Examples

Below you will find several videos showing some example uses of the Artificer system with different types of game objects as well as some videos showing various features.

Artificer for Level building

In this example a whole game level was selected and Artificer split every model into the component parts. All the Houses trees, bridge etc are single meshes but Artificer split them into the component pieces you see assembling.

This also shows a series of Artificer objects being built automatically one after the other to build the level in a sensible manner. The base levels have some scaling effects applied for more interest.

And at the end the buildings and trees are removed using the Explode option.

Sort Spline Example

This full level is one Artificer object and a Sort Spline in the shape of a helix has been used to control the order in which the parts assemble and dismantle. When using sort splines you have control over how the objects appear using the Bias value, here the bias is towards the objects being placed that are close to the spline with them filling in further away later. If the bias is the other way then the spiral will fill more slowly as it will fill in more as it goes.

Leaves Example

The leaves on the tree grow into place using the scaling option to build the elements. The tree was a single mesh and Artificer split the leaves out automatically. Once grown the explode system was used with 0 explode force to have the leaves fall off, gravity modifier was reduced and linear drag increased to simulate the slow falling and a constant force value set to simulate a breeze. And then the simple collision system was used to stop the leaves on the ground.

Skinned Mesh Example

Artificer can also assemble and dismantle animated skinned meshes. Also here the Place event system is being used to start particles as the character is built.

Sort Spline, Chained Objects & Lights

In this example the track build order is controlled by a sort spline and its speed of building controlled by a place curve so it builds slowly near the train and speeds up far away. The light and the particles on the train are automatically enabled by the system and the train is set to automatically build once the track reaches a certain level of built.

Build Order

You can easily change the build order of your animation just by changing the Sort origin position. In this video you can see the effect of simple moving the Sort Origin to different positions and also by using a Sort Spline in the last case.

Build From Splines

A powerful feature of Artificer is the ability to use Unity Splines to control things like the sort and build order and to allow complex paths to made for the elements to build from and along. In this example of the tank it shows the option to have elements build from a spline where it will find the nearest point on the spline and then construct a path from that point to the final position. You can control the smoothness of that part, start and directions, how the direction is calculated and use projection to reduce or amplify directions.

Then it shows the move along option where a path can be used to move the elements along and then into place which gives you the ability to have spirals, whirl winds, conveyor belt etc etc etc styles.

Adjust

You may not want a whole mesh or groups of meshes to have the same build and dismantle options. If you mesh is made of multiple objects then you can add Artificer to each one but if you want to control parts of a single mesh then the Adjust component allows you to select either by a list of element ids, or by the use of multiple bounding volumes to select areas and override split, build and dismantle values for those elements.

In this simple example the top two guns of the mesh are selected using two Adjust Box volumes and then told to drop into place and appear later in the animation by overriding the Build Style, Build Distance and the Sort Modifier.