Animator.Play

Parameters

Description

Plays a state.

When you specify a state name, or the string used to generate a hash, it should include the name of the parent layer. For example, if you have a Bounce state in the Base Layer, the name is Base Layer.Bounce. When you use the stateName parameter, this method calls Animator.StringToHash internally. If you use this method with the same stateName often, precompute the hash and use the stateHashName parameter to improve performance.

The normalizedTime parameter varies between 0 and 1. If this parameter is left at zero then Play will operate as expected. A different starting point can be given. An example could be normalizedTime set to 0.5, which means the animation starts halfway through. If the transition from one state switches to another, it may or may not be blended. If the transition starts at 0.75 it will be blended with the other state. If no transition is set up then Play will continue to 1.0 with no changes.


The following example script animates a cube.

This cube has two Animator states called Rest and Bounce. An empty animation is played in the Rest state. When the Space key is pressed the cube switches into the Bounce state. This causes the cube to jump up and down twice. The cube then returns to the Rest state. Because Bounce is selected from the Animator.Play script, no Transition is needed. However the return from Bounce to Rest does have a Transition. Has Exit Time is ticked to make Bounce last for its one second. Attach this script to the GameObject you want to animate.

using UnityEngine;

// Press the space key in Play Mode to switch to the Bounce state.

[RequireComponent(typeof(Animator))]
public class AnimatorPlayExample : MonoBehaviour
{
    // The Animator component on the GameObject this script is attached to.
    Animator m_Animator;

    // Cache the hash of the bounce state.
    int m_BounceStateHash;

    void Start()
    {
        m_Animator = GetComponent<Animator>();
        m_BounceStateHash = Animator.StringToHash("Base Layer.Bounce");
    }

    void Update()
    {
        if (Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.Space))
        {
            // Play Bounce but start at a quarter of the way through
            m_Animator.Play(m_BounceStateHash, 0, 0.25f);
        }
    }
}

Additional resources: Animator.StringToHash for how to get a hash from the name.