Change players state and controls in-game

Question

I'm using Unity 3D

Let's say the player is an ice cube. You control it like a normal player. On press of a button, ice transforms (with animation) into water. You control it completely different than the ice cube.

Another great example would be: Player is human being and has normal FPS controls. On press of a button human transforms into birds and now has completely different controls.

Now, my question is, what would be easier and better:

1. make one object with animation transition and to stay in that state of anim. until button is pressed again
2. make two object: ice and water. Ice has an animation of turning into water. So replace ice (with animation) with water object

And if anyone knows this one too: how to switch between 2 different types of player controls.

Answer 1

If your objects are not animated I'd make just a transform animation between first and the second. When you want to change the objects you just play the animation and stop at the end. If you want to change back, you just play the same animation backwards, to 0.

When you objects have their own animations it gets more tricky so in such case I'd make separate objects and replace one with another when transition animation ends. This way you wouldn't have to worry about too many animations at the same time, in the same object.

According to different types of controls:

Implement both in your game, so you can play as the ice cube and as the water (with selection at compile time for now). Then store somewhere your current player mode and in all your input methods like MouseMoved, KeyDown, etc. add a simple if( state == something ) and select which of your controlling code to run.