Chapter 1. Animation Fundamentals

Greetings and welcome to this journey through the animation feature set in the world of Unity. The importance of animation cannot be understated. Without animation, everything in-game would be statuesque, lifeless and perhaps boring. This holds true for nearly everything in games: doors must open, characters must move, foliage should sway with the wind, sparkles and particles should explode and shine, and so on. Consequently, learning animation and how to animate properly will unquestionably empower you as a developer, no matter what your career plans are. As a subject, animation creeps unavoidably into most game fields, and it's a critical concern for all members of a team—obviously for artists and animators, but also for programmers, sound designers, and level designers. This book is both valuable and relevant for most developers, and it aims to quickly and effectively introduce the fundamental concepts and practices surrounding animation in real-time games, specifically animation in Unity. By the end of this book, if you read each chapter carefully in order, you'll gain solid knowledge and a skill set in animation. You will be capable of making effective animations that express your artistic vision, as well as gaining an understanding of how and where you can expand your knowledge to the next level. But to reach that stage we'll begin here, in Chapter 1, with the most basic concepts of animation—the groundwork for any understanding of animation.