Emotion taxonomy

Explains the built-in emotion set, how server labels map to it, and how to author a custom emotion taxonomy for a character.

The taxonomy translates Convai's raw emotion strings into the canonical labels the rest of the Emotion module uses. When Convai sends "happy", the taxonomy resolves that alias to "joy" so that the accumulator and expression pipeline — which are keyed on canonical labels — know exactly which score to update. The SDK ships with a nine-emotion Plutchik-inspired default; author a custom EmotionTaxonomyAsset when you need a different vocabulary or additional server aliases.

Built-in taxonomy

When the taxonomy field on a ConvaiEmotionProfile is left empty, the system synthesizes the following set at runtime. This default covers every emotion Convai currently produces and requires no asset to be created.

Canonical label	Server aliases	Default mouth influence
neutral	calm, idle	0.0
joy	happy, happiness, ecstasy, serenity, excited, enthusiastic	0.6
trust	acceptance, admiration, confident, reassured	0.3
fear	afraid, apprehension, terror, fearful, worried, anxious, nervous	0.4
surprise	amazement, distraction, surprised	0.5
sadness	sad, pensiveness, grief	0.3
disgust	disgusted, loathing, boredom, bored	0.4
anger	angry, annoyance, rage	0.55
anticipation	interest, vigilance, curious, curiosity, eager, hopeful	0.45

Default mouth influence is a per-emotion hint (0–1) that tells the facial compositor how much an emotion-driven mouth shape should contribute when the character is not speaking. During active speech, LipSync owns the mouth blendshapes; outside of speech, this value controls how strongly the emotional pose shapes the mouth region.

Every non-neutral entry in the built-in set also carries a complement — a related emotion that comes along at reduced strength when emotion blending is on. joy and trust are mutual complements; fear and surprise are mutual; sadness complements disgust; disgust complements anger; anger complements disgust; anticipation complements joy.

How alias resolution works

Every time Convai sends an emotion, the controller calls IEmotionTaxonomy.TryResolve(serverLabel, out EmotionDescriptor descriptor). The resolver checks canonical labels first, then the full alias list across all entries.

• If the label resolves successfully, the corresponding canonical label and descriptor are used throughout the pipeline.
• If the label does not resolve, the controller falls back to the neutral descriptor. No console warning is produced. The pipeline continues running normally, writing neutral scores every frame.

Example: Convai sends "happy" → TryResolve finds "happy" in the aliases list of the joy entry → the accumulator sets the target score for "joy".

When Convai sends a label that is not in the taxonomy, the failure is silent — no console warning appears and no error is logged. The character returns to neutral as if no emotion signal arrived. If a specific emotion never appears on your character, the server label is likely not covered by the active taxonomy. See Troubleshoot emotion for how to detect and fix this.

Creating a custom taxonomy asset

In the Project window, right-click inside your Assets/ folder and choose:

Create → Convai → Embodiment → Emotion Taxonomy

A new asset named EmotionTaxonomy appears. Select it to edit the entries list in the Inspector.

EmotionTaxonomyEntry fields

Field	Type	Description
label	string	The canonical, lowercase label used throughout the pipeline (e.g. "joy"). Must be unique within the taxonomy.
aliases	List<string>	All server-side strings that should resolve to this entry (e.g. "happy", "happiness").
complements	List<string>	Canonical labels of emotions that read naturally alongside this one and come along at reduced strength when emotion blending is on — for example joy with a trace of trust. Only consulted when the character's profile has blending enabled.
defaultMouthInfluence	float (0–1)	Mouth influence hint for LipSync blending. See the built-in table above for reference values.
isNeutral	bool	Marks this entry as the taxonomy's neutral baseline — what the face relaxes to between feelings, and the accumulator's decay anchor.
useCustomDimensions	bool	When enabled, this entry's valence/arousal/agency/approach fields override the built-in dimension defaults for the label. When disabled, the values are resolved from EmotionDimensionDefaults for known labels.
valence, arousal, agency, approach	float (-1 – 1)	The EmotionDimensions this emotion carries: how pleasant, how worked up, how in control, and whether it moves the character toward or away from what caused it. Consumed by Gaze, Body Language, and locomotion as one shared modulation signal alongside the categorical label. Only used when useCustomDimensions is true.

Exactly one entry must have isNeutral = true. The accumulator uses the neutral entry as its decay anchor. If no entry is marked neutral, or if more than one is marked neutral, the system logs a warning and synthesizes a fallback — but expressions will not settle correctly at runtime. The console warning messages are:

• [EmotionTaxonomyAsset] This emotion vocabulary marks no emotion as the neutral one, so a stand-in is being used. Tick 'Is Neutral' on exactly one emotion — it is what the face relaxes to between feelings. — no neutral entry found
• [EmotionTaxonomyAsset] N emotions in this vocabulary are ticked 'Is Neutral' and only the first is used. Untick the others, so it is clear which one the face relaxes to. — multiple neutral entries found

Assigning a custom taxonomy to a profile

1

Open the profile asset

Open your ConvaiEmotionProfile asset.

2

Assign the taxonomy

Drag the custom EmotionTaxonomyAsset into the Taxonomy field.

3

Confirm the controller picks it up

The controller picks up the new taxonomy the next time the profile is applied — immediately in Play Mode, and immediately in Edit Mode because ConvaiEmotionController carries [ExecuteAlways] from its base class.

When to create a custom taxonomy

The built-in Plutchik set covers all emotions Convai currently sends. A custom taxonomy is worth creating when:

• Your Convai configuration uses custom emotion labels that differ from the built-in aliases.
• You want to use a different conceptual model — for example, Ekman's six basic emotions — and map multiple server aliases onto fewer canonical buckets.
• You want to adjust defaultMouthInfluence values for specific emotions to better suit your character's rig.
• You need to define complements relationships for emotion blending, or author valence/arousal/agency/approach dimensions that differ from the built-in defaults.

Next steps

Emotion scripting APITroubleshoot emotion