Thank you @Majicpanda, I had the same problem, spine was using center instead pivot for transparency order, and adding Sorting Group fixed that.

@Majicpanda Thank you SO much. Not only did you introduce me to NodeCanvas(which I as a professional software engineer love 100 times more than PlayMaker, which I have struggled to use as a programmer in the past), you showed me a beautiful way to create a re-usable animation graph. This is a GREAT method. Thanks again!

@Majicpanda.
No, it doesn't remove ending keys.
It doesn't remove holds. It does remove keys between two similar keys though. But just two similar keys together won't trigger it.

@Majicpanda (all)

Really appreciate you sharing your thoughts on Integration with NodeCanvas. From the limited video tutorials I've found on this Unity asset it 'sounds perfect' + Author seems very active, helpful + healthy product/updates/community. It certainly seemed appealing as a visual artist/spine animator, product manager/non programmer ('trying' to manage quick iteration cycles with programmers/stakeholders and creative quality!)

FYI: I'm just starting to evaluate possible approaches visual editing tool/State/behaviours/manager for use between Unity and spine. Whilst also trying to read reviews/their forums/documentation in the attempt to find a tool which appealed to both designer and programmers (e.g. for real use in production projects/'useful outputs favoured by programming teams' - aka avoiding some more overly simplified unity visual coding tools - mentioning no names!)

So your views/positive experience are really a good swaying factor for NodeCanvas. Tooling and workflows between Engineers and VFX teams are No.1 starting point for me in any healthy project. Hence, I will study this post + your 'Enemy' Asset reference in detail this evening (once I have powered up with some brain food). Really great timing, as I was about to wade into NodeCanvas head first with zero experience. Thanks for sharing!

As a complete 'newbie' to Unity, currently in '48 hour information overload';
I figured I would ?maybe? dig in/fill some knowledge gaps by studying (also: see 'goals' below)

• Spine-Unity Examples: 'Basic platformer' possibly 'Ragdoll' (SUPER cool by the way)
• Background reading on 'Mecanim/Unity Animation System/FSM??'
• See recommendations here within communities favoured Spine approaches.
• Check if NodeCanvas is viable way forward with Spine

BTW: Nodecanvas looked like a possible candidate for what Im as a designer is terming 'Spine > animation style controller' in Unity. (e.g. controlling logic, switching between animation states within simple test game; collision detection - falling, hit ground). Wasn't sure if I would be swimming up stream/alone, trying to add NodeCanvas in the mix.

Caveat/background context[off topic]:

• I've literally installed Unity for the first time this weekend. (previously ran projects Starling/SpriteKit > Spine) + had teams extend Unofficial SPINE/heavily optimise use with SWIFT SpriteKit (plan on posting back updates if helpful to others)
• The big +1 was the integration between official Spine runtimes and Unity/community backing. Hence it seemed a no brainer to have a poke around.
• The +10 point also was the volume of posts/progressions spanning the last 1.5 years . (BIG thanks to Mitch, Pharan, ToddRivers, Nate/Søren/et al - for sharing your outputs/best practices)
• In summary: I've tried to wade through anything I could find from youtube videos, forum posts/getting started/github guides and spine-unity project examples.
• Your efforts are REALLY really appreciated in helping newbies/designers wrap their head around things from different perspectives.

Unity playground project
https://www.dropbox.com/s/32u4v88zk5eixmb/spine-unity-testProject-001.mp4?dl=0

• I've jumped in headfirst to produce a playground project over the weekend, poking around Unity live sessions 2d physics hat/animation examples.
• I was initially trying to focus/understand Unity's Native features/artwork>workflows with couple of tests using; Meshes, 2d physics/colliders, particles, camera tracking GUI/BTN/Layout mixed in with testing of 3rd party solutions 'video texture' style
• Whilst jumping the gun: to get a feel of Unity's patterns/architecture 'Entities and components' against alternatives Entitas-CSharp and DI solutions (Zenject)
• Hence very impressed what I've been able to hack together (given I still doing tutorials on 'operators' and 'arrays' erggg ( designers 'trying to be coder' down the line ;-)
• The above REF video is simply a screen record of a useless/messy 'single scene' Unity playground of img assets with a single spine object/animation state - thanks to Raptor/Spineboy!
• (Currently #Failed on exporting own spine project for use with unity - will try again reading docs carefully)

Back on topic/point ;-) (NodeCanvas/Other)

• next up, I was looking to replace some elements in the scene to test switching between two spine states, hence looking at possibly options/best practices between Unity and Spine (for designers!).
• Node Canvas was again appealing given - Given to date I've only botched my way through a basic tutorial in SWIFT/SpriteKit to understand their state machine example project/code (erg 2) so ANY recommended 'Unity' visual'ish solution looks VERY appealing!

Example goals for Spine Unity state test/example video
(e.g. NodeCanvas? - other solutions? hence checking communities views before possibly buying/failing quickly.)

• Raptor/spineBoy falls down within 2d gravity environment (like current scene)
• Lands on cube: hit collision between Spine character and cube/box collider?Event fires?
• Switches Character/State from falling to grounded/breathing
• Jump/forces applied - e.g. test switchable loop on this logic.

Majicpanda escribió

I no longer have to deal with unity animation hierarchies and dragging clips all over the place or using override controllers for all our different monsters with differently timed animations with the same name. One monster FSM controls all our monsters in game through shared logic.

• This 'sounded nice' to a designer/avoiding possible future pitfalls.
• I'd figured I would be swimming up stream, trying to get Spine > Unity > NodeCanvas (working together) however great to hear others already using with Spine.

Hope my dyslexic rambling writings/best efforts to shout out 'I'm a newbie' weren't too painful, given I'm dipping my toes into Unity and some form of coding for the first'ish time! (Hence, help guidance, example project, articles always welcomed to point me in the right direction!)

thanks again in advance!

PS: If anyone else is trying to look at similar tests - happy to fail together - share understandings, examples back to the community.

Hi @Majicpanda and @cookiecarol,

I am struggling with the same issue, I am not able to play smooth transitions between animations, using parameters read from a Mecanim Animator.

so you are saying that you are still instantiating the Spine Character as SkeletonAnimation, and then attach an Animator component, that you then link to a new animator controller?

This is interesting, in this way you can use both the Spine runtimes and the state machines with parameters.

I have a couple of questions though:

1) The code for starting an animation (SetAnimation method) would be called when you enter the state in the state machine? I mean, would it be in a script attached to a particular state of the state machine? Or you would trigger it through script? In the second case, I would then not see the advantage of this ststem

2) Would the transitions between states, peculiarity of Mecanim, work properly then?

Thanks for reading, and for your help !