How It Works

Core Architecture

Understand the underlying playback engines: normalized timelines, state loops, root motion, and body masking.

Normalized Timings (0% to 100%)

Unlike standard timelines that use absolute timestamps (e.g., 0.45 seconds), Animation Montages uses a normalized playhead (0% to 100%). Markers are stored as percentages, yielding key advantages:

Perfect Speed Scaling: If playback speed scales dynamically, events stay frame-accurate.
Seamless Clip Swapping: Swapping an animation clip with one of a different length requires zero timing configuration; a marker at 30% scales automatically.

The Playback State Machine

The Player coordinates playback through a simple, robust state cycle:

Idle

Waiting for play requests

→

Blending In

Crossfades into the target clip (e.g. 0.15s)

→

Active Playing

Scrubbing tracks & executing instructions

→

Blending Out

Fades playhead to normal states

How It Works · Play Montage Gesture vs. Enter Montage State Stance

Play Montage (Gesture)

Fires a temporary crossfade override layer. Playback updates, triggers notches, and naturally blends back to Locomotion.

PlayMontage(Potion_Drink);

Enter Montage State (Stance)

Injects clip into base Animator layer. Player loops or holds final poses continuously until commanded to exit.

EnterMontageState(Stealth_Crawl);

Gesture vs. State Playback

Choose between two playback modes depending on your visual intent:

Gestures (One-Shots)

For temporary actions (drinking, opening chests, dynamic reloads). Plays on top of normal locomotion, blending back smoothly upon completion.

States (Stances)

For sustained behaviors (limping, stealth crawls, carrying heavy loads). Injects animation directly into the base controller, looping until exited.

Animation Montage Gesture Live Preview Window — The visual playhead preview controller inside the Montage timeline, featuring standard 3D humanoid mannequin rendering and live frame statistics.

Authoring State Mode & Transitions

State Mode supports dedicated Entry and Exit transitions. This allows you to smoothly transition into a stance (e.g., crouching down), loop the main stance (e.g., crawling), and play an exit transition (e.g., standing up).

Playback Settings State Mode Inspector — Persistent stance overrides and transition settings inside the Inspector.

Visual Entry & Exit Segments

The visual timeline displays dedicated Entry Clip and Exit Clip tracks to configure specific event triggers for each phase.

State Mode entry and exit timeline editor — State Mode editor displaying Entry and Exit tracks with independent event notches.

Transition Customization

Set custom entry/exit clips (e.g., holstering a prop) and body masks inside the inspector.

Entry and Exit Animation Settings Inspector — Transition configurations and avatar body masks.

Root Motion Integration

Animation Montages supports full Root Motion blending. Root displacements (translation and rotation) from Unity's animator blend seamlessly with Game Creator's locomotion driver, ensuring foot placements stay perfectly accurate on the ground.

Layers and Avatar Masking

Assign montages to specific animation layers (e.g., Upper Body, Left Hand) and link custom Unity Avatar Masks. This lets you play interactions on the upper torso while the character continues running underneath.