Unity Animation System

Animation System Overview

Unity's Mecanim animation system is built on three interconnected components:

1. Animation Clips -- Unit pieces of motion (Idle, Walk, Run)
2. Animator Controller -- State machine organizing clips into a flowchart of states and transitions
3. Avatar System -- Maps humanoid character skeletons to a common internal format for retargeting

The Animator component is attached to GameObjects and references both the Animator Controller and Avatar assets needed for playback.

Animation Types

• Humanoid -- Requires Avatar configuration; supports retargeting between different character rigs; 15-20% more CPU-intensive than Generic
• Generic -- Animates Transform or MonoBehaviour properties on specific hierarchies; not transferable between different hierarchies
• Legacy -- Older Animation component; use for simple single-shot or UI animations

Animator Controller