Avatar Masks - Unity Official Tutorials

Sometimes when animating an avatar

we want to isolate areas of the body

that are actually effected by the animation.

For example we might have a wave animation

but we want to be able to wave while running,

walking, jumping, etcetera.

In order to achieve this effect

we can use an avatar mask.

In this way we can restrict the effect

of this animation to be purely based

on the arm of the avatar.

Avatar masks can be created and used

in 2 distinct ways, but the overall effect

of the mask is the same.

Avatar masks can first be created on a

per-animation basis.

For this method go to the Animations tab

of the Model Importer by selecting a model

in the Project Panel and clicking on the

Animations tab.

When you select an animations clip

there are a number of properties that appear

below the clip name.

One of these is a drop-down called Mask.

Here you can create a mask that is unique

to the specific animation you are editing.

The other method for creating an avatar mask

is to create it as an asset in your Project Panel

by right-clicking and selecting Create - Avatar Mask.

Once it is created it can then be applied

to the layers of an animator controller

using the Animator window.

Creating and applying a mask this way will

effect all animations on an animator layer.

For more information on animator layers

see the lesson linked below.

An avatar mask has 2 parts,

Humanoid and Transform.

The Humanoid drop-down has a diagram

of a humanoid facing you from the screen.

This means that the diagram's left hand

is on the right side.

By clicking on each section you can toggle

it's colour between red and green.

You can also click outside the diagram

to toggle between all red and all green.

The colour indicates which parts of a humanoid

avatar will be animated when using this mask.

Green indicates that the body part will be used

and red indicates that it will not be used.

For our wave animation we have all but the

right arm deselected.

This means that only the right arm

will be effected by the animation.

The second part is the Transform Mask.

Transform masks are used for generically

rigged models and humanoid rigged models

with extra bones.

For example, if you had a 4 legged robot

or a humanoid with wings.

Here you need to select the avatar

to base the mask on.

This is done using the circle select button.

When an avatar has been selected

and imported a full list of all of the transforms

for that avatar appear.

From this you can select or deselect

which transforms should be effected

by the animation.

If a transform is checked then it will be

part of the mask and will move when animated.

For example, imagine we have a

humanoid avatar with a tail.

In the base layer of the animator state machine

the character has it's locomotion managed.

On subsequent layers other animations

such as attacking are handled.

It might be a good idea for these subsequent

layers to have a transform mask where

the tail bones are unchecked.

This means that the tail is not effected

by animations on those layers

and will still be moved by animations playing

on the base layer.