I’ve just started using Unity (previously used CryEngine for 2 years but no animation outside of maya3d) which program do people use to produce animations for use in-game? The only experience I’ve had is with Maya and without paying for the expensive license (almost £4000 I think) I can’t use anything I produce with their software.
I’ve been looking up tutorials for what seems to be Unity’s in-engine animator but a lot of threads say its capability is limited and you should use a 3rd party tool to produce animations.
Complex character animations should be created in a 3D authoring program, maya, Max, blender, etc.
I’ve seen some developers use Unity’s animation tools for 2D characters - but it seems like it’s a struggle.
The built in animation tools are great for simple inorganic cycles and other types of things that can be driven by triggers or events. (my opinion)
Check out maya LT. it’s on steam. cheap but not free and the renderer has been stripped from it. It’s specifically for game asset development.
blender is free - and troublesome.
Max is expensive and has it’s own minor issues, but that’s what I use.
Others are listed here but this list hasn’t been updated in a while, and is speaking about static assets. Characters are by nature more complex and require a workflow creation to feel comfortable with the process.
Thank you for pointing me to Maya LT (Didn’t even know it existed)
Interestingly I have actually found that the standard assets provided with Unity come with animations for “most” biped characters which has allowed me to animate three of four different characters I created.
However (as you mention) the process is more complex (at least when moving outside of the standard assets and creating custom animations)