2D animation basics in Unity - Mini Project: Build & Apply

2D Animation Basics in Unity

📖 Scenario: You are creating a simple 2D game character that can walk left and right. To make the character look alive, you will add basic walking animations using Unity's Sprite Renderer.

🎯 Goal: Build a Unity script that controls a 2D character's walking animation by cycling through walking sprites based on player input.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a list of sprites for walking animation frames

Create a float variable to control animation speed

Write code to cycle through walking sprites when moving

Print the current sprite name to confirm animation frame changes

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

2D animations bring characters to life in games, making them feel responsive and fun to control.

💼 Career

Understanding basic 2D animation scripting is essential for game developers working with Unity to create engaging player experiences.

1

Create a list of walking sprites

Create a public List<Sprite> called walkingSprites and initialize it as an empty list.

Unity

using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections.Generic;

public class CharacterAnimation : MonoBehaviour
{
    // Your code here
}

Need a hint?

Use public List<Sprite> walkingSprites = new List<Sprite>(); inside the class.

2

Add animation speed variable

Add a public float variable called animationSpeed and set it to 0.2f.

Unity

using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections.Generic;

public class CharacterAnimation : MonoBehaviour
{
    public List walkingSprites = new List();
    // Your code here
}

Need a hint?

Declare public float animationSpeed = 0.2f; inside the class.

3

Cycle through walking sprites when moving

Add private variables SpriteRenderer spriteRenderer and float timer. In Start(), assign spriteRenderer using GetComponent<SpriteRenderer>(). In Update(), if the horizontal input axis is not zero, increase timer by Time.deltaTime. When timer exceeds animationSpeed, reset timer and update spriteRenderer.sprite to the next sprite in walkingSprites cycling through the list.

Unity

using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections.Generic;

public class CharacterAnimation : MonoBehaviour
{
    public List walkingSprites = new List();
    public float animationSpeed = 0.2f;

    // Your code here
}

Need a hint?

Use Input.GetAxis("Horizontal") to detect movement and cycle sprites with a timer.

4

Print current sprite name to confirm animation

Add a Debug.Log statement inside the sprite update block in Update() to print the current sprite's name using spriteRenderer.sprite.name.

Unity

using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections.Generic;

public class CharacterAnimation : MonoBehaviour
{
    public List walkingSprites = new List();
    public float animationSpeed = 0.2f;

    private SpriteRenderer spriteRenderer;
    private float timer = 0f;
    private int currentFrame = 0;

    void Start()
    {
        spriteRenderer = GetComponent();
    }

    void Update()
    {
        float move = Input.GetAxis("Horizontal");
        if (move != 0)
        {
            timer += Time.deltaTime;
            if (timer > animationSpeed)
            {
                timer = 0f;
                currentFrame = (currentFrame + 1) % walkingSprites.Count;
                spriteRenderer.sprite = walkingSprites[currentFrame];
                // Your code here
            }
        }
    }
}

Need a hint?

Use Debug.Log("Current sprite: " + spriteRenderer.sprite.name); inside the sprite update block.