Character animation import and materials...

Hiya,

We have a character that is imported into Unity that has animations associated with it. As the importer is importing these files into the editor, it seems to bring in lots of “extra” materials related to each of the animation files.

There are some concerns that having all these “extra” materials laying about may cause some problems with altering material colors, etc. not to mention they are exactly the same as the base character so it really makes no sense why they would be needed.

Based on that, there are two questions. First, is this even a concern that we should worry about or is it just being anal? Second, is there an import setting (currently just bringing the files into the hierarchy using the finder) or a setup etc. in the creation of the character (using Maya Eight) that should be checked, altered, etc.?

I have attached a screenshot of what the materials look like.

Thanks for the help!

Regards,

– Clint

You can change this in the import settings via Dont import materials.

You dont need to worry about them. They will not be used or packaged when you build a player. Also if your model had textures, it wouldn’t generate the materials for each mb file.

Also why not just use a single .mb file and split the animation up into seperate clips from Unity in the Import settings? See the character animation documentation in the manual. Usually this approach is much easier on the graphic artist.

Thanks Jo!

Fair point about the single file approach, we thought about it, but pretty much left it as a thought. I’ll talk with them and see how they like less work, my guess is they will be disappointed about it. :wink:

Regards!

– Clint