Animation Preview in Custom Asset Inspector Window

Questions & Answers
1

Hey!

I am making an editor extension and I want to have a box that has a preview of an animated mesh in it.

I got it kind of working, but not completely so I feel really close but can’t quite get it!

This displays the GameObject and I can rotate around it by clicking and dragging. The game object does not animate:

GameObject previewGameObject;
AnimationClip animationClip;
Editor myEditor;
float sampleTime = 0.5f;
void OnInspectorGUI()
{
    if(myEditor == null) myEditor = Editor.CreateEditor(previewGameObject);
    if(myEditor.target != previewGameObject)
    {
        Editor.DestroyImmediate(myEditor);
        myEditor = Editor.CreateEditor(previewGameObject);
    }

    AnimationMode.StartAnimationMode();
    AnimationMode.BeginSampling();
    AnimationMode.SampleAnimationClip(previewGameObject, animationClip, sampleTime);
    myEditor.DrawPreview(new Rect(0, 0, 300, 300));
    AnimationMode.EndSampling();
    AnimationMode.StopAnimationMode();
}

To get the animation to work I have to assign the editor every frame, which is dumb and also stops me from being able to rotate around the object:

    GameObject previewGameObject;
    AnimationClip animationClip;
    Editor myEditor;
    float sampleTime = 0.5f;
    void OnInspectorGUI()
    {
        Editor.DestroyImmediate(myEditor);
        myEditor = Editor.CreateEditor(previewGameObject);

        AnimationMode.StartAnimationMode();
        AnimationMode.BeginSampling();
        AnimationMode.SampleAnimationClip(previewGameObject, animationClip, sampleTime);
        myEditor.DrawPreview(new Rect(0, 0, 300, 300));
        AnimationMode.EndSampling();
        AnimationMode.StopAnimationMode();
    }

I have tried a bunch of things, but nothing works as I want to so far!

I hope someone out there has experience in this because this animation preview is quite important to my extension.

Thanks! :slight_smile:

2

@Alismuffin I’ve just finished my own preview asset, maybe it will be useful for you: https://forum.unity3d.com/threads/powerful-preview.460157/

3

If anyone else is going through the pain of trying to do this, and comes across this answer, here is how it can be done:

if (clipEditor == null) {
    clipEditor = UnityEditor.Editor.CreateEditor(clip);
    clipEditor.HasPreviewGUI();
}

GUILayout.BeginHorizontal();
GUILayout.FlexibleSpace();
clipEditor.OnPreviewSettings();
GUILayout.EndHorizontal();
clipEditor.OnInteractivePreviewGUI(GUILayoutUtility.GetRect(256, 256), EditorStyles.whiteLabel);

You have to call HasPreviewGUI because it initializes some internal stuff (AvatarPreview), for some reason. Calling OnPreviewSettings is optional and draws the buttons above the preview.