Movement and animation were the topic for this week’s tutorial and the various connections between these two proved to be essential for realistic character action. The animation aspect previously explored in last week’s self-study in blender was utilised within Unity with an alternative animation workflow. The first area of learning was within Unity’s ‘Animator’ feature which allows for connections between actions to be established  (for example, if the player is moving forward, a walking animation is played repeatedly to reflect steps forward). This was simpler to understand and the entire three animations of ‘walk, idle and wave’ were successfully added (with only mild headaches along the way). Through a process of testing results of the character controller with designated transitions, iterations were produced to ensure correct timing. This was an issue previously as the transition period between animations were extremely delayed, making movement seem unnatural. After exploring the settings within the Animator window, a solution was found in allowing the action to be ‘interrupted’ (replaced by another animation immediately). The wave animation was the first action implemented as the delay issues were most apparent between walking and idle. 

Key Lesson Learned: Sometimes you have to wave before you can walk (and that's ok) :)

(Figure 1: Walking animation and movement)

(Figure 2: Transition from walking to idle)

(Figure 3: From idle to waving)

The more challenging area was in creating an event. My knowledge on C# coding is basic and much of this language is difficult to understand. As a result, this area resulted in an extended period spent attempting to understand what I was attempting to write as this was essential for learning growth. Instead of a cube for this section, the door previously created for blocking in the character was utilised as the object to disappear. In future, I hope to expand on this to make the door open as the player moves towards it as a form of practice in C# (that I desperately need). For now, I have gained better understanding on events and coding from creating the implemented event and character controller. 

(Figure 4: Event system triggered by player)

Key Lesson Learned: Don't let the frustration win, coding is  another language and no one expects you to learn code in a day so take it one headache at a time until Knowledge == true  :)