Playing an animation on demand - Docs and Api disagree

Help & Support
1

I have an entity with an animation that doesn’t loop, and is not set to activate when the scene starts. I just need this to play on demand when I need it.

according to this page, i should be able to call entity.anim.play() to get the AnimComponent to start

https://developer.playcanvas.com/en/user-manual/packs/components/anim/

the problem is, the API and the debugger disagree with that page. entity.anim.play() throws “entity.anim.play() is not a function” in the debugger and the API for AnimComponent doesn’t list play() as a function

So how am I supposed to set off an animation that just needs to fire when I tell it to in script? The entity just needs to stay at the initial resting state until I tell it to go.

2

Hi @Keith-Impromptu!

It seems that the API does not exist. I checked the API page, but I couldn’t find it.

https://developer.playcanvas.com/en/api/pc.AnimComponent.html

If you are using an Anim State Graph with an animation, you can try to do something like below.

entity.anim.baseLayer.play('Initial State');
3

I am aware that it doens’t exist, that’s what i was pointing out: that the tutorial docs and the API disagree

Also I also tried the code you stated, and that doesn’t work either

4

Thanks, maybe @will can take a look at this.

Can you share a sample project so someone can take a look?

5

I found out that you have to use the playing API to activate the component at runtime.

entity.anim.playing = true;