Unity 2D : Can you change a 2D animation clip's sprites at runtime?

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Hi there,

I'm working in Unity's 2D mode and using the Unity UI I've created a GameObject with an Animation Controller (Animator) linked up with six different Animation Clips. While running the game this GameObject properly transitions between all of the animation clips.

I'd like to use this object as a prefab. At runtime I want to clone it and swap out the sprites being used for the animation clip key frames.

In other words I have object A that uses a Sprite_Sheet_A. Now I want to clone Object A and start using Sprite_Sheet_B.

Once I clone object A how can I access its Animation Controller, view the Animation Clips being controlled and swap out their sprites?

EDIT: When I say Animation Clip... I might mean Animation. The difference between these classes in 2D is not super clear for me.

Answer 1

Best Answer

Answer by soulburner · Nov 05, 2014 at 02:56 PM

You CAN do this.

All you need to do is to change sprite in the LateUpdate() method.

PS: Late 2018 update. The solution is still very useful. I shipped 2 games using it and will use it in future. The performance drawback is not noticeable at all. But you may consider the following optimizations: 1. You can cache the sprite. And if it was not changed from the previous frame, you don't need to replace it again. 2. You can consider creating a hash of name-sprite pairs. So, you will get a "sprite by name" faster later (considering that your animation probably will need to make the same operation over and over again on the same object).

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bererton · Jan 07, 2015 at 12:26 AM 7

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soulburner is correct... see Unity's video about this at 20:00 in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r$$anonymous$$CLWt1DuqI

StrikeMasterz · Jan 07, 2015 at 12:38 AM 0

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That is A$$anonymous$$AZING. Need do check this out. Sadly, OP is probably not interested into this anymore

FeetSlashBirds · Jan 07, 2015 at 03:33 AM 0

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OP here. I've dropped the project that originally spawned this question but the answer is still good to know :D

andriepu · May 27, 2015 at 06:05 AM 0

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I just noticed this, thank you

mos3465 · Jan 20, 2016 at 09:04 AM 1

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Perfect answer! Thanks a lot!

Applies to sprite animations AND bone animations.

Nice guideline for implementation: the link in bererton´s comment.

I spent hours trying to get this done. I really wonder why there arent´t some clearer instructions concerning this problem in the unity scripting reference. This is a must have for every single game sporting different looking characters (races / classes etc) with same animation patterns...

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Answer 2

Answer by retry_entry · Oct 18, 2017 at 10:29 AM

There is a better solution. Use this script - https://github.com/RetryEntry/UnityAnimatorChangeSprite Please give thumbs up, cause I have spent two days searching through useless solutions like one that soulburner suggected. If you have 15 gameobjects with 15 sprites in animation chain you will spend up to 225 loops every frame searching for sprites to swap to... With such approach you CAN'T create for instance charactes with different clothes animated by one animator, cause you will spend 12000 loops every second on useless things like searching. With this script you will not spend time... It uses shaders. You can change it as you'l like, Just star please. I have spent two days... :/

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zeeish · Dec 21, 2018 at 06:12 AM 1

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Yes, It works like a charm. If your character color is different its because with the current shader it requires light. Add directional light to the scene adjust the intensity & it will work perfectly. Thanks mate.

soulburner · Dec 21, 2018 at 11:47 AM 0

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No, your solution is not better.

It doesn't support sprite animation. If the animation changes sprites, your script doesn't work.
It has no sense. If you are not using the sprite animation, why do you need a special shader for that? You can just change the sprite once when object is initialized and if there are no texture-changing keyframes in the animation, it wouldn't be changed.
I have shipped 2 games with this technique. And it works fine. There is no performance drawback even when I have 30 skinned characters with 6 sprites in each. I made a lot of profiling of my games and my solution never even visible in the profiler. Of course, I added some caching so I don't replace the sprite again if it was not changed from the previous frame.

2ndGarrison · Aug 01, 2019 at 05:22 AM 0

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This worked beautifully! Thanks for this.

retry_entry · Feb 19, 2020 at 06:10 PM 1

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Soulburner.... idk what are you talking about - thius solution DOES support sprite animation. Thats the whole point. Get brains pls somewhere. Your solution sucks and its not even yours. It was presented at some conference like in 2012 or smth like that, I saw that video on youtube.

AbrasiveToast retry_entry · Jun 15, 2020 at 04:11 AM 0

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@retry_entry, Did you write the Custom/SwapTwo shader? It does work beautifully as you said when using the built-in render pipeline but I noticed that when I try to use URP, it stops working (i.e., all my sprites turn pink). Any ideas what could be going wrong?

AbrasiveToast retry_entry · Jun 15, 2020 at 09:36 AM 0

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@retry_entry, did you write the SwapTwo shader? Does this work with URP? I love how your script works and you're right the solution seems very simple I can't believe Unity doesn't have a solution like this for such a simple problem. I do not understand shader code however and when I try to use URP, the solution stops working. Any ideas?

ChelovekPouk · Jul 25, 2021 at 11:09 PM 0

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Thank you, man, you saved my project. I just swap sprite in Awake, and it works perfect, no need to swap every frame.

 public Texture2D head;
 public Texture2D body;
 
 void Awake () {
             Shader _swapShader = Shader.Find("Custom/SwapTwo");
             
             Material _newMat1 = new Material(_swapShader);
             headSR.material = _newMat1;
             headSR.material.SetTexture("_MainTex2", head);
     
             Material _newMat2 = new Material(_swapShader);
             bodySR.material = _newMat2;
             bodySR.material.SetTexture("_MainTex2", body);
 }

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Answer 3

Answer by Mike-Geig · Mar 31, 2014 at 04:54 PM

Edit: See the accepted answer for a better solution

Animations are stored in .anim asset files. As such, there is no easy way to modify them at run time. My recommendation would be to create multiple .anim files with the variations you desire and then swap them out on the fly at runtime.

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FeetSlashBirds · Apr 02, 2014 at 09:07 AM 0

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Thanks... I get that this is the intended use but if you're doing random/procedural content or you just have too many permutations to animate by hand then this solution is just too tedious.

noio · Jun 14, 2015 at 09:49 AM 0

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The actual answer to OP's question.

antk · Apr 04, 2016 at 07:59 PM 0

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How would I actually do this? I have multiple .anim files, but how would I swap them out on the animator controller?

mos3465 · Apr 05, 2016 at 07:24 AM 0

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See soulburners answer and the video posted in the comment to that.

There is absolutely no need to create multiple anim files if you have the same animations for different sprites.

antk mos3465 · Apr 05, 2016 at 07:15 PM 0

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Thanks for the clarification.

KyleJensen72 · Jun 12, 2016 at 04:26 AM 0

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So would you swap out the animation controllers at runtime then? And have a seperate controller for each piece of equipment? Or is there a way to switch out the animation files in the controller? Im also confused by this

mos3465 KyleJensen72 · Jun 14, 2016 at 07:54 AM 0

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Depends on what you want to do.

OPs question was about switching sprites at runtime, not animations/animation controllers. $$anonymous$$g.: Regardless of whether your character wears a chainmail or a smoking - everything moves the same way. If that´s what you have in $$anonymous$$d: no need to swap animation controllers, see here (about $$anonymous$$ute 20): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r$$anonymous$$CLWt1DuqI

KyleJensen72 mos3465 · Jun 14, 2016 at 02:52 PM 0

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The way I am animating the separate parts of the body uses an animator and an animator controller for each piece of armour. This seems a little bit unrealistic, but it makes sense to me because the only way to display the armor moving on the character is to have it as an animation. If there was a way to switch out which sprites the animation was looking at, that would be amazing and I could just use one animation controller but I have not been successful.. Any ideas? @mos3456

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Answer 4

I use a script like this to swap sprites out

 using UnityEngine;
 using System.Linq;
 using System.Collections;
 using System.Collections.Generic;
 
 public class SkinController : MonoBehaviour {
 
     private new SpriteRenderer renderer;
     public List<SpriteCollection> skins = new List<SpriteCollection>();
     public int skin = 0;
 
     void Start()
     {
         renderer = GetComponent<SpriteRenderer>();
 
         //First thing we must do is load all the sprites for the character
         foreach (SpriteCollection coll in skins)
             coll.sprites = Resources.LoadAll<Sprite>(coll.sheet.name);
     }
 
     void LateUpdate()
     {
         //Select the correct sprite
         SpriteCollection coll = skins[this.skin];
 
         //Get the name
         string spriteName = renderer.sprite.name;
 
         //Search for the correct name
         if (coll == null || coll.sprites == null) return;
 
         Sprite newSprite = coll.sprites.Where(item => item.name == spriteName).ToArray()[0];
 
         //Set the sprite
         if (newSprite)
             renderer.sprite = newSprite;
     }
 }
 
 [System.Serializable]
 public class SpriteCollection
 {
     public string name;
     public Texture sheet;
 
     [System.NonSerialized]
     public Sprite[] sprites;
 }

Answer 5

Answer by Loius · Mar 31, 2014 at 04:58 PM

No, you can't. I have an asset on the asset store specifically for this problem:

https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/content/13602

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soulburner · Apr 04, 2016 at 10:11 PM 2

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You're answering wrong just to advertise your own asset?

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Unity 2D : Can you change a 2D animation clip's sprites at runtime?

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