How Do You Add Blend Shapes in Unity?

Adding blend shapes in Unity, specifically for animating them, involves utilizing the Animation window to control the intensity of existing blend shapes on a mesh. This process allows you to create animation clips that drive facial expressions, body deformations, or other shape-changing effects.

Steps to Add a Blend Shape Animation Curve

Based on the provided reference, here is the direct method for incorporating a blend shape into your animation workflow:

1. Open the Animation Window: Navigate to the main Unity menu and select Window > Animation > Animation. This window is essential for creating and editing animation clips.
2. Select the GameObject: Ensure the GameObject with the SkinnedMeshRenderer component (which contains the blend shapes) is selected in the Hierarchy window. This will populate the Animation window with available properties.
3. Add the Blend Shape Curve:
   • On the left side of the Animation window, locate and click the Add Curve button.
   • From the options that appear, select and add a blend shape. This action creates an animation track specifically for controlling one of the blend shapes on your selected object's SkinnedMeshRenderer.
4. Verify in Inspector: Once added, the new blend shape property will appear in the Inspector window under the BlendShapes section of the SkinnedMeshRenderer component when you have the relevant GameObject selected. You can now keyframe this property in the Animation window to animate the blend shape's intensity over time.

This process adds an animation curve for a specific blend shape. The blend shapes themselves must already exist on the mesh data associated with the SkinnedMeshRenderer.

Summary Table

Here is a quick overview of the steps described:

By following these steps, you can successfully add a blend shape property as an animatable curve in Unity's Animation window, allowing you to create dynamic shape-changing animations.