Hello,

I’ve recently started working with Unity 2D and I’m developing a 2.5D top-down action game. The game features a main character and humanoid enemies. I’m having trouble with the animation process using Unity Animator.

Here’s how I currently work:

I draw the character in Photoshop, creating each action (walking, attack, attack 2, jump, interaction, death, and idle) in four directions — left, right, up, and down.

All these animations are stored in a single PSD file, with each action in a separate folder and each body part on a different layer.

After importing into Unity, I try to rig the character. I’ve attempted both a universal rig for all directions and actions, as well as creating individual rigs for each action and direction.

However, this process is extremely time-consuming, especially with multiple characters. Ideally, I’d like to have one universal rig for all the character's phases so I can reuse the same animations with different character files. Many animations, like walking or dying, are essentially identical for most humanoid characters.

If anyone experienced in Unity animation can offer advice on optimizing this workflow — or even provide a short lesson on best practices — I’d be very grateful!

Thank you in advance!