Hey all, just joined the board here. Looking forward to many hours spent here learning from all you Unity pros here 
I’ve been looking over anything character/animation related here on the board for the last week or so, but I’ve still got some outstanding questions before I get too deep into this project…
The spec calls for 50+ unique animations, to be applied to 2 or more character models (exporting from 3DS Max). Filesize is a concern for this project, so would be the best way to manage this many animations?
Is there a workflow that would allow me to completely divorce the animations from the model into their own FBXs and apply them to the (properly skinned) model of my choice in Unity?
To clarify a little… I’m aware of the “character@animation” convention for importing character animations, but I’m not sure that helps me here… do I still have to include the skinned model in each of the ‘@.fbx’ files, or can I just export the animated bones?
That’s a good question.
I have a character that I will be using for many different roles in game. I am hoping that one mesh, with a long animation clip including idle, walk, run, sneak, shoot, aim, etc, will do it for basic data. That will be the ‘prefab’ that will be instanced. Each instance may have a unique texture map, but that’s it. The animations will all be stored in one place, one time.
That’s what I’m hoping. Experts please advise.
Well, I’m no expert, but it sure sounds like you’re on the right track for your character
I’m realizing that what started out as a “How should I export all these animations” to more of a general Unity workflow/implimentation question, which probably doesn’t belong in this category. I dunno how many mods are here on the board, but feel free to close/move this topic if that’s the case.
I would take the same approach you suggest, Vimalakirti, but my character requires some different IK setups to pull off the required animations (though they will share the exact same bone structure), so they will probably be exported as separate files anyway.
So, what’s the best way to save on file size with this many animations?
It’s possible to create one set of animations that can be used on more than one model (hopefully this is the kind of thing you mean).
Create and animate the bone structure in your 3D app. Make sure that the bones are named correctly and follow a correct hierarchy. Import this into Unity.
Next, Remove the animations from the above bone structure and attach the bones to a character model (without renaming/ changing the hierarchy of the bones). Import the character too. As the bones have the same name and hierarchy, you should now be able to apply the animation files of the original bone structure to your imported character(s).
Hopefully that helps!
That’s exactly what I was wondering, thanks! 