I'm lost about what Animation Package or Tool to use

Hi, I’m amidst my quest for looking for an animation package or tool, like Spine pro or the Unity 2D Animation Package.
I have seen many great animations and tutorials done with Spine pro but have also read that many regret the purchase and use Unitys inbuilt system, for whatever reason.
But then I read about so many problems people have with it (also compared to Spine’s features) and workflow hiccups.
Furthermore there are now versions for only Unity 2019, or for Unity 2020 or for Unity 2021 but I didn’t find any comparison between Version 3 to version 6. Many assets and developers are still only guaranteed to work for 2019 LTS, maybe 2020 LTS.
Well yes, I’m lost and have no idea anymore on what to focus.

So yes, any proven advice would be very helpful to get me out of my misery :slight_smile:

Hello, What kind of animations are we talking about? Pixelart or “regular”

Hi, I would like to have objects that are split into single parts in PS and animated with bones or mesh-animation.
I saw a nice animation today which I very much liked that incorporates much of what I need:

or:

and:

Hello @Smolli ,
To get a general overview of what the 2D Animation package in Unity comes with, have a look at our Samples page in the 2D Animation documentation.

One feature you are showing in the videos above is FFD (free form deformation). This is something the 2D Animation package does not support.

My general advice would be to check the package out to see if it helps you create the art you are looking to create for your project. If it does not, you would then know what kind of effect or tool you are looking for, which will help you with future tools/solution browsing.

Hi @anon_31803774 ,

thanks for your reply. This already helps me a lot.

But what are the differences between the the Animation Package for Unity 2021 and 2019? Using the newest version is not an option right now, as some assets are not yet fully compatible. 2020 maximum.

In the Windmill example the blades are animated through rotation and skewing to create a 3D look. Is this possible with the Animation Package? I didn’t see such an example.

To view what has been added between 2D Animation 2019 → 2020, you can have a look at the itemised list in the changelog. The latest changes in 2D Animation for 2021.1 can be found in this forum post .

The windmill example is making use of shearing. This is something we do not support in 2D Animation.

Thank you very much for your valuable information. Now I have enough to read through and test. Don’t know why I didn’t find the changelog by myself…?? Tomatoes on my eyes… Maybe in combination with some assets I can achieve the missing features.

I’m happy I could help you out!
Let us know how it goes and if you discover any issues with the tools.
If you have any ideas on improvements / features you would like us to implement in future versions of the 2D toolset, do let us know here.

Happy developing!