Using Timeline in Unity is a great way to put together some cinematic cuts using character animations. In this article, I will use assets from GameDevHQ’s Filebase asset library, as well as animations from Mixamo.
Each of these Prefabs have a corresponding Animation inside. Default Mixamo animations can’t be edited, so duplicate (ctrl + D) a new animation for customization.
Select the Animation and look at the Inspector. Make sure the Animation Type of the Rig is set to Humanoid. This is a critical setting for character animations.
Create a parent empty object for the Timeline Director component. The female sci-fi hero from Filebase is brought into the scene as a child to the Director object.
Here she is in this outdoor environment.
Here is the Playable Director on the Character Controller object.
With the Director object selected in the Hierarchy, drag the hero prefab into the Timeline editor and make an Animation Track.
The first Animation to use will be the idle animation. The preview window shows the selected animation.
Drag the animation into the timeline and position it at the beginning.
Head to the beginning of the animation and press play to see it in action.
Here is the hero in her battle ready idle animation.
