Unity Playmaker 2D Platformer - Adding Player Jump Animation

In this Unity Playmaker 2D Platformer - Adding Player Jump Animation tutorial, I'll show how you to add a Jump animation to the player and then trigger the animation using Playmaker with the Playmaker Animator Play action. (to Join my discord server add a comment and I'll reply with the latest invi

This entry in the Playmaker 2D platformer series gives the robot character a jump animation and wires it into the existing jump state machine - no code, just an animation clip and two Playmaker actions. It assumes you already have the jump FSM working from the earlier tutorials.

Step 1 - Create the jump clip

Select the player, which already carries the Playmaker jump FSM. In the Animation window, create a new clip, save it into your animations folder alongside the robot's other clips, and name it robot jump. Before animating, drop the sample rate from the default 60 down to 12 frames per second - at 12 fps you place far fewer keyframes and the motion takes on a chunkier, stylized feel that suits the character.

Step 2 - Animate the pose

Hit the record button and keep it simple: pose the character so the hands go out and the feet spread out just a little. That single readable pose is enough to sell a jump for a simple 2D character - you do not need a full anticipation-and-landing cycle to make the move feel alive. Stop recording and the clip is done.

Step 3 - Trigger the animation from the FSM

Open the Playmaker FSM and go to the jump state. Add an Animator Play action and point it at robot jump, so the moment the jump state fires, the animation plays. Then copy that action into the transition back to ground: in the state reached on landing - the idle state via the jump input - paste the copied action and switch its clip to robot idle. Now the character plays the jump pose on takeoff and returns to the idle animation the moment it lands.

Step 4 - Turn off looping

Test with the space key and one problem shows up: the jump clip loops, so the character keeps flapping through the whole arc. Select the robot jump animation asset and uncheck Loop Time in its import settings. The clip now plays once per jump, holds its pose, and hands back to idle cleanly on landing. That is the complete round trip - a new clip, an Animator Play on the jump state, a matching one for landing, and a loop checkbox - and the jump finally looks like a jump instead of a teleport.