Animation parameters mapping

This method is similar to the animation mapping, but instead of mapping to layers in the animation controller it maps to animation parameters variables defined within the animator controller, letting you affect the flow of the animation state machine. This gives you finer control over how animations are applied to faces.

Note: Animation parameters are an advanced feature of the Unity animation system. The following assumes familiarity with the Unity animation system and setting up animation parameters and blend trees.

Steps

1. Open your character's Unity scene and select the character in the Hierarchy pane.

2. In the Inspector pane, change the Expression Type setting to Animation Parameters.

3. Scroll down in the Inspector pane and click Add Component then add a Facial Expression Reference component. Animation parameters mapping will be added to this component instead of via the main Avatar Model References component.

4. On the Facial Expression Reference component, drag the skinned mesh renderer from the Mesh setting on Avatar Model References into the Skinned Mesh Renderers list, then change the Expression Type to Animation Parameters.

5. Double-click the Controller property of the Animator component also found on your character's root object. This will open the animator for editing.

6. Click on the parameters tab then click the + icon and select Float to create new animation parameters.

Note: Only animation parameters of the type Float are supported because the facial expression data is a series of floating point numbers.

7. Select the root object of your character and scroll down in the Inspector pane to find your Facial Expression Reference component. Enter the name of the corresponding animation parameter for each of the expression input fields.

Your animation parameters are now connected so that Flipside can animate them through its facial expressions and lip-syncing.

From here, you can start setting up blend trees or use your animation parameters to set conditions for your animation state transitions, however these topics are beyond the scope of this tutorial.

Next: Changing the scale of a character