> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.kinemation.xyz/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Character Animation System: Advanced Unity Animation

> CAS extends Unity's Animator Controller with layered blending, procedural modifiers, and an FPS add-on for natural, scalable character animation in Unity.

**Character Animation System (CAS)** was designed to make animation simple and scalable for games in Unity. It extends the standard Animator Controller workflow rather than replacing it, unlocking advanced blending, procedural modifiers, and first-person weapon animation — all without forcing you to abandon the tools Unity developers already know.

## What CAS Solves

Unity's built-in Animator Controller is powerful, but it has well-known limitations when it comes to layered character animation. Blending a weapon pose with a locomotion state, making feet respond to uneven terrain, or syncing a climb animation to a real ledge all require either expensive custom code or uncomfortable workarounds. CAS was built specifically to fill these gaps.

* **Layered blending** — blend Overlay poses (weapons, items, injury states) on top of your main Animator output on a per-bone basis. Animation curves embedded directly in your clips drive the blend weights, so the blending logic travels with the clip, not with the game code.
* **Procedural animation modifiers** — a data-driven stack of modifiers (Foot IK, Step Modifier, sway, recoil, and more) applied after the Animator runs. Each modifier is configured in a ScriptableObject and executes in a defined order, making the system easy to tune without touching code.
* **FPS add-on** — purpose-built first-person weapon animation tools that integrate directly with the CAS pipeline, giving you procedural sway, recoil, and aim offset with minimal setup.
* **Motion Warping integration** — CAS uses the Kinemation Motion Warping plugin to warp root-motion animations so your character's hands and body match real-world geometry during climbs, vaults, and interactions.

## How It Works

CAS sits between your Animator Controller and the final skeleton pose. At runtime:

1. The main Animator Controller produces a base locomotion pose.
2. The **Layered Blending** component reads float curve values from the active Overlay clip and blends the Overlay pose onto the skeleton per-body-region.
3. The **Procedural Animation** component applies a stack of modifiers — IK, physics sway, offset adjustments — to the blended result.
4. The final pose is written to the character skeleton.

This pipeline is additive and composable: you can enable or disable individual modifiers at runtime, swap Overlay clips, and change blend weights without rebuilding your Animator Controller.

## Package Contents

After importing CAS from the Unity Asset Store, the `KINEMATION` folder contains:

| Folder                              | Contents                                                                                   |
| ----------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| `Shared/KAnimationCore`             | Core animation library used by all Kinemation assets                                       |
| `Shared/PropertyBindings`           | Editor-only binding system — connect component fields to the animation system without code |
| `Shared/ScriptableWidget`           | Editor widget for browsing and configuring procedural modifiers                            |
| `Shared/Character`                  | Kinemation Mannequin reference model                                                       |
| `MotionWarping`                     | Climbing and interaction root-motion warping system                                        |
| `CharacterAnimationSystem/Scripts`  | All CAS runtime logic                                                                      |
| `CharacterAnimationSystem/Examples` | Animator Controller template and example character controller scripts                      |

<Note>
  If you also use other Kinemation assets, remove the `KAnimationCore`, `ScriptableWidget`, and `MotionWarping` folders from those packages before importing CAS — CAS ships its own up-to-date copies of these shared modules.
</Note>

## Quick Navigation

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Get Started" icon="rocket" href="/cas/quickstart/install-demo-content">
    Install the demo content, set up your first character with the preset wizard, and see CAS running in minutes.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Core Concepts" icon="cube" href="/cas/quickstart/after-setup">
    Understand the ScriptableObjects, prefabs, and components the preset wizard generates — and how they fit together at runtime.
  </Card>

  <Card title="FPS Add-on" icon="crosshairs" href="/cas/fps">
    Purpose-built first-person weapon animation with procedural sway, recoil, and aim offset.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Motion Warping" icon="person-running" href="/cas/quickstart/parkour-and-interactions">
    Add climbing, vaulting, and interaction animations driven by procedural root-motion adjustment.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>