correctly makes the character play the Walk_R animation, but if you click to the left while the animation is playing, the character turns to the left while moonwalking to the right.

ChrisIceBox

If you're using this track to affect the Player character, be sure to block gameplay while it runs so as not to interfere with normal Player behaviour.

In the Engine: Control Timeline Action that triggers it, check Wait until finish?, and make sure the ActionList itself has its When running field set to Block Gameplay.