There are a few other interesting options in the Blend Tree settings:

• You can set the Blend Type of a Blend Tree to the following:
  • 1D: A simple Blend Tree using one parameter to define the weight of a currently played animation.
  • 2D Simple Directional: This option uses two parameters for blending the animations, such as the X axis and Y axis. It is best used for motions representing different movement directions, for instance, walk forward, walk left, walk right, and walk back. It shouldn't be used with multiple animations representing movement in the same direction (such as walk forward and run forward).
  • 2D Freeform Directional: This option is similar to the previous one, but you can use multiple animations representing movement in the same direction (such as walk and run). You need to add a single animation representing the motion in the 0, 0 position (such as idle).
  • 2D Freeform Cartesian: This option is similar to the preceding one, but is used when your animations don't represent movement in different directions. It can be used to blend multiple versions of the idle animation, for instance.
  • Direct: You can control the weight of each of the nodes (Motion fields) directly. This type is often used while blending facial expressions (see the Animating facial expressions with Blend Shapes recipe in Chapter 5, Character Actions and Expressions).

• You can set a few additional Motion field options:
  • Time Scale: You can alter the playback speed of each animation in the Blend Tree by changing the number in the Time Scale field: the one with a clock icon. It is set to 1 (100 percent) by default.
  • Mirror: You can mirror any of the animations in the Blend Tree by checking the Mirror option, the one with a mirrored humanoid icon.

• You can also check the Automate Thresholds option, which will distribute the Motion fields' Thresholds evenly throughout the whole parameter's range. For instance, if your parameter's range is 0 to 9 and you have four animations, the first one will have a Threshold of 0, the second one 3, the third one 6, the fourth one 9. You can change the parameter range by clicking on the 0 and 1 numbers below the blending graph.
• You can also use the Compute Thresholds option (Automate Thresholds have to be set to false). This option will compute the Thresholds based on the root motion information from your animations (speed magnitude, velocity in the X axis, velocity in the Y axis, velocity in the Z axis, angular speed in radians, and angular speed in degrees). We will cover root motion in the next recipe.