What’s “Mecanim”?
Mecanim was the name of the animation software that we integrated into Unity. Early in the 4.x series of Unity, its abilities were tied specifically to humanoid character animation and it had many features which were uniquely suited for that purpose, and it was separate to our old (now legacy) integrated animation system.
Mecanim integrated humanoid animation retargeting, muscle control, and the state machine system. The name “Mecanim” comes from the French word “Mec” meaning “Guy”. Since Mecanim operated only with humanoid characters, our legacy animation system was still required for animating non-humanoid characters and other keyframe-based animation of gameobjects within Unity.
Since then however, we’ve developed and expanded Mecanim and integrated it with the rest of our animation system so that it can be used for all aspects of animation within your project - so there is a less clear definition where “Mecanim” ends and the rest of the animation system begins. For this reason, you’ll still see references in our documentation and throughout our community to “Mecanim” which has now simply come to mean our main animation system.
What’s the difference between the Animation component and the Animator component?
The Animation component is an old component used for animation in our legacy animation system. It remains in Unity for backwards compatibility but you should not use it for new projects. Use the up-to-date Animator component instead.
What’s the difference between the Animation window and the Animator window?
The Animation Window allows you to create and edit animation clips within Unity. You can use it to animate almost every property that you can edit in the inspector, from a Game Object’s position, a material colour, a light’s brightness, a sound’s volume, and even arbitrary values in your own scripts.
The Animator Window allows you to organise your existing animation clip assets into a flowchart-like system called a state machine.
Both of these windows are part of our current animation system, and not the legacy system.
So the Animation Component is legacy, but the Animation Window is current?
That’s correct.
We are using the legacy animation system for character animations. Should we be using the current animation system (Mecanim) instead?
Generally, yes you should. Our legacy animation system is only included for backward compatibility with old projects, and it has a very limited feature set compared with our current animation system. The only reason you should use it is for legacy projects built using the old system.
Why does my imported mesh have an animator component attached to it?
When Unity detectes that an imported file has animation in its timeline, it will add an animation component on import. You can modify this in the asset’s import settings by setting the “Animation Type” to None in the import settings under the Rig tab. If necessary you can do this with several files at once.
Does the ordering of the layers matter?
Yes. Layers are evaluated from top to bottom in order. Layers set to override will always override the previous layers (based on their mask, if they have a mask).
Should the weight value of the base layer always be set to one or should the weight be zero when using another layer?
The base layer weight is always 1 and override layers will completely override the base layer.
Is there any way to get a variable value from the controller without using the name string?
You can use integers to identify the states and parameters. Use the Animator.StringToHash function to get the integer identifier values. For example:
runState = Animator.StringToHash("Base Layer.Run");
animator.SetBool(runState, false);
What happens if a state on a Sync layer has a different length compared to the corresponding state in the base layer?
If layers have different lengths then they will become unsynchronized. Enable the Timing option to force the timing of the states on the current layer, on the source layer.
Is there a way to create AvatarIKGoals other than LeftFoot, RightFoot, LeftHand, RightHand?
Yes, knee and elbow IK is supported.
Is there a way to define what transforms are part of the Avatar Mask?
Yes, for Generic clips you can define which transform animation is imported or not. For Humanoid clips, all human transforms are always imported and extra transforms can de defined.
How do animations that have Curves blend with those that don’t?
When you have an animation with a curve and another animation without a curve, Unity will use the default value of the parameter connected to the curve to do blending. You can set default values for your parameters, so when blending takes place between a State that has a Curve Parameter and one that does not have one, it will blend between the curve value and the default parameter value. To set a default value for a Parameter, simply set its value in the Animator Tool window while not in LiveLink.
Did you find this page useful? Please give it a rating:
Thanks for rating this page!
What kind of problem would you like to report?
Is something described here not working as you expect it to? It might be a Known Issue. Please check with the Issue Tracker at issuetracker.unity3d.com.
Thanks for letting us know! This page has been marked for review based on your feedback.
If you have time, you can provide more information to help us fix the problem faster.
Provide more information
You've told us this page needs code samples. If you'd like to help us further, you could provide a code sample, or tell us about what kind of code sample you'd like to see:
You've told us there are code samples on this page which don't work. If you know how to fix it, or have something better we could use instead, please let us know:
You've told us there is information missing from this page. Please tell us more about what's missing:
You've told us there is incorrect information on this page. If you know what we should change to make it correct, please tell us:
You've told us this page has unclear or confusing information. Please tell us more about what you found unclear or confusing, or let us know how we could make it clearer:
You've told us there is a spelling or grammar error on this page. Please tell us what's wrong:
You've told us this page has a problem. Please tell us more about what's wrong:
Thanks for helping to make the Unity documentation better!
When you visit any website, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. This information might be about you, your preferences or your device and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to. The information does not usually directly identify you, but it can give you a more personalized web experience. Because we respect your right to privacy, you can choose not to allow some types of cookies. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings. However, blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer.
More information
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then some or all of these services may not function properly.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising. Some 3rd party video providers do not allow video views without targeting cookies. If you are experiencing difficulty viewing a video, you will need to set your cookie preferences for targeting to yes if you wish to view videos from these providers. Unity does not control this.
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.