addmixing Transform frustration. Would appreciate some guidance.

Questions & Answers
1

Before I get trashed please understand that I'm a farmer by trade, not a programmer. The last full program I wrote was in the 1980's in DOS on an Apple IIe. I don't have a problem with animation where it just involves blending from one animation to another but additive animations are killing me. I have a character model in Blender containing a simple armature. I have deleted all IK constraints. Nothing left but a-bone connected to b-bone... etc. with COG being base of the spine. I have gotten close using additive blending but things still get "floppy", or don't animate fully so I would like the try using the addmixing Transform.

What I'm asking is for someone who really understands the concept, to assume the usage of a simple armature and, to write a short, simple, generic script example of how to use the addmixing Transform function to allow an upper body animation to over-ride a full body animation. I have studied the script reference but have been unable to incorporate it into a full script.

As an alternative, if anyone knows of a good example, a point in the right direction would be much appreciated. I have found example scripts for many things, but not this specifically.

"Thanks" in advance for any input.

2

This resource is a good start: http://unity3d.com/support/resources/example-projects/3rdpersonshooter

3

Assign the armature animation to a higher layer than the full body animation. Animations in higher layers get their weight applied when blending.

e.g.

animation["MyArmAnim"].layer = 2;
animation["Walk"].layer = 1;

animation["MyArmAnim"].wrapMode = WrapMode.Once;
animation["Walk"].wrapMode = WrapMode.Loop;

animation.Play("Walk");
animation.Blend("MyArmAnim");

The walk cycle should start playing (and keep playing), but the arm animation should override whatever bones/verts it affects (presumably the arms) until it has played once, at which point the walk cycle should continue.

4

The main point to keep in mind for dealing with animations is that no type of animation blending will give you "IK compensation" inside Unity, so it's easy to get things looking wrong very easily, as you mix animations. One option to alleviate this is to use the Locomotion system for Unity which has its own IK system, it's free, very easy to setup and offer really amazing results. As for your specific question, check if my reply here helps:

http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/9368/how-to-make-an-animation-at-a-higher-layer-only-affect-the-upper-body/16091#16091