Animatable Parameters

All animatable parameters that are related to positioning and on any clip, like in the following example the Animate Properties clip, will show a 3D motion path possible to edit in the scene view! Remember that motion paths (and other controls) in the scene view are shown for the currently selected clip.

Moving keyframes of the motion path is done by selecting the keyframe in the sceneview. Right-clicking the keyframe in the scene view will also bring up a menu for adjusting the keyframe mode or delete it, as well a jumping the cutscene time to this keyframe’s time. These options are the same as if you have right-clicked the keyframe in the dope sheet within the Slate editor, however within the dope sheet there are also the options to copy/paste which are not available in the motion path editor in the scene view.

The Path Object

Slate also comes with a Path object, as well as the relevant “Follow Path” and “Animate On Path” clips to move an actor along such a path. This can sometimes prove useful if you want the same path to be used by many different actors for example, but if that is not the case, please note that animating an actor’s position/rotation (or any other property) is always better to do with an Animate Properties clip as shown before, since motion paths are possible to edit in the scene view there as well. You can create a Path object from the Unity top menu “Tools/ParadoxNotion/Slate/Extra/Create Bezier Path”. A path can then be used either in the “Follow Path”, or the “Animate On Path” clips, which can both be added in an Actor Action Track.

Pathfinding

Slate also comes with a “Pathfind To” and a “Pathfind From To” clip, which will make the actor move to a target position or transform through an automatically generated closest path, which makes much sense for characters. For this clip to work, you need to have a baked Unity NavMesh, but a NavMeshAgent is neither required nor used at all. Like everything else, this is also previewable in the editor. The “Pathfind To” clip can be added to any Actor Action Track.