Importing Character Models and Animations from Mixamo into Unity
Objective: To learn how to import character models with animations from Mixamo into Unity.
We have learnt quite a bit so far with Cinemachine and Timeline and now it is time to take these existing concepts and have some fun by using a character to create a Timeline animation sequence of character movements. But first, we need to bring in some existing animations/characters from Mixamo to get us started!
Downloading Character Model and Animation from Mixamo
For this article I am going to use this amazing website called mixamo.com which provides free built-in character models/animations which we can simply download and import into our scene.
When you arrive at the website you will be asked to create an account. Once complete, you will then be taken to the main page where you will see a bunch of bots/character models acting out animation sequences. Let’s get one imported.
To start with, click on the Characters tab and choose one you like. Then head back to the Animations tab and find a good one.
Now, on the right hand side, click ‘Download’:
And we can leave the settings as is:
Importing Asset into Unity Project
Next, in your Unity project, you can simply drag and drop this asset you have downloaded into your Project window. Now drag and drop this model into your Hierarchy and you might notice that it comes through missing it’s textures (completely white). This is normal, and is very easily fixed.
In your Project window, make sure you have the asset highlighted and then in the Inspector window, click on the Materials tab → ‘Extract Textures’.
This will then prompt you to choose a folder where to place the texture, simply choose one and press ‘Select Folder’. Now it will ask you to fix a Normal Map issue, hit ‘Fix Now’ and you should see your characters skins!
Go ahead and download a few different animations into your Unity project as the next article ‘Creating Character Animations in Timeline and Tackling Some Known Issues’ is going to look at creating an animation sequence utilising blends and offsets with this character through Timeline in Unity.
Note: If you are going to download multiple animations for the same character, you don’t need to keep downloading the skin. This only needs to be done once.
