MakeWay – Procedural Character Avoidance System

• System type: Runtime procedural animation component with custom Editor Inspectors
• Supported rig type: Humanoid
• Pose application: Direct bone rotations and analytic two-bone arm IK
• Detection: Unity 3D physics colliders
• Setup: Add Component > MakeWay > MakeWay Character
• Profile creation: Assets > Create > MakeWay > Profile
• Runtime requirements: Unity animation and 3D physics; no Animation Rigging, AI Navigation, or third-party IK dependency

Torso and Shoulder Avoidance

• Samples nearby surfaces around the shoulders and upper torso
• Generates bounded twist, lean, shoulder retraction, and shoulder lift
• Distributes torso rotation across available Spine, Chest, and Upper Chest bones
• Supports animated head orientation stabilization
• Uses character movement, turning, and nearby relative obstacle movement for idle relaxation

Arm and Hand Clearance

• Evaluates upper-arm, forearm, and wrist-to-fingertip proxies after torso posing
• Uses two-bone IK with configurable correction reach and elbow bend limits
• Applies bounded additional hand tilt with configurable hand radius and length
• Fits body self-clearance volumes from Humanoid joints
• Provides body width, depth, thigh thickness, and separation controls
• Smooths procedural arm/wrist rotation offsets with a configurable angular speed cap

Documentation | Support

Characters should make room for the world around them.

MakeWay – Procedural Body Avoidance System helps animated Humanoid characters react to nearby people, walls, and obstacles through procedural upper-body adjustments. Twist the spine, lean the torso, adjust the shoulders, and create space for the arms and hands without dedicated reaction animation clips.

Keep your existing animations and movement controller. MakeWay applies its adjustments over the evaluated animation pose, while your controller handles movement and physical collision.

Add MakeWay Character to the Animator GameObject, choose the obstacle layers, and tune the result with an optional MakeWay Profile. Share profiles across characters or create different settings for different body proportions and reaction styles.

As characters pass obstacles, MakeWay blends their reactions with the animation.

Key Features:

• Procedural spine twist, torso lean, shoulder retraction, and shoulder lift
• Runtime arm avoidance using analytic two-bone IK
• Hand clearance sensing with configurable hand dimensions and additional wrist tilt
• Fitted chest, pelvis, and thigh volumes to limit arm corrections into the character’s body
• Adjustable reaction buildup, release blending, and arm rotation speed
• Movement-aware torso relaxation when standing beside static obstacles
• Head stabilization to preserve the incoming animation’s head orientation
• Overall influence and independent left/right arm weights
• Shared ScriptableObject profiles with built-in defaults when no profile is assigned
• Configurable obstacle layers, trigger detection, and self-hierarchy filtering

Ideal For:

• Players and NPCs passing each other
• Characters moving beside walls, pillars, and props
• Third-person adventures, RPGs, and social scenes
• Adding environmental reactions to existing Humanoid locomotion

Give your characters more awareness of nearby space while keeping your existing animation workflow.