Toggling on GameObject in Unity plays track backwards then forwards

animatorsan

Hey all!

I was searching for a solution unique to me and couldn't find it, please excuse my lack of knowledge on not knowing the ins and outs of Unity runtime w/ Spine. I just make simple loop animations and place them into prefabs and they work perfectly with the script we have for our purposes.

Unity Ver.: 22.03.10f1
Spine Ver.: 4.2.33

At the moment, I'm trying to make a comic panel where each panel is a spine animation that will appear and loop after player input (tapping) that is linked to a trigger condition in the Unity Animator. Player will tap the screen, then the next panel will appear and play their animation as the previous one will persist continuously.

It's set-up with 4 GameObjects in a prefab, each with a unique SpineAnimation on them to represent the different panels and 4 different .anim files that just toggle on the next GameObject (panel) when the trigger is on. The spine animations have a script that plays the "enter" animation and then loops the "idle" animation right after indefinitely.

My issue is that when any of the GameObjects with the spine animations is toggled on via the .anim in Unity's Animator, it plays the "enter" track backwards, then plays it normally (enter -> idle looping).

I have no idea why it's doing that. In theory, when toggled on, it should just play enter -> idle(looped). Is this just odd behavior with using Unity's Animator + .anim or am I misunderstanding something? Any help is appreciated! Or if you need more information in order to help, let me know!

Misaki

animatorsan We may need to see the actual Unity project to see the cause of this problem. Is it possible to prepare a minimal Unity project that can reproduce the problem of reverse playback and send it to us via email?: contact@esotericsoftware.com

Spinebot

It sounds like the issue you're experiencing might be related to how Unity's Animator and Spine's AnimationState interact when toggling GameObjects. Here are a few things you can check and try to resolve the issue:

Ensure Proper Animation Setup: Make sure that your "enter" animation is set up correctly in Spine and that it transitions smoothly to the "idle" animation. You can test this directly in Spine to ensure there are no issues with the animations themselves.
Check Animation State Transitions: In Unity, ensure that the transitions between animations in the Animator are set up correctly. Sometimes, unexpected behavior can occur if there are unintended transitions or if the transition conditions are not set properly.
Disable Animator on Start: If the Animator component is causing issues, you can try disabling it initially and then enabling it when needed. This can sometimes prevent unexpected behavior when toggling GameObjects.

Use AnimationState Directly: Instead of relying on Unity's Animator, you can control the animations directly using Spine's AnimationState. This gives you more control over the animation flow. For example:

   var skeletonAnimation = GetComponent<SkeletonAnimation>();
   skeletonAnimation.state.SetAnimation(0, "enter", false).Complete += (trackEntry) => {
       skeletonAnimation.state.SetAnimation(0, "idle", true);
   };

Debugging: Add debug logs to check the order of operations and ensure that the animations are being set correctly. This can help identify if there are any unexpected calls or transitions happening.
Check for Animation Cleanup: Ensure that Animation Cleanup is disabled when exporting your skeleton from Spine. This can sometimes cause issues if keys identical to the setup pose are removed.

Here is an example of how you might set up the script to control the animations directly:

using UnityEngine;
using Spine.Unity;

public class PanelController : MonoBehaviour
{
    private SkeletonAnimation skeletonAnimation;

    void Start()
    {
        skeletonAnimation = GetComponent<SkeletonAnimation>();
        PlayEnterAnimation();
    }

    public void PlayEnterAnimation()
    {
        skeletonAnimation.state.SetAnimation(0, "enter", false).Complete += (trackEntry) => {
            skeletonAnimation.state.SetAnimation(0, "idle", true);
        };
    }
}

This script ensures that the "enter" animation plays first and then transitions to the "idle" animation once it completes.

By controlling the animations directly through Spine's AnimationState, you can avoid potential conflicts with Unity's Animator and achieve the desired behavior.

Harald

@animatorsan What code are you using to start the Spine animations?
If things run backwards, please check if you set -1 at trackEntry.timescale (which is rather unlikely). Or when playing the animation just by enabling the GameObject and running the initial animation, please check if Time Scale at the SkeletonAnimation component is set to -1.

Spinebot has chosen a rather unusual way to enqueue a second animation after the first:

Spinebot var skeletonAnimation = GetComponent<SkeletonAnimation>();
skeletonAnimation.state.SetAnimation(0, "enter", false).Complete += (trackEntry) => {
skeletonAnimation.state.SetAnimation(0, "idle", true);
};

While the above code by Spinebot is not wrong, the standard way would be to call the following:

skeletonAnimation.state.SetAnimation(0, "enter", false);
skeletonAnimation.state.AddAnimation(0, "idle", true, 0);

animatorsan

Misaki

Hi Misaki!

In the process of making this and testing it, it worked smoothly! SO, I think it's something in our main file that is causing this: Will report back with a solution cause I think we actually fixed it within the main project.

animatorsan

Harald

Hi Harald!

Our code doesn't have -1 as for timescale nor is the Time Scale at the SkeletonAnimation is -1, which is why I was scratching my head with what was happening. It's set-up similar to what you've posted as well.

I will keep ya posted on what was happening and how we fixed it, it could be something in our project messing with it oddly :,] Thank you so much for the help so far! (Troubleshooting with our engineer right now)

animatorsan

Hey all!

So I don't think this is really a solution... but it works now, but needed a script. (??)

Our engineer made a simple script to allow for user input in the GameView (just clicking on the GameView to continue) and now it works fine?

I'm just so puzzled because toggling the trigger in the Animator window should've worked fine as well.

So I guess the solution is to make sure the intended userinput is being simulated. I'm sorry this isn't a sound solution, I'm as confused as anyone else. But I appreciate the quick help regardless!!!

I think I'm understanding I'm a unique case and normally it would work fine (basing this off when I remade the scene in a new project file and it worked perfectly fine).

Harald

@animatorsan It sounds very strange if triggering via a script works as desired when triggering via the Animator window does not. It might be due to different update order, but it's rather strange still. Anyway, glad that you've found a solution, thanks for letting us know!