How To Use “Actors” In Unity To Create Animated Cinematics In Timeline

So what is an “Actor”?

An “Actor” is a pre-fabricated object that has animations attached to it for use within a cutscene/cinematic.

Actors are created in much the same way as you would create any other object animation. The difference is that these objects are attached with specific animations that are intended for use within a cinematic and not gameplay.

To allow for the use of animated actors within Timeline, you will only need to do a couple of steps.

Ok, let’s get started!

First, Right-click within Timeline and select “Animation Track”. Then you will need to create a link to the animator that you will be using so drag and drop the “Actor” object that contains the animator you will be wanting to use into the “Animator” parameter within your newly created Animation Track.

Next, select the “hamburger menu button” (3 vertical dots) that is located beside your “Animation track”. Then select “Add From Animation Clip” from the dropdown menu and select the specific animation that you are wanting to use from the animator that you just linked.

If you leave your cinematic object active within the hierarchy it will play and animate automatically when you play your game. But if you make it inactive and then activate it through code such as with collisions, then it will play and animate once activated as seen in the example below.