Warning:This page is a work in progress. Expect frequent changes. Still figuring a lot of this stuff out - N3X15 (talk) 19:36, 9 August 2020 (CDT)
Note:YMMV, written on Aug 9th, 2020 when Avatar 3 was first released.
Expressions are what replace emotes and gestures in Avatar 3.0. They are significantly different than in Avatar 2.0.
The way emotes and gestures worked previously, one would have a custom animation that would override another. For example, if one wanted to bind an animation to the thumbs-up gesture, one would use an override controller to replace the THUMBSUP animation with the custom one. While simple, this created problems, which Avatar 3.0 tries to fix with a more complex, yet accessible system.
In Avatar 3.0, much more of the underlying Unity animation systems are exposed, such as the controller and node graph. Animations are placed in playable layers, so that animations can be blended together, and be affected by priorities.
Parameters
Parameters allow you to trigger animations based on what is currently going on in terms of avatar movement, positioning, speech visemes, gestures, or even whether your headset is on or off.
Parameters are provided as named variables, and are case-sensitive. For example, AFK will work, but not afk. A list of built-in parameters are listed below.
Built-in parameters
Name
Description
Type
Sync
IsLocal
Is the avatar being tested locally?
Boolean
None
Viseme
Oculus viseme index (0-14). Jawbone/flap range is 0-100, indicating volume
Int
Speech
GestureLeft
Gesture from left hand control (0-7)
Int
IK
GestureRight
Gesture from right hand control (0-7)
Int
IK
GestureLeftWeight
Analog trigger from left hand control (0.0-1.0)
Float
IK
GestureRightWeight
Analog trigger from right hand control (0.0-1.0)
Float
IK
AngularY
Angular velocity on the Y axis
Float
IK
VelocityX
Velocity on the X axis (m/s)
Float
IK
VelocityY
Velocity on the Y axis (m/s)
Float
IK
VelocityZ
Velocity on the Y axis (m/s)
Float
IK
Upright
How crouched you are, 0-1
Float
IK
Grounded
If you're touching ground
Bool
IK
Seated
If you're in station
Bool
IK
AFK
If player is unavailable (HMD proximity/End key)
Bool
IK
Expression1
User defined. 0-255 if Int, -1 - 1 if Float
Int/Float
IK or Playable
...
Expression16
Playable Layers
A list of available playable layers.
Base
The base layer affects how your avatar looks like walking, jumping, etc. Generally, you don't want to change this unless your avatar has problems in these specific cases.
Additive
Additive allows you to apply animations that blend with your base animations. One popular example is a breathing animation.
Note:This layer only affects humanoid-rigged bones.
Gesture
This layer allows you define traditional hand gestures. This layer allows you to affect other limbs using a masking system (telling the animation system which limbs you wish to use). Body parts that are not masked off would continue doing normal (base + additive) animations.
This layer can also do non-humanoid animations, like ear-twitches.
Action
These animations completely override what the rest of your animations are doing, much like how the old gestures and emotes used to.
FX
Advanced animations, such as blendshape magic, can be done here. You should not use these for animating hand bones, etc.
Special
TODO:These are currently undocumented. Feel free to chip in.
Sitting
Appears to allow setting up animations for sitting down. Undocumented otherwise.
Expression Parameter components allow you to define variables that can be adjusted by controls on the VRCExpressionsMenus. These variables can also trigger animations when they change and meet a set of conditions you define.
Tutorial
Making a Blendshape Animation
An example animation (messes with a blendshape)
Note:This step is optional. If you already have a working animation, skip it.
Ensure your Animation window/tab is visible. (Window > Animation > Animation or CTRL+6)
I recommend dragging the tab next to your console tab to reduce clutter.
Duplicate your avatar in the scene graph. (Right-click, Duplicate)
Disable the original avatar so you don't break it by accident.
Back up your project, just in case.
Select the duplicate avatar in your scene graph.
Open the Animation tab.
Select Create.
Save as desired, although it is recommended to save to a dedicated Animations folder with your avatar files.
Modify the blendshapes and/or bones to taste.
NOTE: You no longer have to do hand bone animations when modifying blendshapes.
NOTE: For facial expressions or looping animations, make sure there's only two keyframes and they're one frame from each other.
Once you're satisfied, delete the duplicate avatar.
Creating your Controller
Our first animator controller, before we mess with anything.
Create a folder for your controller.
Recommended: [Avatar] > Expressions > Controllers
Right-click the folder.
Create > Animator Controller.
Name it something useful, such as [Avatar] FX.
Open it by double-clicking on it.
You are now presented with a flow graph. To move around, use middle-mouse, and zoom with your scroll wheel.
You can think of an Animation Controller like a flow chart: You start at the Entry when the avatar is loaded, and in most games, Exit would exit the animation controller. (VRChat will just loop back to Entry instead.) Any State allows you to link to nodes from any other part of the graph. So, for instance, you could be in the middle of sitting down and still be able to trigger states from stuff linked to Any State.
Creating a Layer for your Animations
In order to add your animations, you need to add a layer. A layer is basically how animations are blended together in Unity: Each layer is like a transparent sheet of plastic that holds an animation, and, when combined with other animations, makes up the entire animation state of your avatar, such as locomotion and gestures.
Layers are listed on the left pane of the Animator.
Open the animator you want to create a new layer in.
This thing.Click the plus icon.
Fill in an appropriate, and descriptive, name.
Hit enter.
You will also want to click the gear icon next to your layer, and change the weight from 0 to 1. This will ensure the animation plays at maximum strength over any other animations.
Adding the Animation to the Layer
Now, you need to add the animation to the layer. Your animation can be represented as a state, which is shown on the graph as a block with lines (transitions) connecting it to other states.
Right-click somewhere on the graph (preferably next to Entry).
Select Create State > Entry.
Click New State.
Change its state to something memorable, like Landing or Do Nothing. This state is where the animation state machine will sit while we wait to trigger it. We'll refer to this as the landing state, for now.
Now drag the animation you want to trigger onto the grid next to it. Let's call this your animation state.
Adding Parameters to the Animator
We need to link to the VRChat parameters in order to use them in our animator.
Click on the parameters tab on your Animator.
Click on the
Setting Up Conditions
Now we set up the condition for transitioning to the animation state.
Right-click on the landing state.
Select Make Transition.
Click on your animation state to finish connecting them.
Click on the transition line.
Click on the button under Conditions.
Adding a Menu
a
Adding Parameters
Note:For most use cases (e.g. adding a gesture), you won't need to add custom parameters. These are used for things like height sliders and RGB sliders.
button under Conditions.