Body animation quick start

Add the Body Animation module to a Convai character with the shipped animation set and see idle and talk motion in Play mode.

Add ConvaiBodyAnimationController to an existing Convai character and confirm that it idles and gestures on its own using the SDK's shipped animation content. Use this page once you have a working ConvaiCharacter in your scene and want to see body animation for the first time before authoring your own clips.

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Prerequisites

• A ConvaiCharacter in your scene that already connects and responds — complete Validate your setup first if you have not.
• A Humanoid rig with a valid Animator on the character. The component's own setup checklist checks for this before anything else.

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Add the Body Animation module

1

Select the character

In the Hierarchy, select the GameObject that carries the ConvaiCharacter component (or the child that carries its Animator).

2

Add the Body Animation component

In the Inspector, select Add Component, then Convai > Embodiment > Body Animation. This adds ConvaiBodyAnimationController to the character.

The inspector opens in a Not Set Up state and shows a checklist: Humanoid rig, Convai Character, Animation content, and Movement. Movement is always optional — a character with no movement component still idles, talks, gestures, and points in place.

3

Select "Set Up This Character"

Select the Set Up This Character button. This assigns the animation content the setup service finds in your project — normally the shipped ConvaiBodyAnimationProfile_Female — as one undo step. If you leave Include movement checked (the default), it also adds ConvaiNavMeshLocomotion.

Convai also adds the shared infrastructure the module needs — an EmbodimentContext and a StandardRigBinding — automatically. You do not add these yourself. Because Auto Create Conversation Flow is enabled by default, Convai adds a conversation flow controller too, if the character does not already have one, so the talk layer has a dialogue state to read.

The character does not need a baked NavMesh to see idle and talk motion. A NavMesh is only required once you send the character somewhere with locomotion — see Configure locomotion.

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Verify the setup

Enter Play mode and start a conversation with the character.

Expected result: the character idles on its own between turns, and plays a talk gesture from the shipped set while it is speaking (DialogueState.Speaking).

If you left movement enabled and the scene has a baked NavMesh, calling ConvaiNavMeshLocomotion.MoveTo from your own code moves the character with synced footfall instead of sliding.

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Troubleshooting

If the character does not move at all, open the inspector again — a regression (the set cleared, the rig changed) drops it back to a Needs Attention state naming the specific finding, with a Fix button where the fix is mechanical. See Troubleshoot body animation for the full set of failure modes.

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Next steps

How body animation worksBuild an animation setPlay actions and gestures