Cannot access an animation from script

Question

I want to change the reload speed of my player when a button is pressed in the pause menu.

I created a button and attached the following script to it (as suggested by the documentation here: https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/AnimationState-speed.html ):

using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;

public class PauseUpgrade : MonoBehaviour {

public Animation reloadAnim;
private float startSpeed;
// Use this for initialization
void Start () {
    startSpeed = reloadAnim["Reloading"].speed;
}

public void upgradeSpeed()
{
    reloadAnim["Reloading"].speed += 0.5f;
}

But this does not work. I cannot seem to drag the reload animation into the public variable declared above. Is this the correct way to solve this?

The above image shows my animation controller for my player. I am trying to change the speed of the "reloading" animation clip.

I am trying to drap the animation clip from my projects folder into the public variable below, but I get a cross sign preventing me from dragging it in as if its the wrong type or something.

Thanks

Answer 1

I managed to solve this. Unity provided a solution for this but is not clear in the documentation. It has been explained in detail here: https://forum.unity.com/threads/mecanim-change-animation-speed-of-specific-animation-or-layers.160395/page-2

To summarize(as provided by gevarre):

Goal: Change the playback speed of a particular Mechanim animation state in script at runtime.

1. Set up the states in an Animation Controller. (We'll call the animation state we want to change "VariableAnimState".)
2. In the Animator Controller editor window, select the "Parameters" tab.
3. Click the "+" sign and create a float parameter.
4. Name this new float parameter "VariableAnimSpeed".
5. By default, the value of the float will be 0, so change it to 1 (If you want the animation to start at normal speed...)
6. Now select the animation state that you want to change so you can see it in the inspector. (In our case, it's VariableAnimState)
7. In the inspector, notice there is a field labeled "Speed". Leave this at default, which will normally be 1.
8. Below the Speed field, there is a blank field labeled "Multiplier". Click the checkbox to the right of it labeled "Parameter".
9. Now back in the Multiplier field, click the dropdown arrow and select the parameter you want to control it. (In our case it's "VariableAnimSpeed")

Note: if you don't create the float parameter first, you will get an error. You have now finished setup.

10. In script, here are the relevant bits. Change as needed:

public Animator animator;

void ChangeStateSpeed()
{
    animator.SetFloat("VariableAnimSpeed", 2.0f);
}