Handling Unity Animations In C# Script

Question

So, I'm fairly new to coding with unity and c#, and I want to change my animations based on the player's mouse position. This is my script so far:

using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;
public class PlayerMovement : MonoBehaviour {
    public float moveSpeed = 2f;
    private bool right = true;
    private bool left = false;
    private bool up = false;
    private bool down = true;
    public Animation rightUpAnim;
    public Animation leftUpAnim;
    public Animation rightDownAnim;
    public Animation leftDownAnim;
    public string horizontalAxis;
    public string verticalAxis;
    private Vector2 movement = Vector2.zero;
    private Rigidbody2D rb;
    public Transform tf;
    public Animator an;

    private void Start() {
        rb = GetComponent<Rigidbody2D>();
    }
    void Update() {
        movement.x = Input.GetAxisRaw(horizontalAxis);
        movement.y = Input.GetAxisRaw(verticalAxis);
    }
    private void FixedUpdate() {
        rb.MovePosition(rb.position + movement * moveSpeed * Time.deltaTime);
        var mousePos = Input.mousePosition;
        mousePos.x -= Screen.width / 2;
        mousePos.y -= Screen.height / 2;
        if (mousePos.y > tf.position.y) {
            up = true;
            down = false;
        }
        else if (mousePos.y < tf.position.y) {
            down = true;
            up = false;
        }

        if (mousePos.x > tf.position.x) {
            right = true;
            left = false;
        }
        else if (mousePos.x < tf.position.x) {
            left = true;
            right = false;
        }

        if (left && up) {
            an.controller = leftUpAnim;
        }
        else if (right && up) {
            an.controller = rightUpAnim;
        }
        else if (left && down) {
            an.controller = leftDownAnim;
        }
        else if (right && down) {
            an.controller = rightDownAnim;
        }
    }
}

However, I get an error saying that 'Animator' does not contain a definition for 'controller'. What is the correct way to do this?

Answer 1

The error is saying, the Animator component has no .controller member, which is correct when you visit https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/Animator.html.

It looks to me as though you are trying to play some animations directly rather than through the Animator which is a state machine.

To play back clips that you have referenced in the script you would need to use the Animation (not Animator) component

Add a Animation component to the Gameobject on which your script is already attached.

A very stripped down example for playing an animation clip like you have currently.

public class AnimationClipExample : MonoBehaviour
{
    private Animation an;
    //be sure to assign your clip in the inspector
    public AnimationClip myAnimationClip;

    // Start is called before the first frame update
    void Start()
    {
        //You will either need to get a reference to this objects Animation Component via code or assigning it in the inspector, here I as you may guess I'm getting the reference through code.
        an = GetComponent<Animation>();
    }

    // Update is called once per frame
    void Update()
    {
        //if A is pressed down
        if (Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.A))
        {
            //set the animation clip
            an.clip = myAnimationClip;
            //play the clip
            an.Play();
        }
    }
}

I would hugely recommend looking over the Animator component and the Unity tutorials, as it allows you to free up the mess of If-else conditionals and being visual its much easier to understand whats going on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeZkctmoBPw - Unity Animator Controller tutorial.