Unity Physics and Animation Flashcards

What is the role of Root Motion in Unity character animation?

Answer: It drives character movement from the animation clip's embedded motion data rather than script

Root Motion allows the movement encoded in the animation clip itself to drive the character's Transform, resulting in more natural motion.

Which method is called in Unity when two non-trigger Colliders first make contact?

Answer: OnCollisionEnter()

OnCollisionEnter() is called on the first frame two non-trigger colliders make physical contact, providing a Collision object with contact details.

What is Inverse Kinematics (IK) used for in Unity animation?

Answer: Procedurally adjusting limb positions to reach a target point rather than using pre-baked keyframes

IK computes joint rotations backwards from an end-effector target, enabling limbs to dynamically reach toward objects in the scene.

In Unity, what does the 'Constraints' section in the Rigidbody component allow you to do?

Answer: Freeze specific axes of position or rotation to restrict physics movement

Rigidbody Constraints let you lock specific position or rotation axes so the physics engine won't move or rotate the object on those axes.

What is a Ragdoll in Unity physics?

Answer: A hierarchy of Rigidbodies and Joints that simulate a physically-driven character body

A Ragdoll connects Rigidbodies at each major bone with Joints, allowing the character's body to react physically to forces when active.

Which Unity class is used to programmatically control Animator parameters from a script?

Answer: Animator

The Animator class provides methods like SetFloat(), SetBool(), and SetTrigger() to control parameters and state transitions from code.