Can someone give me tutorial for third person character controller with mecanim in unity 5? It is hard to understand default controller that unity 5 brings.
The best place to start would be the mecanim tutorials on the Learn section of unity’s website.
There are many ways to move an object in unity. I would recommend using root motion (movement already built into the animations) for a third person controller. (using link above)
However, you do need some good animations in order to use root motion. Mixamo has lots of these (you can get 20 for free), and the mechanim example scenes also have some useful animations with root motion.
You can stop and start animations using parameters set up in mecanim. You can change them in code using Animator.SetBool, Animator.SetFloat etc through the Animator component.
However, you could also use transform.Translate when a key is pressed. Or use the physics engine to move your object with Rigidbody.AddForce or Rigidbody.Velocity.
There are some other examples of 3rd person controllers available on the asset store for free. Its best to look at these while you are creating your own as a reference, after you have seen some tutorials, because it might be confusing without that knowledge.
Personally, I always use root motion for 3rd person controllers. Also, I never use the ‘Character Controller’ component, instead I use a rigidbody and use AddForce for parts of the animation where the root motion movement is not enough (e.g. very high jumping). And I use seperate colliders on idividual bones for more accurate collisions.
Just googling ‘unity 3rd person tutorials’ can give some useful results:
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/tutorials-to-make-a-third-person-controller.231151/
https://www.3dbuzz.com/training/view/3rd-person-character-system