Simple Animator Component

The simple animator component is a gameplay component that can animate the position and rotation of a gameobject over time. The animated movement will repeat, so this component is great for adding subtle or repeating motion to an object. To move something constantly in a single direction/rotation over time, see the mover component.

Component Settings

Property	Description
Use Local Position	Should animations be relative to the object's local position.
Use Local Rotation	Should animations be relative to the object's local rotation.
Time Offset	How many seconds to offset the animation start times by. This applies to all animations used by this component. If you had two identical gameobjects with simple animators, but one had a Time Offset of 1, then it would appear to play the same animations at the other but 1 second behind.

Each Simple Animator component can have any number of animations added to it. There are four types of animations.

Move Along Line

The Move Along Line animation will cause the object to move from it's current position, along a given direction and back in a cycle. It will do so smoothly with easing at each end of the motion.

Property	Description
Frequency	How many times the complete motion (forward and back) will occur per second.
Distance along line	The maximum distance along the direction of the line the object will move. Movement begins at the object's start position and ends this far along the line before moving back to the start.
Direction of line	The direction vector of the movement. The value given will be normalized, so the scale of values isn't important (i.e. 0,1,0 is the same as 0, 20, 0).

Orbit Position

The Orbit Position animation will cause the object to move in a circular motion around it's set position in the scene. The orbit will be around the position of the object as it appears in edit mode. Given a cube with an X Radius of 3 and a Z Radius of 2, this is how it will move in play mode (Seen from above).

In Edit mode

In Play mode

Property	Description
Frequency	How many times the orbit will complete per second.
X Radius	How wide the orbit reaches from the center on the X axis.
Z Radius	How wide the orbit reaches from the center on the Z axis.

Rotate Around Axis

The Rotate Around Axis animation will cause the object to endlessly rotate around the given axis.

Property	Description
Frequency	How many times the object will perform a complete rotation around the axis per second.
Rotate Around Axis	The axis to rotate around. The value given will be normalized into a direction.

Custom Animation

This is advanced functionality

The Custom Animation provides advanced controls over the movement of an object. A Custom Animation is built up from any number of Animation Layers. Each animation layer contributes to the movement of the object in a single way, and by combining them you can achieve complex motion. For example, the Orbit Position animation type can be recreated using two animation layers, one that moves the object on the X axis, and one on the Z axis with an animation offset of 0.25.

Property	Description
Animation Type	What aspect of the object should be animated
Position	Move the object along the Animation Axis.
Rotation	Rotate the object around the Animation Axis.
Animation Speed	The frequency of the animation, in completions per second. Higher values result in faster animation.
Animation Axis	The axis along which the animation will occur. For Position, movement is along this axis. For Rotation, rotation is around this axis.
Random Animation Offset	Should the animation begin with a randomly set Animation Offset value.
Animation Offset	(Only when not using Random Animation Offset) How far through the animation loop should the animation begin. A value of 0 makes the animation begin from the start. A value of 0.5 will start the animation from half way. Once the animation completes, it will restart from the beginning regardless of this value. This value just provides an initial offset to the animation's timing.
Animation Curve	The animation to perform over each loop. For position, moving the value of this curve will set how far along the Animation Axis the object will be moved at the given time in the curve. The curve should remain between 0 and 1 on the X axis. To make an animation loop, make sure the curve has the same value at both 0 and 1 on the X axis. To make the looping visually appear smooth, make sure the gradient of the curve at that point is the same.

Example Usage

• Make an object bounce over time
• Make an object orbit another
• Make a moving platform that moves back and forth
• Dangerous spikes that rise and fall