Animating Sprites Through Separate Script?

I'm working on a game that is heavily based upon separate unique characters. As of right now, I'm using animated sprites as placeholders instead of 3D models.

Here is a method I tried: The sprite changes it's animation based on what state the player script is in.

 using UnityEngine;
     using System.Collections;
     
     public class TemplateChar_Position : MonoBehaviour {
     
         Animator anim;
     
         public TemplateChar_Actions templateChar_Actions;
     
         // Use this for initialization
         void Start () 
         {
             anim = GetComponent<Animator>();
         }
         
         // Update is called once per frame
         void Update ()
 
         {
             //First thing I tried
             anim.SetInteger("Animation", templateChar_Actions.animNumber);
 
         //Second thing I tried to see if it would make a difference; it does not.
         if (templateChar_Actions.animNumber == 0)
         {
             anim.SetInteger("Animation", 0);
         }
 
         if (templateChar_Actions.animNumber == 1)
         {
             anim.SetInteger("Animation", 1);
         }
         }
     
         void FixedUpdate()
         {
     
         }
     }
 

When I use this method, I get an error saying "Object not set to an instance of an object". I'm not sure what to do. Any help would be greatly appreciated. If you need more information, please feel free to ask.